Long Itchington & a Golden Wedding

Saturday, 17th July

13.6 km (8.7 miles)

Gill's Aunty Diana and Uncle John celebrated their Golden Wedding Annivesary this weekend and Gill, having been a bridesmaid, was (along with myself) duly invited to the celebrations held at John and Diana's farm just outside Buckingham.  This gave us the opporutnity for a walk in an area other than Yorkshire.

We had booked into a hotel in Leamington Spa for the simple reason that Charlotte, our middle daughter, was visiting her boyfriend Mike.  So we combined the chance to see Charlotte and Mike, with the Golden Wedding celebrations and the opportunity for this 8 mile walk which, in the main, was along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal.

Once again this is from the walkingworld.com website, although we found that the Memory Map Overlay (.mmo) and the walking summary varied slightly. Anyway, the map above shows the "track" rather than the "route" and, therefore, records the actual walk we took.

The walk begins in the village of Long Itchington (GR SP415652). The car park is just off a busy main road and we were met by Charlotte and Mike who joined us. The walk heads away and into the village which is a mixture of old and new.  The first part of the route then zig zags back, almost to the start in fact, before heading off down a much quieter country road and onto a bridleway before reaching the canal at Stockton Locks (GR SP429648).

Here you begin the main part of the walk which is simple enough since it follows the towpath down the Grand Union Canal, past pubs and moored narrowboats, along with those on the move until you reach Longhole Bridge (GR SP380639). Again the route here is very straigthforward following Ridgeway Lane through woods and fields until you meet Stonebridge Lane. The final stretch is straight down this lane with a final dog leg along the banks of River Itchen and back to the village.

Slightly different from some of our previous walks - the total "climb" was some 81 metres !  However, the stillness of the canal and, thankfully, lack of rain made this a pleasant stroll through the Warkwickshire countryside.

Usual bunch of photographs from this link.  Oh, and by the way, this walk marked the 150 miles so far this year!