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Walks
Langton by Spilsby lies in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty at
the southern end of the Lincolnshire Wolds, which offer long views from the
tops of the rolling hills as well as smaller, more intimate views in the
villages and hamlets of the area. There are three paths crossing parts of the
village and the farm.
Official bridle and foot paths both start at Langton.
Footpath number 123 starts at the farmyard next to the church and leads past
the site of an old settlement about 200 yards from the farm buildings and then
via a well made farm track and across arable fields to Partney church about 2
miles away: from here it goes on to
Skendleby. Bridle path number 103 starts
at the bottom of Langton Hill and goes along the other main farm track, along
a hedge, through the neighbouring farm at Dalby, across the A16 Partney - Louth
road and then as a footpath on to Skendleby, where it meets footpath 123 to
return to Langton.
At the top of Langton Hill is Limeburner's Cottage (now known as Hilltop
Cottage). On a clear day
it is possible to see the
coast of Norfolk to the south east from here.
A permissive footpath leads in a large semicircle
from the top of Langton Hill, just beyond the Limeburner's Cottage, along the
western edge of the Wolds high above an area known as the Sheep Walks, to
Grange Farm about a mile distant. To return to the starting point take
the main farm track back through the fields. The whole trip is about two miles
of easy walking and you can see well over twenty miles westwards from the top
of the Sheepwalks. The Sheepwalks themselves have been largely untouched for
centuries and it is easy to imagine how the Wolds would have looked a few
hundred years ago before the development of intensive cereal cropping.
 The
geology of the Sheepwalks consists mainly of white and red chalk, sandstones and
various clays and is unique in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The geological variety,
coupled with generations of grazing have created a great diversity of flora and
the area is designated a "Site of Special Scientific Interest." There is some
very unusual strip lynchet terracing throughout the length of the Langton Sheepwalks. The
origin of these terraces is uncertain, but they may date from Saxon times. During
a visit in 1764 to his friend "Lanky" (Bennet Langton) Dr Samuel Johnson is said to have found himself on the Sheep
Walks. Declaring that he had not had a rolled down a hill for a long time, he
told Langton to take his pocket watch, emptied his pockets and rolled down the slopes from top to bottom.
Not far from Grange Farm (but inaccessible as they are in the middle of
arable fields) are the "Spellow Hills." These hillocks
appear once to have been barrow about 180 foot long, may have been reduced by several centuries of
stone robbing. It is thought that the name "Spellow" derives from Old Norse
"Spella", meaning to destroy, which may imply that the Spellow Hills form the
site of an ancient battle. There are two other protected sites nearby
but it is not possible to access any of these sites.
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