River News – 10 days of great walking In a unique and distinct landscape Saturday 8th to Monday 17th September 2012

 10 days of great walking In a unique and distinct landscape Saturday 8th to Monday 17th September 2012

Welcome to the Trent Vale Walking Festival. This is the first one (that we know of) to span 3 districts, 2 counties and a river. We are very excited to be able to offer you over 30 individual walks throughout the Trent Vale area. They range from Health walks to Heritage walks to Wildlife Walks to Riverside Walks. This is a great opportunity to see Trent Vale at its best in Autumn, find out more about our fascinating history, learn to ID birds and fungi, make new friends and get a breath of fresh

Where is Trent Vale? The Trent Vale area follows the course of the River Trent from Farndon near Newark in the south to East and West Stockwith (north of Gainsborough) in the north. The area covers 388 square kilometres in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

For full details of the walks go to the ‘Events’ section  on the website:

canalrivertrust.org.uk

Contact Details: Hester Kapur c/o Canal and River Trust The Kiln Mather Road Newark Nottinghamshire. NG24 1FB Tel: (01636) 675722 Mob: 0798 0203835

With grateful thanks to all of the following organisations:

•Barnbygate Strollers

•Canal and River Trust

•Collingham Ramblers

•Farndon Archaeological Research & Investigations

•Gainsborough Health Walks

•Groundwork Creswell, Ashfield to Mansfield

•Lincolnshire Country Council – Rights of Way

•Lincolnshire Ramblers

•Newark Air Museum

•Newark Civic Trust

•Newark Ramblers

•Newark and Sherwood District Council

•Nottinghamshire County Council – Community Archaeology

•Nottinghamshire Ramblers

•Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust

•Smiley Milers Walking Group

•Step2it Dukeries Walkers

•The RSPB

The River Trent

Looking towards Gunthorpe Bridge from the river bank by the Unicorn Hotel.

 Gunthorpe Bridge is the only bridge over the River Trent between Newark and Nottingham. Old Gunthorpe toll bridge, LinkExternal link , was built on the site of a ford and ferry that had existed since Roman times. Built in 1875 by the Gunthorpe Bridge Company who raised £7,500 through a share issue, it was a largely iron structure crossing the Trent: see SK6843 : Remains of former Gunthorpe Toll Bridge and SK6843 : Remains of former Gunthorpe Toll Bridge. The tolls were horse and carriage 1/-, horse and wagon 6d, horse alone 3d, people and passengers 1d, motorcycles 3d, cars 1/- and lorries 2/6. In 1925 the Gunthorpe Bridge Act empowered the council to buy the owners out, demolish the bridge and replace it with the present one, seen here, a couple of hundred yards up stream. This believed to be the first toll bridge in the country to be replaced by a free one. © Copyright Kate Jewell and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.