The Shuckburghs - Braunston - Brinklow - Ansty - Ashby St Ledgers and Hawkesbury Junction Walks in England.

Below are a variety of walks which might be of interest if you are on holiday or on a day out in and around Braunston, Rugby and the Shuckburghs area of the Midlands in England.

These walks are generally easy to follow - using canal towpaths and/or well marked footpaths and other "trails" such as the Jurassic Way - also there are several descriptive photos to go with it all.

Lower Shuckburgh to Braunston - a sort of circular. Park at Lower Shuckburgh by Bridge 104 - simply cross the bridge and go onto the towpath heading east. Sadly and as is often the case around Braunston the towpath soon deteriorates into a bramble and nettle mess with sometimes quite deep muddy holes or occasionally where the towpath has completely collapsed into the canal. Nevertheless the canal is really nice to walk along with loads of wildlife and flora and countryside to enjoy as well as various canal and old railway bridges to enjoy. In particular just after Bridge 101 Nethercote Bridge there are the remains of where a railway bridge once crossed the canal - if you walk to the left down off the towpath you can see another bridge which is still in good condition - well worth the diversion.

Only the last part into Braunston where you walk along the (once) aqueduct does the towpath become in good condition for walking and cycling. At Braunston Turn the Oxford Canal continues to the left but we actually went right going along the Grand Union Canal into Braunston. If you want to look around the town come off at Bridge 91 - otherwise continue along the towpath as far as the entrance to Braunston Tunnel passing several locks in the process. Note that the towpath on the last few 100 yards to the tunnel entrance is usually running with water and very muddy in places - hardly the place for sandals.. To continue the walk return to Bridge 91 - take the marked footpath to cross an open area where there were two medieval villages to reach Wolfhamcote Church. From the church continue passing a farm on the right and continue straight ahead to eventually cross an old railway line and then reach the Oxford Canal at Bridge 98. From here simply wander your way back to Lower Shuckburgh.

Braunston to Rugby - walk there and taxi back. This stretch was done by parking near the church at Braunston and then walking the canal up to Rugby at Bridge 59 - we wanted to walk in this direction particularly because the fairly low sun was behind us - walking any distance with the sun in your face is not too nice after a while because of the glare. When around Hill Morton one of the well known views are of the radio masts at Rugby Radio Station which have quite a history - the radio masts originally came into service in January 1926 and were initially used for sending telegraph messages out to the Commonwealth. In the 1950s the transmitter was utilised for sending messages out to the Royal Navy's submerged submarines - this facility ended in Spring 2003. Hill Morton Lock Flight is also really interesting - originally built as single narrow locks the three sets of locks were modernised during the 1930s into twins in an attempt to increase barge-throughput on the Oxford Canal.

There is an hourly bus service running from Braunston to Rugby and back and we expected we might use this bus out of Rugby to get back. However we took ages to do the walk as we kept diverting to look at old railway bridges and so on therefore it was quite late when we eventually got to Rugby - we just missed the bus so got a taxi back instead - cost was 15 UKstg. The towpath is quite rough and somewhat collapsed in places though there were signs that is was being cleared of bramble and nettle - however once you get nearer to Rugby the towpath is in good condition.

 

Rugby to Brinklow - there and back. To do this part we parked by the Oxford Canal at Grimes Bridge (on the outskirts of Brinklow) where there is a limited amount of free parking available - if we had walked it from Rugby we would have had an expensive car parking bill for a start.

Therefore this time we actually walked the canal in reverse i.e. Brinklow to Rugby's Bridge 59 and back - a total of 16 miles. The towpath is in really good condition most of the way with just short parts having some overgrown sections and these were not anything like as bad as for instance around Braunston.

There is lot's to see along the canal - including several old iron canal bridges which have been restored - these leading into various arms. The railway line accompanies the canal for quite a while and the bridges are really nice to look at - also several dis-used railway lines once crossed the canal and several of the bridges or their remains can be seen.
You have to go through Newbold Tunnel with it's spooky lights and then when you reach the aqueduct at Bridge 54 you can walk down the bank and go under the bridge and admire the brickwork etc. - you cannot do this at Bridge 55 very easily as there is no path and the embankment is very steep.

 

Brinklow to Hawkesbury Junction via Ansty - there and back.
The complete lack of public transport around here meant that we again had to walk the Oxford Canal there and back - no buses or trains and potential taxi costs meant that was no option either. Nevertheless the walk was really enjoyable with lots to look at - especially the bits where the old railway lines and also where the original Oxford Canal criss crossed the canal.

The towpath on this part of the Oxford Canal is quite poor in places with the path being virtually non-existent in short bits where it has collapsed into the canal. One stretch between Bridges 13 and 11 are apparently earmarked for repair from September 2007 to November 2007 but although the stretch in question is not too good there are far worse bits that in our view should have been sorted out first. Also there were quite a lot of nettles and long bramble strands on the "towpath" - quite a hazard if you were cycling and got a big whippy thorny bramble in your face. It really is interesting how British Waterways frequently publicise the use of their canals for not just boating but for cyclists and walkers - perhaps they should first get on their feet and walk or cycle some of it first.
We decided to walk the Oxford Canal from Grimes Bridge - this is only a little way out of Brinklow - there is a small parking area just by the bridge.
The railway accompanies the Oxford Canal for a while before disappearing off as the canal does one of it's regular bending sequences near Ansty.
Of particular note just after Bridge 24 you see the large arched bridge of the still used railway line - on the left of the towpath you can see the brickwork from a bridge - walk down the bank and there is canal bridge 20 - really interesting.
Hawkesbury Junction has the last or first lock on the Oxford Canal and where it meets the Coventry Canal - this is also known as Sutton StopLock. There are a couple of bench seats in the area as well as several public houses as well as an old restored engine house.

 

Ashby St. Ledgers - Jurassic Way - Braunston - Grand Union and Leicester Canals - Norton Jc - Ashby St. Ledgers. Fairly flat Circular walk of around 17kms/11 miles on paths and towpaths.

Ashby St Ledgers is a small Northamptonshire village which is located north-east of Braunston and is probably most famous as the place where the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was hatched - one of the ringleaders being a staunch Catholic called Robert Catesby who owned the Manor House. The village has quite a few really old and interesting buildings including quite a few thatched cottages and barns.

The Manor House has some particularly nice walls and buildings which you can see between the trees and is adjacent to the equally nice old church of the Virgin Mary and St Leodegarius. There is parking around the church area but you do need to avoid blocking the various exits from peoples drives.
Head directly away from the church walking through the main village street - soon passing the Olde Coach House Public House on the left - and eventually reaching the A361 Ashby Road.

Cross straight over this sometimes busy road and take the Jurassic Way opposite. Follow this trail as it goes along the side of the field until it reaches another road - turn right and then shortly take the Jurassic Way which is signed on the left. This goes on down the field and after going through a gate turns itself into a grassy track which you follow all the way to reach a road on the edge of Braunston. Continue straight ahead along the road to reach a main road junction. Turn left and almost immediately as you go round the bend look for and take a marked path on the right - this takes you across more fields - you soon get good views of the Grand Union Canal and some of it's old restored buildings.

Continue on down to the canal and cross over the bridge onto the towpath. Go left along the towpath following it along and passing several locks, some shops and a public house until you eventually reach Braunston Tunnel. This last few 100 metres to the tunnel is often very muddy, wet and slippery underfoot - it's been this way for a long time unfortunately. There is no towpath inside the tunnel - to continue take the steps on the right which climbs up and then onto a wide grassy hedge-lined path - this generally follows the tunnel and you will see two air ventilating shafts on the way.

Eventually you reach Ashby Road which you cross and continue straight ahead on a track - you will see a third tunnel ventilating shaft on the right - where the track goes left leave it and take a grassy path going straight ahead. This path can be a little wet/muddy and is often quite overgrown however to the left of the path you will find a field and it may be drier to wander along the edge of this instead. The path drops down to reach the other end of Braunston Tunnel, continue along the towpath which is often now in a deep cutting - again the towpath can be quite muddy and is in a particularly messy state when you get near to Norton Junction. At the junction either cross over Bridge 10 and then a little way further cross over Bridge 1 - turn left onto the towpath of The Leicester Arm of the Grand Union Canal or continue along the Grand Union's towpath the fairly short distance to Buckby Top Lock where there is a pub and somewhere to sit if you want a relax and perhaps feed some of the ever-hungry ducks. If you do this small diversion then to continue the walk you should cross Bridge 11 and return back along the other side of the canal to Norton Junction where you go right onto the Leicester Canal's towpath near to the canal's Bridge 1.. The towpath is for once is in quite good condition underfoot for both cyclists and walkers and continues along through really nice open countryside. Around two miles along the tow path you reach some really interesting locks - four of the Watford Lock Flight are quite rare Staircase Locks - locks 3 4 5 and 6). Watford Locks raise the canal up to it's summit at 412 feet - the single locks allow boats through one way at a time and canal boats normally have to find the lock keeper to book passage - and be assisted - through them.
Having had a look round the area go back to Lock 2 and cross over the small footbridge (the footpath is marked from here as The Jurassic Way) and follow this path to a road. Cross the road and go left a short distance to find the continuation of the footpath which takes you half right across a field towards a railway embankment - aim for the railway bridge.

Once you have walked under the railway bridge follow the marked path - when we walked this all the fields had been ploughed and also several of the path signs had been tossed into the hedgerow.
The way is to follow the ditch on the right until you are more or less opposite a lonely farm barn which you can see a little way to the left - from here the path branches left across the field and then continues round the edge of the field. It's worth mentioning that when we walked this route because of the lack of footpath markers let alone any visible sign of the footpath itself (which had been ploughed up) we simply went sort of half left across the field heading towards some oak trees and the visible Manor House and church at Ashby St Ledgers. (Although not a path you could also walk round to the right of the field following the field edge that way - this brings you to a large lake - if you just keep going round the edge you also arrive at the stiles which take you back into the village.)

 

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