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, 18 July 2018

Marsden to Diggle. 1

We left The New Inn at Marsden at 9:30 am after a good breakfast. We also had our evening meal there yesterday. (Those with small appetites take note their portions are generous.) We also had a bath and shower in our room which is always good after a day's walking.

If you remember we left the canal yesterday at the entrance to a tunnel and we have now got to get to the other end. As the tunnel runs beneath the Pennines we have to climb over them and in doing so we will cross the border from Yorkshire to Lancashire. For NZ readers the Pennines are a mini version of the Southern Alps and modify the climate in a similar way with Yorkshire being dryer than Lancashire. This was why the cotton weaving factories set up in Lancashire and not Yorkshire. They need moister conditions.

The quickest route would have been straight up the A62 but today's walk is also a trip down memory lane for your blogger. In the 50's my parents used to bring all our family to Marsden to walk up the Wessenden valley. Initially we walked up to a large country house to have afternoon tea and then returned to Matsden.  As my younger sister got older the walk was extended past the tea rooms and over the moor to Meltham.

So today we are setting out up the Wessenden Valley until just past the tea rooms when we will walk across the Wessenden Reservoir stop bank to pick up an alternative route to the Pennine Way and the A62. We will then follow the Oldham Way down to Diggle where the 2 Standedge tunnels, canal and rail emerge.

The photo below is a view back into Marsden, the day started with a steep climb.

The route soon levelled out and we got views over the valley to the A62
across a field with sheep.


There are 3 reservoirs in the valley, the first, the  Butterly was very dry and nothing was going over the spillway.


There was more water in the Blakeley reservoir rurther along.


We next came to the turn off to the official route of the Pennine Way but went past it, and past the old house that used to be a cafe, to walk along the stop bank of the Wessenden reservoir.




There was no water coming over the spill over.

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