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WALK DESCRIPTION: This is a walk from Hatton station to Warwick Parkway, including Hatton Locks and 2 canalside refreshment breaks. It is completely towpath-based and hence is stile-free and traffic-free throughout. The overall distance is about 6 miles. This walk starts at Hatton Station when the train arrives at 09.44 am. There is a 1.2-mile level canal walk to Hatton Locks, which will take around 45 minutes. We pause at the café at the top of Hatton Locks for refreshment. There are plenty of tables there to eat your own food/drinks, although the bacon rolls from the café are highly recommended for a late breakfast snack. We also have a picnic break later in the walk. On leaving the café we continue along the towpath for a further 3.5 miles. Hatton's famous 'Stairway to Heaven' flight of 21 locks on the Grand Union canal has a fascinating history. State of the art locks were built at Hatton to fight off stiff competition from the roads and railways and widened in the 1930s. When the locks were completed, bands played and crowds gathered to watch the Duke of Kent arrive by boat and cut the ribbon. This walk goes down the locks, which is an easy and steady descent from the café. After descending the locks the towpath levels out, continuing to The Cape of Good Hope canalside pub at Warwick for further refreshment. We have a picnic break at lock 28, about half-way along this stretch. We then retrace our steps for just under a mile along the canal to Warwick Parkway station, from where there are approximately half-hourly trains back to Birmingham. After our return to Moor Street the walk leader will be taking refreshment in The Woodman pub close to Moor Street Station, which is a beautiful 1897, James & Lister Lea architects designed pub – see https://woodmanbirmingham.co.uk/. All are welcome to join him.
Please book a place on this walk using the link above.
JOINING INSTRUCTIONS: We meet at Birmingham Moor Street by 09.10 am for the 09.20 am Chiltern train to Hatton. Trains to Hatton are only 2-hourly so the unfortunate timing of the outbound train (09.20) means that West Midlands travel passes cannot be used. An off-peak day return ticket (£9.70 without a Railcard, £6.45 with a Senior Railcard) from Birmingham to Warwick Parkway will cover the trains in both directions. Hatton Station, postcode CV35 7LE, has a small free car park which might fill up during the week. Trains back to Hatton from Warwick Parkway are infrequent and might involve a change of train at Warwick, so driving to Hatton Station is not recommended. Should anyone drive to Hatton we will look at return options to Hatton, which might be better from Warwick station than Warwick Parkway, when we are at our pub stop.
