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.


Tuesday, 24 July 2018

Congleton to Burslem. Macclesfield Canal.

Today's start was a little diiferent. We went to catch a train, from Macclesfield to Congleton. The train was late but it was a short trip. The railway station at Congleton is just above the canal, where we joined our walk from yesterday. If you want to go to the shops it's at least a mile walk! We started walking down the right side of the canal but wthin 5 minutes we were taken to the left via a horse bridge. Shiel is standing on it.



Two minutes later we were on an aqueduct over a road and in another five minutes there was another horse bridge and the towpath was back on the right again.


It was a very rural walk until midday, so much so that there was no where to find refreshment until we reached Kidsgrove.





There was more activity today on both the canal and the towpath. A lttle way along we went past Ramsdell Hall which a local said was up for sale (£2,000,000). It was on the other side of the canal to the towpath. There is a lon fence of historical interest opposite it.




A little further on bridge 92 was showing significant structural damage. A truck or car probably  struck the wall.

 Half an hour before lunch we passed the first lock of the day. It only had a very small fall. We thought it might be something to do with the approaching junction with the Trent and Mersey Canal. Ten minutes later our canal (Macclesfield) passed over two aqueducts. One over a road and then over the Trent and Mersey Canal which presumably turned left and descended to join it. We took a short cut down a staircase, before the aqueduct and walked west for about 200m to a set of locks and a pub where we had lunch.





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