Distance: 9.6 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Countryside walk from Dorridge primarily along canal towpaths to historic Henley-in-Arden in south west Warwickshire.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Medieval New Town

When we think of new towns in the UK context we tend to think of the flurry of new settlements created between the 1940s and 1970s under the auspices of the New Towns Act 1946 and its successors.

However, the likes of Harlow, Crawley and the Midland’s very own Telford, were far from the first wave of new towns to be constructed in the UK. An equally prodigious and perhaps even more widespread wave of new town construction occurred in the 12th and 13th Centuries.

During this wave of new town creation lords of all types gained charters from the royal authorities to establish markets often in situations where there had been little or no human settlement prior to the granting of the market charter. Many towns were created in this fashion in England in the 12th and 13th Centuries. With plenty of them dotted across the Midlands region to this day, although not all were successful, and in many cases the newly created marketplaces either never got

A prime example of a Midlands new towns that emerged during this periods Henley-in-Arden began life in the early 13th Century when the lord of the manor, who had held Beaudesert 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.

Beaudesert Castle, judging by its surviving earthworks, extending along a prominent natural ridge to the east of Henley-in-Arden and now serving as a kind of de facto country park, was a substantial fortress. However, nothing remains of the structure above ground today. When exactly it went out of use is unknown, it was perhaps being repaired as late as the second decade of the 15th Century, however; it was definitely gone by the dawn of the Early Modern era. In the early 2000s Time Team on Channel 4 devoted an episode to trying to ascertain what remains of the castle below the ground, providing a few partial answers to what the long lost structure looked like.

Today numerous numerous grand old buildings line Henley-in-Arden’s long high street, a quintessential feature of 12th or 13th Century new town. Some successful new town’s created during the high middle ages have gone on to become substantial settlements. But Henley-in-Arden, partly due to its rural setting, partly due to its proximity to larger settlements like Redditch and Stratford-upon-Avon, remained a small settlement having just over 2,000 today. Little more than a village, though unlike many other far larger settlements which hanker after village status, Henley-in-Arden with its ancient guildhall is most definitely a town.

The Walk

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

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This walk to Henley-in-Arden begins at Dorridge Railway Station.

Dorridge is a small, almost entirely residential town, which is extremely affluent on the rural fringe of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. The town is handily served by both West Midlands Railway and Chiltern trains.

On leaving the Station you are standing on the edge of the parade of shops and restaurants that comprises Dorridge town centre.

Walk a short way, turning left out of the main exit of the station towards the shops.

Immediately on your right on the other side of the road there is a road leading off past a hotel.

Cross over the road and turn right down this road.

Continue on this long, straight road – aptly called Avenue Way – for quite a distance walking past some seriously large houses, constructed during pretty much every era from the early 20th Century onwards.

Presently you come to a small roundabout.

Head across the road and take the second road on your right.

It leads through an estate of modern houses.

After a short while walking along this road the road leaves the town and the houses begin to thin-out.

Just as you are entering open countryside look out on your right for a footpath sign leading down a snicket.

Once sighted, cross over the road and head right down the snicket.

The snicket passes between the gardens of two houses.

Soon you come to a gate at the end of the snicket leading out onto a grassy open field.

Go through the gate and walk more or less straight across the field following the line of the hedgerow to your left.

Pass through the metal gate you come to into the next field.

Inside the next field follow the track curving slight to the right across the field in the direction of a gate leading out onto a lane.

Having passed through the gate, turn left and walk along the lane.

Head along the side of the lane for some distance.

Presently the lane curves quite sharply to the left.

Shortly after this point lookout on your right for a footpath sign just after a small cluster of houses amongst a stand of conifer trees.

Cross over the style by the footpath sign.

Then head down the track beyond.

After a short distance you come to a metal gate.

Head through the metal gate and cross the field beyond, keeping to the left.

The path leads through a small thicket.

On the other side of this thicket to your left there is a metal gate.

This leads into a field, apparently usually used for cattle though it was empty on the day I walked through, that was incredibly muddy.

Once through the gate and into the field, keep fairly close to the hedge on your right and walk across to the other side.

Here you will find a gate beside a tall old tree.

Having walked through the gate you find yourself at the top of an avenue of recently planted trees looking towards an old farmhouse.

Walk towards the old house.

Just before you reach the building there is a metal gate leading onto a footpath.

Once on the footpath turn left and walk along the line of a wooden fence and a hedgerow.

Very soon you emerge onto a driveway.

Turn left and walk along the driveway.

Presently the driveway merges with a road.

Turn right at this point you follow the road for a short distance. It is a fairly busy road so take care.

On the horizon a whitewashed building is visible on your right. This is the King’s Arms Inn, and beyond it stands the King’s Arms Bridge, which crosses the Grand Union Canal.

Once on the other side of the bridge, look out on your right for a set of relatively steep steps down onto the towpath.

At the bottom of the steps turn left and begin walking down the towpath.

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.

All in all, you walk along the Grand Union Canal for more than a mile.

The first section is almost urban in terms of its feel, heading past the large Black Buoy Marina which is a hub for barge owners on this section, which is one foot in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, one foot in Warwickshire.

Presently it opens out, though still with a large number of barges tethered, some painted with traditional waterways art.

The feel of the canal gets steadily more rural as you move away from Dorridge and its conjoined partner in crime, the similar in spirit, large village of Knowle.

After walking for quite some way passing under several more imposing bridges, you come to the low red brick Turnover Bridge.

The Turnover Bridge carries the towpath over the canal.

After crossing the bridge, turn left keeping on down the towpath. After quite some distance you approach the edge of the village of Kingswood.

Partway through Kingswood you come to the short interconnecting canal which links the Grand Union Canal you have been walking down with the Stratford Canal.

Upon reaching the humpback bridge across this interconnecting canal walk over the bridge then turn right walking along the towpath on the far side.

Soon, approaching the mouth of the intersecting canal, there is a footpath running off into bushes on the left. Turn left and walk down this path quickly reaching the Stratford Canal’s towpath.

Once on the Stratford Canal towpath turn left and begin walking.

Keep on walking along the towpath, passing lock gates on the way, and a couple of the distinctive lock keeper’s cottages along the canal.

Presently after some distance you reach a bridge carrying the M40 motorway across the canal.

On the far side of the M40 keep on walking along the towpath a bit further.

You come to a red brick bridge across the canal on the edge of the little village of Lowsonford.

Here leave the towpath making for the road. Once on the road turn right and cross the bridge heading into Lowsonford.

Soon you come to a junction with a busier road. Here cross the road and head up a lane, looking like a driveway straight ahead of the junction.

Keep on walking up this driveway until you near a couple of houses at the top of the drive.

Here on the right there is a stile leading into a meadow. Turn right here and cross the stile.

Once in the field follow a clearly defined footpath straight ahead uphill. Partway up the hill you cross a further stile. Keep on walking straight up the hill following the path after you cross the stile.

Soon, you approach a tall brick wall, which remarkably once formed part of a long dismantled railway. A line which once connected today’s Shakespeare Line between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon to the Chiltern Mainline between the West Midlands conurbation and London. Here to the left there is a stile which you cross.

Once over the stile walk straight ahead a few paces. Off to the left there is a footpath sign pointing down a short flight of steps onto a path.

Head down this path walking along a narrow clearly defined path akin to a green lane.

Presently you emerge from the undergrowth into clearing with a rundown static van to the left. Walk straight ahead heading for an opening into a field on the far side of the clearing.

Upon reaching the gap in the hedge cross into the field and walk straight ahead crossing the field. There are a few wooden marker posts serving as waymarks along the way.

Once on the far side of the large field you come to a stile set in a hedgerow which you cross.

On the other side of the stile turn right, making for a further stile in the hedgerow in the corner of the field.

Cross this stile then turn left on the far side. Walk straight along the footpath running next to a hedgerow and a field which is demarcated from the path by a fence.

At the bottom of the path you reach a stile leading out onto a lane.

Once on the lane turn right and walk along the lane for some distance.

Presently rounding a bend you cross a bridge over a small river.

On the far side there is a footgate on the left which you pass through. Once through the gate follow a path straight ahead across a driveway and out through a gap in the hedge into a field beyond.

Upon entering the field keep on walking straight ahead uphill. Presently the clearly marked path runs to the left.

Soon, you reach a tangled, but well defined green lane. Here, turn right and follow the green lane uphill.

After some distance you reach a metal gate leading into a field.

Walk straight across the field on the far side and then follow a well trodden path through a small thicket of trees.

Leaving the trees you pass through a gate, then walk straight across the field in front of you keeping close to the hedge on your right.

Keep following the well worn path along the line of the hedgerow around the edge of the field.

Soon you come to a gap in the hedge leading out onto a driveway.

Once on the driveway walk straight ahead, following a well worn path across the field in front of you.

On the far side of the field you come to a cluster of trees. Enter the trees through a gap in the foliage.

Inside the thicket there is a green lane style path. Upon reaching it turn left and walk through the trees a short distance until you come to a stile on your right.

Having crossed the stile follow a well worn path straight across the field.

Soon you reach a stile leading into woodland.

Upon crossing the stile, follow the path on the far side walking through a series of thick clumps of bushes.

Leaving bushes follow the path walking straight ahead.

Presently you approach the remains of the motte upon which Henley-in-Arden’s Beaudesert Castle used the stand. Beyond the mound the town of Henley-in-Arden can be seen.

Walking up onto the site of the old castle you climb a set of steps and then follow the path along the top of the mound where the fortress used to stand.

Reaching the far side of the old castle motte, follow a path downhill towards the edge of the town.

At the bottom there is a gate leading out onto a road which runs past Henley-in-Arden’s two churches towards the main road through the town.

Upon reaching the high street turn left and cross the road.

Keep heading to the left down the high street. Soon on the right there is a narrow road akin to a snicket called Becks Croft.

Keep on walking straight up this passageway until presently you reach a road.

Here turn right then head straight up the road approaching Henley-in-Arden Railway Station.

Nearing the tracks turn right approaching the station on your left.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Henley-in-Arden has a railway station on the so-called Shakespeare Line from Tyseley to Stratford-upon-Avon. It has hourly services running throughout the day south towards Stratford-upon-Avon and north via Shirley and suburban Birmingham into the Black Country via Birmingham city station. The town was served by a small number of bus routes (in August 2023 when this walk was compiled). This included services to outlying towns and villages, as well as a small number of buses each day south to Stratford, north to Solihull and Leamington Spa and west to Redditch.