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.


Monday, 6 August 2018

Priors Hardwick to Cropredy. 1

Just before we left our B&B at Hill Farm at 9:15am The Boss came to visit our room to check everything had been OK. She is in the first photo below talking to Shiel.
It was already warm when we started and on the first bit of the walk to the canal there was no shade. The farm has Glamping wigwams and we passed by one on the way back to the bridge over the canal. I think there are a few other scattered abuthe arm as well.
The view back to bridge 125, where we joined the canal shows the towpath was slightly overgrown, but it got worse later on. 
However we did manage to get some shade at times from the hedges.
The surroundings were almost 100% rural, mainly arable farmland but today we also saw a few beef cattle as well a few sheep. Some of the wheat was still being cut as we went by. We passed a large antenna in a cornfield but I have yet to find its purpose.


Over the last few days we have passed quite a few bridges in need of repair, canal maintenance costs must be a nightmare for the 'Canal and River Trust.
The next photo shows Shiel walking in a pleasant shady section of the canal we went through an hour before lunch which we took at 12.00 o'clock at at 'The Wharf Inn'.


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