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, 27 July 2018

Great Haywood to Rileyhill. 1

We left our B&B at 9:15 am and went via the local shop back to the bridge over the canal from where we took our first photograph. We were surprised to find that in only two minutes we were at a major canal crossroads. Great Hayward Junction. The junction between the Trent and Mersey canal and the start of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Shiel is going straight ahead over the bridge, on the Trent and Mersey towpath, whilst the lower towpath goeson beside the bridge to turn under it on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (SWC).



The photograph below was taken from the top of the bridge looking West along the SWC.


The surroundings were flat and rural and we often got glimpses of the River Trent on our right.

 


Just before Rugeley we came to what I thought was a horse bridge and we should cross over to the LHS towpath. Shiel said we should carry on down the RHS. This is Shiel photobombing my picture of the 'dead end.'


We returned the bridge and the LHS towpath. We crossed over the Brindley Bank Aqueduct with the River Trent flowing beneath us and now on our eastern side.




After 2.5 hours we passed through Rugeley, crossing the NS path I took from JOG to LE in 2009. We were aciely looking fo a lunch pub now, 'The Yorkshireman', ofmy JOGLE walk ws too far from our route. We eventually headed for 'The Mossley Tavern,'  arriving at quarter past 12 to findit didn't open until 13:00!!! At a quater to one we arrived at 'The Ash Tree' and it as open. We got our lunch.



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