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.


Monday 16 July 2018

Liversedge to Huddersfield

We left "The Liversedge" pub/b&b at 9:15 am on a mild, overcast day, which heated up as the day went on, with lots of sunny periods. We picked up the 'Spen Valley Greenway,' just north of the pub and headed east into Heckmondwike in a deep cutting with lots of bridges, the last of which passed within 100 yards of your blogger's birthplace.


The Greenway ended at the High Street in H'wike and we had a short walk through the town to pick up a more southerly greenway heading east towards Mirfield. The greenways are the old L.M.S and L.N.E.R railbeds, courtesy of Beeching closures.


They are very popular with cyclists and walkers. We left the greenway at Ravensthorpe to take a short cut to the river Calder and our first canal walk of the day through to Mirfield.






We had lunch in a small cafe and then climbed up over a cycle route towards our meeting with the Huddersfield Broad Canal.


However I made a navigational error near a viaduct over the river Colne and we finished up walking by the Colne for a while. It was very rural for an urban area but very overgrown.


Luckily we met a man walking his dog who showed us how we could cross over to the beginning of the Huddersfield Broad  Canal. It was easy going from here into Huddersfield.


However my cell phone plan expired yesterday so we had no Google to help us find the Travelodge we are staying at. We walked about a mile past it!!!!
Being given directions to a Premier Inn didn't help, some people think one hotel is much like another. As a result we walked 21.6km today.







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