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.


Sunday, 5 August 2018

Lower Itchington to Priors Hardwick. 2

The first picture below is the view from the bridge where Shiel was standing but looking north up the Grand Union Canal towards Itchington.
 I should have said that today was another sunny day with a bit of cloud now and again. 29C the predicted maximum. A bit too warm for walking. Surprisingly we were able to get quite a bit of shade from the bushes beside the canal on the walk to Priors Hardwick which helped quite a bit. However in othe respects the towpath was at times a 'bit iffy'.

This was a little surprising as it is signposted as a significant Oxfordshire track.
There were some beautiful views back to Napton Hill an a windmill upon it. The conical cap of the mill looked more like the onion dome of a mosque when viewed from the north, near Napton Junction.
We passed quite a few locks on the Oxford canal with different lifting mechanisms to the one's we have seen on the Grand Union Canal.
The view of bridge 118 posted below shows how well the hedges beside the canal provided us with shade. It aslo shows a bridge best avoided with a heavy vehicle.
The view below, approaching a lock, shows how lucky we were to get shade. It was also appreciated by two swans.
The final picture, taken just before we turned off to our B&B at a farm gives a very good idea of the farming in the area. We are on a mixed farm arable and sheep. There was no one to ask wether the concrete structure as a pill box left over after the war, or something else. We had to walk over similar farmland to our farm and it made us realise how lucky we we to have been finding shade on the towpath.
For the statisticians we walked 19.2km in 6 hours and 20 minutes.
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