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.


Thursday, 2 August 2018

Hatton Railway Station to Warwick.

Today we had a short walk, only two and a half hours to cover the 8km from Hatton to Warwick. We first had to walk to the railway station at Warwick to pick up the 9:45am to Hatton where we arrived just before 10am. The photo below shows Shiel sitting at Hatton railway station. However it was taken yesterday evening rather than this morning.
 

The main difference between yesterday pm and today am is that today we were not carrying our rucksacks. We were on the canal by 10am and wthin 20 minutes we were sitting having a cream tea at the tea rooms at the top of the Hatton Lock Flight.


It was a sunny morning and there were lots of people at the cafe. Not surprising really when you realize there are 21 locks in the 5 miles to Warwick. It was a very busy flight and we caught up again with narrowboats we'd seen before. We started walking on the RHS of the canal but after passing the offices of the Canal and River Trust, we passed over to the LHS.




Just before Warwick we passed under a massive bridge below the A46, a different era of engineering to the canals, but impressive in its own way.

Even after our entry into Warwick we still passed another two locks before we took the cycle bridge over the canal to our B&B the 'Black Horse.' The cycle bridge is just visible behind the last lock of the day.





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