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.


Friday 20 July 2018

Dunkinfield to Marple. 3

We had our lunch at the Duke of York at Romily, not far from the canal, and then headed south to Marple. The banking to the west of the canal shelved very steeply  and for a long way. I tried to capture it in the photograph below.



We next came to the Hyde tunnel and like the Standedge tunnel there is no towpath so we had to go over an overland bypass. The same route horses would have to have taken in Victorian times.





The picture below shows the southern portal of the tunnel. The path you can see on the left doesn't enter the tunnei.

However the most dramatic engineering feats of the day were yet to come! Shortly after a small tunnel we came to the Marple Aqueduct which carries the Peak Forest Canal over the Goyt River. Behind it one can also see a viaduct carrying a train over the same river.




Up to this point I don't think we'd passed through a single lock. The water was the same level as at Portland Basin. However in about the mile to the turn of to our B&B in Marple we went past 9 locks of the Marple Flight.


Possibly the most remarkable feature of today however was that we had some rain!!!!!! It rained slightly at lunchtime and we put on waterproof jackets, but we removed them within 30 minutes. The drop in temperature made it more comfotable to walk and more than compensated for the small amount of rain. At the pub, during lunch, we just put up the sun umbrella to keep of the drops.
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