Going Dutch Cycle Route
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Distance
- 13.8 ml
- Duration
- 1.00 hr
- Ascent
- 204 ft
- Descent
- 199 ft
This circular ride starts from Beltoft, a pretty hamlet in the parish of Belton and takes in many of the sights of the historic Isle of Axholme, through peaceful countryside to Epworth, home of the Wesleys, visiting Owston Ferry and West Butterwick on the Trent.
The Isle of Axholme is rich in history. Once marsh and fenland, it was drained by the Dutch in 1626 by order of Charles I. Cornellus Vermuyden and his Dutch associates met with much opposition from the locals who saw the destruction of their way of life. There was great controversy over the distribution of the new land, causing much conflict with the commoners.
Highlights
The Old Rectory
This impressive Grade-I listed house was the childhood home of John and Charles Wesley. Enjoy a tour of the house, where you can learn about the different characters who made up the Wesley family. Meet ‘The Mother of Methodism’ and the Wesley children – all ten of them!
Axholme Priory
One of ten medieval Carthusian houses in England. The house was centred on a pre-existing chapel on the present Low Melwood Farm, between Owston Ferry and Epworth in the Isle of Axholme, which according to a papal bull of 1398 ‘was called anciently the Priory of the Wood’.
Kelfield
Kelfield is a hamlet, on the banks of the River Trent. Here you will find a Grade-II listed house which dates back to 1689; the area's only example of a house from this period with curvilinear gables.