Heart of England Way - Part 2 - Kingsbury to Lichfield

The observant amongst you will notice that I walked this section of the Heart of England Way in reverse direction, purely for logistical reasons.   I was walking with a friend who is local to the area who was able to fill me in on the local history of the places we past through.

Kingsbury Water Park

The walk began by taking us through Kingsbury Water Park, full of wildlife and Saturday morning joggers.  After a short stretch on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal we took a little diversion into the fairly new Middleton RSPB reserve.



Middleton RSPB Reserve

After another section on the canal it was over an unusual turreted footbridge which looks like it more belongs in Disneyworld and into the village of  Drayton Bassett, birthplace of Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister and founder of the Metropolitan Police.  There's quite a bit of road walking around here but eventually, after crossing the A453, it's back to quiet country lanes and lovely footpaths over rolling countryside all the way to the outskirts of Lichfield.

A most unusual footbridge over the canal

There's ongoing work in Lichfield to restore part of the Lichfield canal and the footpath is already open making it a more pleasant way in than keeping to the main road.  The end of this 15 mile section snakes through housing estates and playing fields to bring us back to the point I ended last time.    



Birmingham and Fazeley Canal

 

Heart of England Way - Part 1 - Milford to Lichfield

With a day's holiday booked and unseasonally warm weather for the time of year, it was time to decide what to do.  Let's have a look at the Heart of England Way (HoEW) I thought.  It's a 102 mile route from Cannock Chase in Staffordshire to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. 

I've spent quite a few days on Cannock Chase over the past couple of years shadowing kids doing their Duke of Edinburgh Award walks but have never had a long walk there so quite fancied the idea.

An easy trip up the M6 brought me to Milford Common car park, the start of the walk.  A warning sign said that the car park closes at dusk.  That sounds a bit worrying and seems dependent on the interpretation of dusk by the people with the key. I'd better get a move on.

Start of the Heart of England Way on Milford Common

 

The paths on the Chase are full of pebbles.  I used to think the paths had been made using beach pebbles but now realise that the whole area was formed in the ice age when the pebbles and sand were dumped up here and this is what leads to the unusual landscape and nature.

 

Youv'e been warned.  I didn't test the theory

This 16 mile route from Milford to Lichfield was easy to follow, especially as I had loaded a GPX file of the path into my GPS before leaving home.  So armed with map and GPS I had no excuses. I took an extra couple of diversions off the main path to climb a few hills making it probably an 18 mile day in total.



The Polish War Memorial

There is a good bus service form Lichfield back to Milford that runs every 30 minutes on weekdays, but be warned that the 4.05 bus is full of noisy schoolchildren!




Now how do I get past these!

Apologies for the fairly random order in which the pictures appear in this post!  Try as I might I just cant seem to get them reordered in any sensible manner!


Scenes across the Chase



 

A promising start to the day - disciduous woodland



Good farming practice - ploughing and planting the field but then marking where the footpath is to make it easy for walkers to follow.



I wonder if you can guess what the nearby pub was called?




Time to cross the cabbage field

Autumn colours on the Chase







 

Something to wash down the sanwiches



An old friend that I've visited previously

 

Lunchtime stop - sandwiches and a geocache





Pretty good signage along the path all day





Lichfield - Erasmus Darwin House

  



Cannock Chase Visitor Centre - they serve a fine selection of cakes!.



Birmingham to Coventry

I fancied a walk this weekend but having driven quite a bit in the past couple of weekends I thought it may be nice to catch the bus and explore some of my local environment.  How about trying to walk from Birmingham Cathedral to Coventry Cathedral I thought.  There's no official route but a quick look at the map made me realise there could be a decent route along the Grand Union Canal out of Birmingham and then across the fields and parks into Coventry.  Here's some photos from the day.

Birmingham Cathedral - my starting point.

New and Old - Moor St Station and Selfridges

Old Victorian Public Toilets on corner of Great Barr Street

My entry point onto the Grand Union Canal

The urban canal system in  the Birmingham suburbs

A Birmingham church

Some nice attempts to add signage to the canal

Te boundary between urban and rural canal

Signage - close to home and far away



Tysley Incinerator




Heron in flight

Heron at rest

Time for elevenses in Orton

Canal looking nice now in the midday milky sunshine

Naughty farmer ploughing over the footpath

Under the flightpath for Birmingham Airport



Over the M40

Time for tea and cake in Hampden in Arden - nice cafe, warm welcome to walkers



An old mill stone in Hampden in Arden



The only road stretch I encountered, leaving Hampden towards Meriden

The girls of Meriden

Afternoon coffee break



Meriden church

Farmers have been busy recently evidently

Two passing walkers pointed to this bird across the field saying it was a Red Kite, an unusual visitor to Warwickshire.

Some frisky friends



Pickford Green

Now that's what I call an old house

Coventry coming into sight

An arty tree

Allesley Park



Wild flower bed in Allesley Park

Lake View Park - my local park

Spon End

Spon Street, Coventry

Lady Godiva, Coventry

Coventry Council House



Coventry Cathedral


 

A celebratory local pint of beer

The twenty mile walk took me eight hours in total with four stops, three in cafes and one at my own house in Coventry before the final push into the centre of Coventry.  The weather forecast was for showers but luckily none fell and I had a dry day with pleasant walking temperature.