Dog Friendly Pub Walk Longford to Hawkesbury

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distance 1.6km / 1 mile 7

(30 mins)

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Coventry d r

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(7.2km/ f startstart g

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2¼hrs) L Coventry Arena (1.2km/¾mile/25mins) The Walk - Step by Step

Listen beyond the faint noise of traffic and you’ll hear birds calling you onwards. Each step brings calmness as you follow the water and steep yourself in stories from historic buildings that surround this amble. Interesting benches dotted along the way tempt you to linger. Hawkesbury Junction holds the beating life of canals - it’s where waters meet and people gather to stare. Charismatic iron bridges criss-cross the lapping water and murmurs of the past are held firmly in every brick. This isn’t a walk of remote rurality, it’s an escape of intrigue and leafy calm.

Step down onto the towpath by Longford Bridge. 6 Hawkesbury Junction is where the Coventry and Oxford START Canals finally part ways. It is also known as Sutton’s Stop, 1 Before you head off towards Hawkesbury Junction, turn left named after Richard and Henry Sutton who were CANAL: Coventry under the bridge, noting its rhythmic cast iron arches. A few lock-keepers here between 1807 and 1876. The Junction is a yards away is ‘Pleasure Craft’ (or the Stone Sofa), one of the designated Conservation Area, and most of the buildings and START: Longford Bridge artworks along the Coventry Art Trail running from Coventry bridges are Grade II-listed. OS Grid ref: SP350839 Postcode: CV6 6BG Basin to Hawkesbury. A mighty 3.5 tonnes of sandstone make a rock hard sofa that teases you to find out how comfy it is. The cast-iron bridge over the unusual H-shaped junction FINISH: Hawkesbury Junction spans 50ft and was built in 1837 at a cost of £630. It is the OS Grid ref: SP361845 Postcode: CV6 6DF 2 Back through the bridge, you’ll notice the wide open feel of perfect vantage point for you to take in any boating action, as the canal as it curves away from the busy main road. This boats manoeuvre the difficult 90-degree turn or work through DISTANCE: 1.6km / 1 mile used to be the junction between the Coventry and Oxford the shallow stop lock (the result of a 7-inch discrepancy (double if walk back to start) Canals and, because the canal companies couldn’t decide between the levels of the two canals). among themselves how to charge tolls along this stretch, they APPROX TIME: 30-40 minutes built the canals side by side from here to Hawkesbury. Where At the heart of the junction sits the toll house, built in 1777 by there are boats moored on the opposite bank was the first the Coventry Canal Company. It sat alone until it became PUB: Greyhound Inn canalside at the Junction wharf built on the canal by the Coventry Canal Company. surrounded by more buildings needed to serve both canals. PARKING: Car parks on Longford Road 3 Three more artworks come in quick succession as you pass a Overlooking the junction and built in 1825, the Greyhound Inn (postcode: CV6 6DW), Grange Road wide patch of green (and well-placed bench). Houses back on was first run by a local farmer, and used to provide food for (postcode: CV6 6TB) and at Hawkesbury to the canal on the opposite bank but as you move away from the boatmen and stabling for their horses. Junction (postcode: CV6 6DF) the road, lush hedgerows, nature and birdsong take over. 7 The Engine House initially pumped water up into the canal TRAIN: Nearest train station - Coventry Arena 4 As the canal rounds a bend, the birds sing louder to compete from a local stream then later a deep well. Its first steam National Rail Enquiries with the inescapable volume of the M6 which crosses the engine, appropriately named ‘Lady Godiva’, was installed in Tel: 03457 484950 www.nationalrail.co.uk canal here, but as you round the next bend, it becomes a 1821, having spent almost 100 years before at a colliery a few distant hum as birdsong takes over again. miles away. The engine can now be seen in Dartmouth BUS: Traveline Museum, birthplace of its engineer Thomas Newcomen. Tel: 0871 2002233 www.traveline.info 5 Just beyond bridge 11 and its adjacent footbridge, the colourful boats moored at Exhall Basin come into view. A END Once you have had your fill of the junction and all it has to couple of benches, including ‘The Hawkesbury lock seat’ from offer, either walk the towpath back to Longford, hop on a bus the art trail, offer a perfect spot to watch the ducks, or, if time allows, take advantage of the choice of canals to moorhens and coots, and of course any boat action from the explore further along either the Coventry or the Oxford. basin. Look up as you walk under bridge 11a at another artwork, Wings over Water, crafted from galvanised steel and representing local wildlife. canalrivertrust.org.uk