Pattishall combines a waymarked circular walk with historic traces ranging from a listed church building to former settlements. Pattishall Parish is in a rural area on the boundary between Northamptonshire Heights and the Nene Valley. When planning a trip, the specific Millennium Walk, the wider footpath network and the various historical themes offer different points of interest.
Circular Walks and Waypoints
The Pattishall Millennium Walk is a waymarked circular walk with an estimated total length of 18 kilometres. It visits eight of the ten waypoints on the boundary of Pattishall Civil Parish. Distance and waypoint count answer different questions: the estimated length describes the extent of the entire circuit; the eight out of ten points indicate how many waypoints it includes.
Much of the route follows existing footpaths and bridleways within the parish. Check path conditions and waymarking locally, as conditions can change seasonally. The Pattishall Parish footpath network is another guide: it links villages and offers circular walks through the intervening countryside. This makes it possible to distinguish the individual waymarked circuit from the connections and circular walking opportunities offered by the wider network.
Historic Routes and Landscape
Both the Roman road Watling Street (A5) and Banbury Lane, an old drove road, lie immediately alongside Pattishall Parish. The two names refer to different historical features: Watling Street is identified as a Roman road, while Banbury Lane is identified as a route for driving livestock. They add two differently classified routes to the picture of the rural surroundings.
Church, Settlement Traces and Local History
The Church of Holy Cross is a Grade II* listed building. Anyone interested in bell ringing can contact the church to find out what happens during a practice. This is one way to explore the subject, and requires getting in touch in advance.
Pattishall has a shrunken settlement first recorded in the Domesday Book. Disturbed earthworks at Pattishall probably represent an earlier settlement. An earlier settlement in Pattishall Parish had an unusual layout and was divided into four separate units. The tentative interpretation of the earthworks and the specific layout of the settlement describe different aspects of local history.
The Pattishall Village Trail was originally written in 1989 as a result of work by children at Pattishall Church of England School. Its origins in the work of schoolchildren mark a different point in time from the settlement traces. There was also a prisoner-of-war camp near Pattishall, initially called Eastcote Camp. Together, the listed church, evidence of settlements, the trail and the camp’s historic name represent different themes in the area’s history.
Discover more destinations: Ringstead, Hartwell, Deanshanger, Blisworth, Hackleton, Castle Ashby, Upton, Rushden.
For the wider travel overview: Northamptonshire.
