Gilberdyke, Sandholme and the Wallingfen lanes

Wallingfen was a vast common fen until it was enclosed in 1777, and the lanes north of Gilberdyke still run dead straight along the drains the enclosure commissioners laid out, which makes this a five-mile circuit with barely a bend in it. From Main Road the route goes up Sandholme Road past the brick pits to Sandholme, turns west on the carr lanes with dykes on both sides and skylarks over the barley, and comes back down the field track behind Bellasize. It is completely flat, half of it on tarmac lanes that carry occasional tractors, and the drains are deep and steep-sided with no fencing. The reward is space: on a clear day you can see the Wolds escarpment the whole way round the eastern half.