Distance: Around 11 miles

Difficulty of the Terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. from Dropbox

Walk across the Warwickshire countryside and along the Grand Union Canal towpath, between the medieval market town of Henley-in-Arden and the county town of Warwick with it’s famous castle.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Middle England’s Archetypical County Town and the Landscape Which Paid for It

These days Warwick, Warwickshire’s county town is rather overshadowed by its larger neighbour Leamington Spa. With around 35,000 inhabitants it is one of England’s smaller shire capitals, and whilst it has a station on the Chiltern Mainline, and is located not all that far from the M40, it is somewhat overlooked.

If people visit it, it is typically to go to Warwick Castle, a vast and unusually intact (albeit heavily, and creatively altered over the centuries) fortress, situated near the town centre. The castle has been owned and managed since the early 1970s by the Tusuard’s Group and has the distinct vibe of a historically inspired theme park.

Visiting Warwick just to see the Castle however, is rather to miss the point. In many ways, like so many other smaller county towns such as Taunton, Trowbridge or Northallerton, Warwick distils the essence of the type. Indeed, I would argue, it comes close to being the archetype.

Once you enter Warwick’s historic core the presence of the county council is inescapable. The Shire Hall and it’s more modern additions are right at the heart of the town, in contrast to many other county seats such as Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, or Worcestershire, where they’re practically situated on the ring-road.

Likewise, whilst many buildings constructed in the 17th Century or earlier, were lost in a great fire in 1694, the town centre is studded with properties dating back to the 1600s or earlier. They are accompanied by numerous little chapels, alms houses and grammar school foundations, all pointing to the thick mesh of ancient trusts and organisations that riddle older towns and cities which were once powerful.

Henley-in-Arden where this walk begins is similar in some regards. It began life in the early 13th Century when the lord of the manor, who had a castle on the edge of what is now the town, purchased a charter from the king which allowed him to hold a market. The town then sprang up around the marketplace outside the castle. There were many towns created in this fashion in England in the 12th and 13th Centuries. Unlike other such foundations however, Henley-in-Arden remained in hock to the heirs of it’s feudal founder, with the manor court having jurisdiction over the town. This might go some way to explaining why whilst it has numerous grand old buildings lining it’s long high street, it remained a small settlement, having just over 2,000 today.

Between the two lies parts of what remains of the Forest of Arden. This gives the walk between them a gently wooded character, with lots of ancient hedgerows, many perhaps put up from the 16th Century onwards by the increasingly wealthy and powerful small landowners, who enclosed the lands previously held “in common” by the region’s peasant farmers. A pleasing feature today, but a reminder of the acts of dispossession, and frequently violent accumulation resulting in human misery, that paid for the grand buildings and ancient foundations at the heart of both Warwick and Henley-in-Arden.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

Henley-in-Arden has a station located on the Shakespeare Line which runs down to Stratford-upon-Avon. This means that it takes no more than about 35 minutes to get to the town from central Birmingham, and even less from suburban stations like Yardley Wood and Hall Green.

On exiting Henley in Arden Station.

First turn left and walk across the forecourt.

A short way down the road of early 1970s vintage houses you are walking along, you will see a footpath marker pointing along a snicket on your right hand side.

Turn right down this snicket and keep walking along the passageway.

You will cross the bottom of a cul-de-sac and keep walking down the snicket on the other side.

At this point you will pass a small recreation ground on your right, then cross a car park behind the back of some old buildings which serve as shops.

Walking down the entrance of this passage you will find yourself on Henley-in-Arden High Street.

Turn right when you reach the High Street walking in the direction of the rectangular tower of St. John’s Church, which stood next to the town’s black and white timber framed Guildhall.

Immediately after the church tower is a road. Cross over the High Street and head down this road.

Along the way you will cross over a bridge. This carries the road over the River Alne which runs all of the way down to the River Severn in Worcestershire.

Presently on your left you will see another church, set back behind a lychgate in a churchyard.

This is St. Nicholas’ Church, which was built in the 12th Century, and in parts predates the town around it by a couple of generations.

As you pass it you will see some trees and a grass bank in front of you at the end of the road you are walking along.

Approaching the end of the road you will see a worn metal gate in an old looking wooden fence leading onto a steep grassy slope.

This is the mound upon which the old Norman castle stood.

Heading through the gate you can either walk around the mound (which I opted to do) or head over the top.

Both routes are quite clearly waymarked and also worn, as the mound is a popular place for local people to take exercise.

You follow the path either around, or up and over the former castle mound for several hundred metres.

Presently both paths converge at the bottom of the short but steep slope. It is evident that the castle builders chose a natural promontory for constructing their fortress.

Head up this slope. This route is part of both the Millenium Way and the Arden Way.

Along the way you pass through thickets of bushes, and due to the area’s popularity amongst walkers, the path can be quite churned up.

Eventually you emerge onto some heathland on top of the ridge, which is also fringed with an incredibly thick, rather spiky hedgerow.

Entering another thicket the path forks.

At this point take the right hand fork, a sharp turn – and head towards a style which leads out onto a field.

Follow the path across the field.

There were several horses in it on the day that I walked the route. They emerged spectral out of the mist.

This section of the walk follows the Heart of England Way, which is pretty well worn, though in the main not as hard going in wet conditions as the section immediately after Henley-in-Arden.

The advantage of this is the path is quite easy to follow at all times.

On the far side of the field cross the style in the hedgerow.

Then turn left and walk a very short way along the green lane which runs between two hedgerow lines. It is known as Edge Lane.

After a few moments walking along Edge Lane turn right down a well worn track through the thicket.

This takes you out onto another field.

Cross this one as well following the well worn path.

On the other side of the field there is another gnarled and very old looking hedgerow, which a person sized hole conveniently worn into it.

Having walked through this gap in the hedge, take a slight left turn and keep following the well worn path along the side of the field.

Keep on following the line of the hedge and the path at the side of the field for some way.

Presently you come to another thicket accessed through a metal gate.

The thicket required me (not the tallest of blokes) to have to stoop a bit to get through.

After the thicket follow the outline of the path – less well trodden than is the case for some other sections of the route – across the field heading towards the hedgerow on the far side.

Here on your left, after following the line of the hedge a short way – you enter a section where the path runs between two rows of hedges. One very well established, the other far more like saplings.

At the bottom of this section there stands a metal gate.

Having passed through the gate, keep following the path along the hedgerow towards some trees.

After some time you see a yellow post – serving as some kind of waymark – on your right and turn left.

The next section is clearly marked out, with a fairly new looking metal mesh fence on your right hand side.

As you walk down a gently sloping hill you come to a hedge right by Holly Bank Farm. There is a gap in this hedge, walk through it.

On the far side there is a driveway, cross the intervening bit of grass and head onto this driveway.

Turning right you walk towards a set of metal gates straight ahead of you.

Before you reach the metal gates you will see on your left a waymarked gate for walkers immediately to the left of the set of gates across the driveway.

Once through these gates you are on a public road.

Turn left here and walk a short way round the bend. It is a fairly quiet road, but remember to be careful of traffic.

After a very short distance you come to a track on your left hand side with a nameplate for Coppice Corner Farm. As you will shortly see it really is at a corner between copses.

Turn left down this track.

You follow this track, undulating, but generally uphill for several minutes.

Presently you come to a brick road bridge set amidst a line of trees. This apparently once carried road traffic over a railway line, however, the railway was clearly dismantled decades ago, as the only remaining signs are a few pieces of infrastructure like bridges here and there, and a cutting, long since overgrown with trees.

A short distance further on from the bridge, on your right you will see a gate.

Head through this gate, passing the buildings of Coppice Corner Farm, which are across a field on your left.

Following the track across the field, on your left you will presently see a gate.

Once almost parallel with the gate, cross over the field towards it.

Once through the gate, look to your right and follow the track situated between the edge of the woodland and the line of a fence.

Soon on your left, the pathway turns into the woodland itself.

Once inside the woodland follow the track as it plunges first downhill, then quite steeply up.

On the far side of the little woodland you encounter a style leading out into a field.

Cross over the style and walk down the track – pretty muddy in wet conditions – leading along the side of the field.

At the bottom of the field on your right stands a metal gate.

Having passed through the gate continue along the path a short distance, crossing over another old railway bridge, barely recognisable with one side having been removed and where the track once ran underneath having been filled in, whether by people or by the passage of time.

Then on your left you will see a gateway and a style.

Follow the path towards a thicket and a hedgerow on the far side of the field.

Here you will find a further style leading into a field with a house on the opposite side.

Cross over the style and walk over the field on the other side heading in the direction of a house visible on the far side.

Once across the field you will see another style leading out onto a lane beside the house.

When you have crossed over the style, turn left and walk down the lane.

After a few minutes walking you emerge at a crossroads in the small village of Lowsonford.

Here cross across the main road in front of you and continue down the lane on the far side.

A short way down this lane you will come to a bridge.

This bridge leads across the Stratford Canal which runs between King’s Norton Junction in south Birmingham and the River Avon at Stratford-upon-Avon.

On the far side of the bridge continue along the lane.

It begins sloping uphill.

After a while you pass by Finwood Farm Shop on your left.

By this point the sound of traffic moving fast will have become very loud.

Presently, a short way after having reached the top of the hill, the M40 motorway will start to become visible through the trees on your left.

Not far from this point you reach a road bridge which crosses the motorway, and also the Chiltern Mainline Railway which runs beside it, heading down towards Oxford and London.

Almost immediately after the bridge on your right you will see a gateway slightly set-back from the road.

Turn through this gate.

At the bottom of a slight slope you are right by the railway line.

Turn left up this unmade lane and begin walking uphill towards a communications mast at the top of the hill.

Just before you reach the communications mast turn left.

Follow the track for several minutes across a series of fields.

Presently there is a hairpin bend. At this point you have reached the top of a cutting that the Grand Union Canal passes through. You can see it through gaps in the bushes.

Follow the path a short way further.

It soon enters a small copse and you begin heading downwards.

At the bottom you are on a lane beside a canal bridge.

Take the right hand path onto the canal and head down towards the towpath.

However, once walking on the level, comparatively smooth surface of the towpath, you are soon eating up the distance.

Unusually for a British inland canal the Grand Union was extensively modernised in the 1930s so as to better enable canal freight to compete with rail and road transport. All in all, the modernisation scheme was not a great success. Despite significant investment into widening the canal for larger boats, straightening it to enable faster journey times and enhancing infrastructure such as locks, freight traffic continued to fall vertiginously and had essentially ceased by the start of the 1970s. The end of this era is depicted in the (fairly dreadful but fascinating) 1964 film The Bargee, which centres around a commercial barge on the Grand Union Canal.

The afterlife of this attempt to bring the canal into the 20th Century, does manifest itself however, in the fact that the Grand Union is far more like a water based motorway than the sleepier, more meandering narrow canals that make up the bulk of the navigable inland waterways in the UK.

A side effect of this is that it can be a tad monotonous, but it makes up for this in terms of speed.

One really interesting feature fairly early on in the canal based section of the walk is the cutting just before the village of Shrewley. It is seriously impressive just how deep into the rock the workers who carried out the canal enhancements in the 1930s cut into the rock. Today it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

At the far of the cutting lies the Shrewley Tunnel which carries the waterway under the village.

There is no towpath through the tunnel, instead it slopes upwards towards a smaller brick tunnel large enough for a person leading a horse, but not more.

Once inside the tunnel it continues to slope upwards towards the southern portal.

Once out of the tunnel it is a short distance between two houses to the main road through the village.

Having reached the main road cross straight over.

On the far side there is an opening leading onto an unpaved lane. Head down here.

Follow the lane for a few moments, presently you reach a small car park for people to access the canal.

Head onto the footpath at the end of this car park.

Presently it returns you to the towpath enabling you to continue on your way.

A short way on from Shrewley you pass very near Hatton Station. This quiet and relatively isolated station on the Chiltern Mainline has services running into Leamington Spa, which offers services to Coventry, as well as Oxford, London and the south coast, and back towards Solihull and Birmingham. As such there is an option of ending the walk early here.

Carrying on along the canal towpath, you presently pass a large boatyard on your left.

Then enter another impressively deep cutting, lined with trees at the top. This section of the walk is near Hatton Country World, an old farm which has been converted into a series of craft outlets, cafes, and attractions for children. It is a relatively minor diversion from the canal so offers refreshment options if you would like them.

After the sandstone cut you reach Hatton Locks. This local flight carries the canal uphill from Warwick, heralding that you are now relatively near your destination.

These enormous locks (by British standards) and the supporting infrastructure of culverts and barge waiting bays is one of the pinnacles of the 1930s modernisation programme.

Near the top of the flight of locks sits the Hatton Locks Cafe. I hurried past, but it looks a nice place to stop for refreshments if you require them.

A little further down on the edge of the village of Hatton itself, the canal towpath switches sides.

To cross you utilise a concrete bridge running across the canal.

Then head to the right back onto the towpath.

Passing a rather bizarre public sculpture sat in a pond on your left.

At this point you are nearing Warwick, but still a couple of miles away.

Keep on walking along the towpath.

You know that you are nearing Warwick when a series of large road bridges over the canal appear.

By this point the flight of locks has finished.

A little way past the road bridges you see a sign for Saltisford Boat Services.

Immediately after passing the sign the canal turns sharply.

At this point you pass under a narrow red brick road bridge.

Just after the road bridge there is a Canal and River Trust sign in blue. This is your cue to leave the canal.

On your left just behind you a flight of steps runs up to the Birmingham Road.

Head up these steps and at the top turn left.

Once on the Birmingham Road follow it for around 10 to 15 minutes into the centre of Warwick.

There are a few interesting sites on the way including a small, derelict chapel jutting out towards the road, which seems reminiscent of a chantry chapel. As well as on your left, a white painted building in the early 19th Century style which apparently was the site of Warwick’s first gasworks in 1822, making the building the earliest gasworks structure still in existence.

A little further on you come to a small roundabout.

Turn right here and head up a short steep slope.

Use the crossing lights to cross the road and head left into a square with a branch of Wetherspoon’s on it.

On one side of the square the offices of the County Council loom from above a library and a post office. This is the centre of Warwick and the historic core can be explored from here. This marks the end of the walk.

Getting Back

Warwick’s relatively small and somewhat dilapidated station is just outside the town centre, and is served relatively infrequently. Though for much of the day there are roughly half hourly services to both Birmingham and Leamington Spa. Heading either five minutes down the line to Leamington, or about 25 minutes the other way to Birmingham Moor Street or Snow Hill, for onward connections from either town, is probably your best bet in terms of getting back.