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.


Saturday, 11 August 2018

Lower Heyford to Kidlington. 2

Shortly after leaving the pub at Enslow and going under a very large motorway type bridge but with no traffic audible, the Oxford Canal and River Cherwell merged. This is the first ime we have seen such a thing on our walk.

 
There were warning signs and lights to warn people in case the river flow was too rapid.
When the river and canal were joined it was sometimes difficult to see where the river/canal was from the towpath.

We saw canoeists again just before the lock where the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal parted company. There were similar warning signs to when they merged. The towpath also crossed to the eastern bank via an interesting bridge.
We soon arrived at Thrupp, a very attractive boating village with a large marina and lot of moored boats beside the canal. It also has two pubs on the canal. We visited the second of the two. Sadly soup was off the menu.

After we passd the "Welcome to Kidlington" sign the canal was stillpretty rural but signs of "civilisation" started to decorate some of the bridges. We turned off to our B&B at bridge 228 and found a right of way through a football ground  followed by a narrow alleyway all the way to the door.




Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)