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Foston on the Wolds
Start / End: Foston Church
Distance: 2.3 miles
Time: 1 hour
Map: OS 295
This was a lovely little walk that Bill and I did in the company of Alex and Ollie that explored some of the small waterways around this lovely part of the Wolds and included a starting point through a secret door!
The Walk
Start From: YO25 8FJ ///title.cute.evoke
1. Park on the road outside the church in Foston on the Wolds, making sure that you don't block the road. Then with the church on your right head towards where the road bends to the left. In the corner here, you will spot a wooden door with a public footpath sign pointing through it.
2. Go through the door and walk straight ahead, up a few steps to emerge in a field which you cross straight over to the other side
3. At the other side you will find a metal swing gate advising people to keep their dogs on a lead. Go through this gate and still keep on straight ahead over this next field.
4. At the top of this field the path turns right and you will soon get to a dyke on your right that runs away into the distance.
5. After a shortish distance look for a post with an 'F' and 'P' on it sending you off to your left along the side of a field with the hedge on your left.
6. Walk all the way along the edge of this field to where the path turns left at Foston Beck. Here you dog might like a quick dip, especially if it is a hot day. Bill, surprising was not keen and just watched Ollie have a bit of a swim here.
7. Follow Foston Beck along, keeping it on your right, until a point where you come to a bridge, which has another metal 'F' on it, which is where you cross to the other side of the Beck.
8. Now follow the edge of the Beck keeping it on your left. Again, if your dogs like water they might take a dip at any time, but just be warned parts of it is very muddy and at one-point Ollie came out as a two-tone dog.
9. At the end of this section is a single arched brick bridge where you go up onto the road and turn right.
10. Follow the road for a very short distance and cross over to follow the footpath left through a green metal kissing gate which takes you onto a farm road. As you are going to be passing through the farm yard keep dogs on a lead here.
11. Cross through Mill Farm to the gap between buildings where you will see a green public footpath sign. You will emerge at the weir (and you will hear it before you see it!)
12. Cross over the weir, with it gushing on your right. Then turn right, then left to follow the driveway. Walk past Brewery Farm and ignore the footpath heading off right. At the end of the driveway you will come back to the road in Foston.
13. Now just turn left and follow the road through the village all the way back to the start.
Before I finish, here's a bit of history:
Foston Beck provided a source of water for milling for centuries. A mill is known to have been in operation in 1086, and the mill pond may possibly have been created by diverting Kelk Beck during the period of Danish settlement. A new mill was built on the site in 1747 and in 1780 special provision was made for the miller, which allowed him to divert the beck into a drainage ditch to allow him to carry out repairs to the mill or to scour the beck. Sir William St Quintin, 5th Baronet, bought the mill in 1792, and spent some £1,500 over the next four years on repairs and improvements. Access to the mill was possible by boat along Foston Beck from the Driffield Navigation.
Water power was supplemented by a steam engine by 1854, the mill being one of only eleven in the county to be modernised in this way. It was also one of only four in the county to be fitted with rollers, which were used to produce fine white flour, of a quality which could not be produced by stones. The water wheels were then replaced by a turbine, but the building burnt down in 1895–6. After a new building was erected, milling was recorded in 1925 and 1929. In addition to water power, there is the stump of a windmill close to the water mill.
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