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 1 August 2018

Solihull to Hatton Railway Station. 1

We left our B&B, Woodlands, at 9:30am and were surprised to see a fox skulking around the garden. It looked a bit moth-eaten, and seemed to be pigpailing.
                               The pathway had a rural feel from the start.
By the time we got to Caterine de-Barnes it felt like we were really in the country. The activity on the canal had also started to increase.
However the acoustic pollution started to increase and after we'd been walking for about an hour it got particularly bad as we approached the M42. In fact approaching it and leaving it was much worse than being directly underneath it.
The weather was more overcast than of late and this made for pleasanter walking. We passed what looked like a private farm airfield, with windsock and the reflections in the water show how little wind there was. We were passing through an area with lots of golden wheatfields.
Just before the Knowle Lock flight, which we reached about 11:15 we passed under a bridge whose side walls had been protected from wear from the ropes pulling the barges by being faced with an iron plate. The deep grooves show how the plate effectively protected the stone bridge.
The Knowle Lock flight was very busy and we passed a few boats, held up by the lock, who had passed us on previous days. The views from the locks of the surrounding countryside were uplifting.

We passed the narrowboat, Alchemyst, owned by our B&B hosts of last night, just before we stopped for lunch at the 'Black Boy' pub.


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1 comment:

  1. Unknown3 August 2018 at 13:09

    This is Wendy from Woodlands - found your blog and will follow it with interest. Nice to see the photo of Alchemyst!

    ReplyDelete

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