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. 1

We left our B&B, Barton Villa, about 9:30am, after a good breakfast. It was only about 200m, on a roughly northern course, back to the canal.  What we hadn't realised yesterday was that we had walked to the end of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. The first sign we saw today told us so. It also told us that the Huddersfield Narrow had effectively become The Ashton Canal. This canal had an industrial feel, as shown in the photograph below.


However in about 100m the towpath closed and we were directed up into the car park of a massive new TESCO supermarket. It did have a nice view of an old mill though.


We had difficulty finding our way back to the canal, it involved crossing an incredibly busy road. We asked a local why the towpath was blocked and she said it ran behind Tescos and they had had too much shoplifting! As it is a massive development one would have thought they could have put a fence on the plans. The towpath was there nearly 200 years before they were.

We did pick up the towpath again and found ourselves at a canal T junction, Portland Basin. The first two show how we entered the basin, and the third shows the view looking back towards Tescos. The Peak Forest Canal branches down to the right (south), and that is our route, the way Shiel is facing.




We came over the bridge Shiel is standing below. We took two photos from the bridge. The first looking north, into Portland Basin and the museum. The second looking south along the start of The Peak Forest Canal. The reason it is very narrow to start with is that it is flowing in an aquaduct over the Goyt river.




Below is the view from the towpath looking down at the river. The Victorians really knew what they were doing with viaducts, bridges and aquaducts.



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