Safety firstIn 2016, 18,477 cyclists were injured in reported road accidents, including 3,499 who were killed or seriously injured – Source ROSPA.

Before setting out on your bike it’s important to make sure you’ll be safe when cycling.

Be a responsible CyclistOn all routes – Please be courteous! Always cycle with respect for others, whether cyclists, pedestrians, people in wheelchairs, horse riders or drivers, and acknowledge those who give way to you.

On shared-use paths:• Give way to pedestrians: leave them plenty of room• Keep to your side of any dividing line and keep to the left when

you meet other cyclists• Be prepared to slow down or stop if necessary• Don’t expect to cycle at high speeds• Be careful at junctions, bends and entrances• Remember many people are hard of hearing and visually

impaired - don’t assume they can see or hear you• Carry a bell and use it - don’t surprise people• Give way where there are wheelchair users and horse riders

When cycling on roads:• Always follow the Highway Code• Be seen - most accidents to cyclists happen at junctions• Fit lights and use them in poor visibility• Always wear a helmet and conspicuous clothing• Keep your bike roadworthy• Do not cycle on pavements except where designated -

pavements are for pedestrians• Use your bell - not all pedestrians can see you

In the countryside:• Always follow the Countryside Code• Respect other land management activities, farming or forestry

and take litter home with you• Keep erosion to a minimum if off-road• Try to cycle or use public transport to travel to the start and

finish of your ride• Match your speed to the surface and your skills

Thank you for cycling!The Gov.uk website  provides further advice on what to do to stay safe on the roads including following the Highway Code.

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For feedback on this route or to make enquiries please email nk-cyclingstrategy@n-kesteven.gov.ukWhilst great care has been taken on compiling this information into this leaflet, North Kesteven District Council cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or alterations contained within it. The inclusion of an establishment within this leaflet does not imply any official recommendations by North Kesteven District Council.

Sleaford to Kelby

Beginning in the historic market town of Sleaford, venture to Silk Willoughby, then travel North past Greylees. Pass through South

Rauceby and then on to Kelby, before continuing past rolling fields through Culverthorpe and Swarby and back to Sleaford.

North Kesteven Cycle Route

Route is long distance (28.7km) and has some steady hills. The route avoids main roads and is suited to experienced cyclists.

Silk WilloughbyBurton Pedwardine is named after a Herefordshire family, the

Pedwardines, who acquired the hall and manor through marriage about 1330. The village Grade II listed Anglican parish church is dedicated to St Andrew. It was rebuilt by Sir Roger Pedwardine in the early 14th century on a cruciform plan with central tower. The tower collapsed in 1802, and the church was rebuilt. It was again rebuilt in Decorated style in 1870, retaining its original transept from the pre-1802 church.A notable murder occurred in the parish in 1728, when Captain Thomas Mitchell, a Justice of the Peace, killed a bailiff named Pennystone Warden of Ewerby. The captain was committed to Lincoln Castle by two of his fellow magistrates and subsequently sentenced to death at Lincoln Assizes.

Rauceby HospitalThe hospital was designed by George Thomas Hine using an “echelon layout”. Construction began in 1897 and it was officially opened as

Kesteven County Asylum on 20 June 1902. The gardens were designed under a separate contract by William Goldring. An isolation unit, built in 1919 on the western edge of the site was never used as such; instead it housed those residents working on the farm. The facility became Kesteven Mental Hospital in 1924 and Rauceby Mental Hospital in 1933. In 1940 the building was taken over by the Royal Air Force; renamed as No.4 RAF Hospital Rauceby, it became a crash and burns unit under the control of nearby RAF Cranwell. During its tenure as a burns unit plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe worked at the facility, along with other members of the “Guinea Pig Club”. The wartime Burns Unit was situated in Orchard House, built alongside the hospital orchard.

HeydourThe Domesday Book records the place as “Haidure”

and “Heidure”, with 80 acres (32 ha) of meadow and 16 acres (6.5 ha) of woodland within the manor of Osbournby.Around the village, particularly to the south, are earthwork indications of houses, crofts, quarries and ridge and furrow field systems from an earlier Medieval village. The village belonged to the historical wapentake of Winnibriggs and Threo.Heydour Grade I listed Anglican parish church, is dedicated to St Michael. The church originates from the 12th century, with additions up to the 19th. There is a 12th- century canonical sundial on the south wall.

SwarbyThe village name is Scandinavian in origin, and comes from the Old Norse for a farmstead or village of a person named ‘Svarri’. The parish church is dedicated to Saint

Mary and All Saints and is a Grade II* listed building dating from the 13th century. It was restored in 1886 and the south aisle dates from the same time. The west tower is 15th-century. On the north wall of the chancel is a rectangular ashlar wall plaque to Anthony Williams who died in 1681.A tornado swept through the village on 28 June 2012. It uprooted many trees, lifted a trampoline hundreds of feet and caused a garage roof to collapse while removing tiles from houses.

1 From Sleaford Marketplace, follow the one way system, down Carre Street, round to Boston Road and past Handley’s Monument towards the level crossing.

2 Travel down London Road, shortly after crossing the tracks, and follow this road until you get to Silk Willoughby. In Silk Willoughby, turn right down School Lane.

3 Follow School Lane and then cross the A15 onto Willoughby Road heading towards Greylees.

4 Continue on Willoughby Road, around Greylees and cross the A153 onto Rauceby Drove. Keep on Rauceby Drove all the way to South Rauceby.

5 Bear left as Rauceby Drove becomes Main Street. Keep on Main Street and follow it round where it then becomes Thorpe Drove.

6 Follow Thorpe Drove until it meets the A153. Turn left and soon after, turn right, crossing the River Slea. Keep on this road until the next right hand turn. Take this turn heading to Kelby.

7 Turn left when you get to Kelby and remain on this road through Kelby and down Oasby Road. Remain on Oasby Road until it meets Church Lees and turn left.

8 This road will take you through Heydour and wind left. Keep left and continue on until you get to Culverthorpe.

9 Turn right onto Culverthorpe Road to Swarby. In Swarby, take a left off Swarby road down Back Lane until it meets the A15.

10 Turn left on the A15 and follow it until you reach the right hand turn for London Road.

11 Follow London Road back into Silk Willoughby and Sleaford.

12 Retrace your steps over the level crossing and down to Handley’s Monument, follow the one way system down Southgate and onto Eastgate back to Marketplace.

SleafordSleaford is a market town and civil parish in Lincolnshire, England. It is on the edge of the fertile Fenlands, about 11 miles north-east of Grantham, 16 miles west of Boston, and 17 miles south of Lincoln.The first settlement formed in the Iron Age where a prehistoric track crossed the River Slea. It was a tribal centre and home to a mint for the Corieltauvi in the 1st centuries BC and AD. Evidence of Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlement has been uncovered, and by the late Saxon period the town was an economic and jurisdictional centre with a court and market.

Sleaford was primarily an agricultural town until the 20th century, supporting a cattle market, with seed companies, such as Hubbard and Phillips, and Sharpes International Seeds, being established in the late 19th century. The arrival of the railway made the town favourable for malting. 

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