Our Route


In July/August 2018 we walked from Liversedge in Yorkshire to Oxford, where possible, on canal towpaths.

The walk started on greenways in the Spen Valley until Ravensthorpe where we joined our first canal, the Calder and Hebble Navigation to Mirfield. In Mirfield we took a greenway to pick up the Huddersfield Broad Canal, after first getting slightly lost in the Colne Valley. We followed the Huddersfield Broad Canal into Huddersfield.

The next day we joined the Huddersfield Narrow Canal to the Standedge tunnel. As there is no footpath in the tunnel we walked over the Pennines, via the Wessenden Valley, to Diggle and the southern end of the tunnel. We followed the Huddersfield Narrow Canal to Ashton where we joined the Peak Forest Canal.

We followed the Peak Forest Canal to Marple where we turned off onto the Macclesfield Canal. We followed the Macclesfield Canal to Kidsgrove where we joined the Trent and Mersey Canal. Almost immediately we had to leave the Canal, as it entered the Harecastle Tunnel, and follow a modified version of the route taken by draught horses in the early days. We rejoined the towpath at the southern end of the tunnel.

We followed the Trent and Mersey Canal to Fradley where we joined the Coventry Canal which we followed to Fazeley Junction, where we joined the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.

We should have left the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal where it passes under the M6 and joined the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, as we were going through Warwick. However we missed the junction. Even so I thought we could go into central Birmingham and then head East towards Solihull and our accommodation.

We could have corrected our first mistake at Aston Top Lock and turned East on the Digbeth Branch Canal but missed our turn and headed into Birmingham. We almost reached the centre before we realized this second mistake. However from a canal and engineering aspect, the walk into central Birmingham was really interesting. It was a rewarding, if somewhat tiring mistake.

We walked back to the Aston Top Lock and followed the Digbeth branch for a short way to the Grand Union Canal, which was soon joined by the Birmingham and Warwick Canal, which we should have taken in the first place.

We followed the Grand Union Canal all the way to Napton Junction. At Napton Junction we turned south on our final canal, the Oxford Canal, which we followed to its end in Oxford.

We started on Monday, July 16 and finished on Monday, August 13. We walked 248 miles. We travelled for 29 days, with 5 rest days, thus averaging about 10 miles per day on our walking days.


Wednesday 25 July 2018

Burslem to Stone. 1.to Stoke.

We left Burslem at 9:00am and headed back to the canal. Burslem seems a very depressed area with many closed shops. Although it has a lot of pubs few provide food. We walked nearly a mile yesterday to get to one. Our hotel was in a substantial old building that had seen better days.

On the way back to the canal we passed what was The Wedgwood Memorial Institute in 1869. It the became an art college and is now a cultural centre. Wedgwood is in the centre surrounded by the signs of the zodiac.


The first part of the walk down towards Stoke provided views of reclaimed wasteland and factories but after 15 minutes we were in a rural corridor through a heavily populated area.


The towpath changed sides a few times but the bridges were now much wider as the Trent and Mersey is much wider than the Macclesfield Canal.


Just before the Etruria basin, where we had coffee there were lots of smart new offices on the RHS of the canal and I've provided a photograph below.


The towpath goes over a tilt bridge to enable barges to have access to the Basin.


We passed a large cemetary on the LHS, and two beauitful old bottle ilns before we eventually arrived at the Stoke Civic Centre.









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