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.


Saturday 11 August 2018

Lower Heyford to Kidlington. 1

We stayed the night at a vegan B&B in Lower Heyford and a good B&B it was too with a friendly dog "Frankie." We ate at the local pub last night, 'The Bell Inn' and both enjoyed our meals. I think there may only be one pub.

We left the B&B with our host this morning around 9am. She showed us a short cut back to the canal, across the recreation ground. Sadly this meant I didn't get to go down the main street to photograph some of the thatched cottages. I was too busy tring to find the B&B when we arrived yesterday. So the photo below, taken from the recreation ground is the best I can do.
It was a cool clear morning, great for walking. The only clouds in the sky were aircraft condensation trails.


An hour into our walk we passed the boat shown below, from Marsden. It's from where we stayed on the second day of our walk.
There was plenty of shade on the canal today and a team had obviously been working to clear the towpath of 'giant rhubarb.'

We saw a few canoeists today and with the cleared towpath we also met one or two cyclists.

We arrived at 'The Rock of Gibraltar' just as it was opening fo lunch.

No comments:

Post a Comment