Ketton Quarry – Yellow route
4 miles (6.8 Km)
This route has spectacular views over the former worked out quarry of Ketton cement works. It is now being restored for wildlife and farmland as well as to demonstrate its Jurassic geology. There are several detours along the way that can take you into woodlands and the Ketton Quarry nature reserve, including the Red route to Tinwell, Easton on the Hill and back to Ketton. In all seasons the hedges and orchards provide colourful and interesting borders to the footpaths.
1 Start at Ketton Library
Walk a few yards south-west towards the crossroads to cross the High Street safely at the pelican crossing. Turn right to head north along the High Street.
2 Home Farm
Just before the village shop turn left onto the public footpath through the new housing development at Home Farm.
Home Farm was the last of the farms based in the middle of the village. It closed as a farm as its farmland was quarried. It was owned by the cement works and sold in 2020 for housing development partly using the old farm buildings including the dovecote immediately on the right. There are three dovecotes in the village, all Listed Buildings.
3 Long Paddock
Follow the footpath, go though the gate and continue up the wide track through Long Paddock.
Long Paddock is planned as a wildflower meadow and orchard at the top. This management is based on Biodiversity Net Gain to compensate for the loss of an old orchard when it was felled to build a new housing estate on the High Street.
4 Old Hedgerow
Follow the track to the gateway at the end of Long Paddock.
The overgrown hedge on the right of the track is several hundred years old, like many of the hedges in the area. You can roughly date the hedgerow by counting the average number of different trees and shrub species in several 30m lengths. This give the approximate age in centuries minus one for the original planting which was probably hawthorn. This walk includes many different hedges.
5 Long Ridge Path
From the gate follow the straight path up the slope for about ¾ mile to point 7.
Just past the gate out of Long Paddock, on the left is the permissive footpath to the new woodland plantation. This was planted in about 2000 and makes an interesting short circular diversion. A few yards further on the right side is a public footpath which leads to the woodland and the Ketton Quarry nature reserve alongside a newly planted line of wild fruit trees such as cherry plum, apple, pear and damson – for fruit foraging in the future! On the right side you can catch a glimpse through the hedge of an unplanned lake which has naturally formed in this part of the restored quarry.
6 Quarry Geology
As you walk along Long Ridge Path, look for two gates on either side of the path.
The gate on the left gives good views of different geological layers. The geology is complex, with a range of Jurassic-aged rocks of about 170 million years old. The Blisworth Limestone is the topmost of the three obvious layers laid down in quiet tropical seas. Below is the Lias Clay of darker muds and silts, which are on top of the Lincolnshire Limestone of large, pale blocky rock. The overlaid clay, containing silica, and the limestone, containing calcium carbonate, provide all the ingredients for making cement.
7 The hedge Line
Follow the path.
The old hedge on the left existed before the quarrying. This gives good views to the horizon – to the east towards Collyweston on the other side of the Welland Valley. The newly planted hedge on the right was planted at the start of quarrying. The limestone path is rapidly being colonised by Kidney Vetch and other limestone-loving plants.
8 Quarry Footbridge
Follow the path across the footbridge.
This was built to allow pedestrians to cross high over the quarry workings where huge trucks carry carry stone from the extended quarry along the track to the cement works in Ketton, one of the largest and most modern of the 10 UK cement plants. Cement, said to be the most common man-made substance on Earth, plays a key role in the nation’s manufacturing and construction sectors. It is a foundational material in our national infrastructure but at a cost in terms of carbon dioxide emissions as a greenhouse gas. However the 67 acres of solar panels behind the large sheds to the east partly reduce this environmental impact.
9 Panter’s Orchard
After crossing the bridge, follow the path for about 70 yards then turn left through the gate and up the slope. This new permissive path goes round Panter’s Orchard.
This is the largest and oldest orchard in Rutland and surrounding areas with over 100 trees that were planted by Mr Panter in the 1950s. Sadly it is now neglected and unused but with its veteran fruit trees it is a wonderful wildlife habitat. Behind Panter’s Orchard there is a bat roost in an old mine working. A new 60m bat cave has been built in the north end of the Quarry nature reserve as compensation for the quarrying and disturbance in this area. This path also marks the Ketton parish boundary with Normanton and Edith Weston.
10 Restored Quarry
Follow the path between the orchard and restored quarry. The path turns right at the corner of the orchard.
Looking back, there are good views from here of the quarry with its lake and solar panels. All the limestone and silicious clay has now been worked out in this part of the quarry. The restoration plan requires that the quarry is restored to sloping limestone grassland covering the rock faces. It will only remain as grassland if it is grazed, otherwise it will develop into scrub. Limestone grassland is an important and rich wildlife habitat. These steep slopes would ideally be grazed with sheep to maintain the rich flora that will develop. The creation of woodland, ponds and grassland are all part of the approved restoration scheme.
11 Edith Weston Disused Quarry
Continue to follow the path between the orchard and the restored quarry to the double gates.
The track on the right by the gates (no public access) leads into Edith Weston disused quarry and Panter’s Orchard. Now clothed in young woodland, in about 1900 this quarry started producing high-quality, even-grained Ketton freestone, which was used for prestige buildings. The area also has rich limestone grassland and is privately used for pheasant shooting. On the left the new road passes through Ketton Gorse woodland.
12 Roadside Verge
At the gates, follow the footpath straight ahead alongside the tall hedgerow on the right hand side and the road to Edith Weston on the left.
About 100 years ago this area was heathland called Wytchley Warren. Gorse shrubs, an indicator of heaths, have now re-colonised the area. Beyond the gorse, there is a good view of the extended quarry which will be fully worked out by about 2026. The roadside verge on the left has been seeded with typical limestone-loving plants such as Ox-eye Daisy, Hay Rattle and Knapweed.
13 Tall Hedgerow
The road bears away from the line of the path; continue to follow the path between the field and hedge.
This is one of the oldest and thickest stretches of hedge on this walk. It includes Hawthorn, Hazel, Sycamore, Guelder Rose, Wayfaring Tree and even naturalised Yellow Plum trees from the old orchard next the gateway.
14 Normanton Road
The path meets Normanton road. turn right and walk about 200m along the road.
The roadside verge all the way to Empingham is a Roadside Verge Reserve as shown on a small roadside sign. There are many rich limestone verges in the east of Rutland and south-west Lincolnshire. These are mown annually, ideally with the mowings removed or baled in order to maintain the nutrient-poor soil. This calcareous grassland habitat has a rich diversity of plants and hence pollinating and feeding insects. This area and the nature reserve has up to 26 species of butterflies as well as Glow-worms which feed on snails.
15 Farm Track
Turn right onto the wide farm track.
This track is part of the Rutland Round, a 65 mile path following the Rutland county boundary. On both sides the farm hedges were planted with Hawthorn, also called quickthorn because it can grow from hardwood stick cuttings. Over the years other tree and shrub species have colonised the hedge. They are cut annually sometime after harvest and before seed drilling when they can easily be accessed with a tractor mounted flail from the field boundary. The A-shaped hedge on the left has a thickened based which is excellent for wildlife. In the past these hedges would have been laid by hand with a bilhook, hazel stakes and binders. There are now government grants to plant and manage hedgerows.
16 New Wood
Continue along the farm track towards the woodland on the left.
This private woodland was probably planted within the last two hundred years. Many small local woodlands are only used for pheasant and rough shooting and are not actively managed. However there are now Government grants for landowners to manage woodlands for timber, climate resilience and biodiversity. The old farm buildings and New Wood Lodge are part of Normanton Lodge Farm where the Ancaster estate used to employ many stone and wood workers at the various craft yards.
17 Farm Field
Bear away from the woodland and follow the footpath diagonally across the field to a gate in the hedge. Don’t go through the gate but turn right and keeping the hedge on your left follow the path across the field to another footpath gate.
In the summer tractor tramlines can be seen at intervals across the field where a sprayer has applied pesticides to ensure the crop is weed and pest free. All around this field is a grass strip. Landowners are now encouraged and paid by grants to leave buffer strips around the edge of arable fields. These can reduce polluting runoff from fields. Where this connects to a hedge it can add to the ecological corridor helping wildlife to migrate between fragmented habitats such as the local woodlands. Birds, mammals, insects and flowering plants particularly benefit from buffer strips alongside hedgerows.
18 Footpath Gate
Go through the gate, cross the green lane with hedges on both sides then follow the gravel track path directly ahead.
This path back to Ketton forms part of the Hereward Way – a 110 mile long-distance footpath that stretches from Oakham in the west to near Thetford in Norfolk. (If you turn left here this lane joins the longer Red route path around the northern part of quarry to Steadfold Lane. It goes alongside the Shacklewell Hollow Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and the new quarrying site planned for the 2030s in the field on the left.)
19 Wetland Habitat
Follow the Long Ridge Path.
The ponds and associated willows and reed beds in the disused quarry on the left are now a great wetland habitat. From here you can see the cement works and the far side of the quarry, nearly all of which has been worked out and is currently being restored for farmland and nature.
20 Changing Landscape
Continue along the Long Ridge Path, over the footbridge through Long Paddock back to the High Street and the start of the walk at Ketton Library.
As you walk along the Long Ridge Path, the ancient White Willow tree on the left just before the very highest point of the path, gives a clue to the old disused livestock pond behind the trees on the right. As you look across the quarry you can imagine how much stone has now been extracted from the older landscape which was fairly level from the woodland to the ridge path. The hedged pasture and arable farming landscape of Home Farm has now been replaced by a much lower, more diverse landscape. This new landscape is potentially much richer in biodiversity. The millions of tons of stone and clay has also provided the foundations for many thousands of new homes, roads, runways and other infrastructure.