Revising the Beverley Twenty

Beverley Minster from the Westwood

The Beverley Twenty is a 20 mile walking path that takes you from the Beverley Minster all the way to the Humber Bridge via Walkington, Skidby and Welton. Officially, it is the other way around: you start at the Humber Bridge and then head towards Beverley but since we live in Hull it seemed more right to walk back home rather than away from it. We hiked the reverse version of the Beverley Twenty for the first time in April and did it again this month. So the fact that we walked it twice in a fairly short period of time means it’s really awesome, right?

Skidby Mill during the second walk

The first time we walked it we followed the official route meticulously. We set off from the Beverley Westwood at approximately 8am. The weather was good, it was still a little bit chilly but the sun soon warmed everything up nicely. A lot of the walking you’re doing in East Yorkshire will be along hedges and fields and this trail was no different. You will see a lot of hedges and fields until you get to Skidby. There is a windmill in Skidby which is still in use. We could see it from a distance but the Beverley Twenty takes you a safe few hundred metres parallel to it. Umm, okay...

As you leave Skidby you walk past some hedges and fields again. You’ll pass the occasional farm but it’s fields and hedges all the way until you get to Welton. There is a beautiful little valley in Welton. It’s hard to believe it’s so close to Hull because it has a very North Yorkshire feel to it. But the Beverley Twenty doesn’t take you through this valley. Again, its path runs parallel to it along some... yes, fields and hedges. You then walk through a wooded area before arriving in Ferriby. From there it is a straight line along the Humber all the way to the Humber Bridge but the path is closed for maintenance work at the moment. At this point I had a blister on my left foot from having walked 15 miles the day before already and I didn’t feel too strongly about taking a parallel path along a main road. We have walked from Ferriby to the Humber Bridge before so I knew what we were missing as we hopped on a bus and went back to Hull. We were in slight disbelief that the Beverley Twenty would miss some beautiful landmarks, which could have been included so easily.

Ruin at Risby Park

To prove that this can be a beautiful and interesting walk we did it again three weeks later. We trailed off the original route for the first time near Walkington. On the quest for a Full English and a cup of coffee we ventured to the Folly Lake Café. The café resembles a Canadian log hut with a wooden porch overlooking Risby Park Fishing Lakes and a little ruin. The dark trees surrounding it and men in chequered shirts sitting on little piers with their fishing rods only supported that image and as soon as I uttered my thoughts two geese landed on the lake. Perfect timing! The sun was out so we had breakfast on the porch and watched a boy catch two carps in the time it took to drink our coffees, eat our breakfast and fend off a hungry, little chaffinch.

Brew Break

Our next stop was Skidby windmill. Built in 1821 it only managed to survive the Great Agricultural Depression of the late 19th century by shifting its production to animal foodstuffs. The mill was restored to its original state in 1974 and is now producing flour again in the traditional way. The lady in the shop let us try some bread made with Skidby flour - yum. There is also a café there but we were still full and didn’t want to be too gluttonous! We met the Beverley Twenty again south of Skidby and walked along fields and hedges for quite a while.

The next alteration took us through Nut Wood, one of East Yorkshire’s few remaining ancient forests. Parts of it date back to the 13th century and locally it is also known as Bluebell Wood. We went in the height of the bluebell season and except for the walking path, the whole ground was covered in bluebells and ramsons. The smell of garlic overpowered everything else. We took a break at a random shelter we found in the middle of the woods. It was made from branches and covered up with old leaves and moss. Somebody even went to the trouble of putting together a bench and tying a hammock to the branches. It was a shame that whoever built this left a lot of plastic tarps and rubbish. Not at all in the bushcraft ”leave no trace” spirit!

Nut Wood covered in bluebells and ramsons

Then it started to rain and it wouldn’t stop for the rest of the day. As we got to Welton Dale we couldn’t quite appreciate the valley as much as we would have liked. We stopped for a while to watch the Highland cows graze by the yellow gorse and I hid my pack under a matching rain cover. While the contents of my pack were safe I got pretty drenched. It was still a few miles to Ferriby, where we caught the bus again back to Hull. We dried out over a pint in Hull’s old town. Needless to say I slept very well that night.

It’s a shame that the official route misses all of these great spots along the way. With the few alterations made to the trail it was an interesting and stunning walk I’d be happy to walk again in the near future.