To Nether Heyford from Whilton Locks
Walked by Sally and Richard, Sunday 29th April 2018
6.75 miles, about 6 miles on Grand Union Canal Walk
For more photos of this walk, click here.
If you look at the photographs of today’s walk you’ll get the impression of a spring walk along a peaceful canal. Not quite! Although, it remained dry, and the gorgeous weather of a week ago had brought forward the opening of leaves on trees etc., it was windy and bitterly cold. Furthermore, for the first couple of miles the canal runs between the M1 and the West Coast Main Line. The railway line wasn’t a problem, but the motorway was distinctly noisy when we were walking next to it, and we could hear the more distant noise of the motorway for the whole walk. However, for all that, it was a surprisingly enjoyable walk.
As on the previous leg, uncertainty over parking at the north-western end of the walk, led us to arrange to meet on the Green in Nether Heyford (SP660587) a spot we’d discovered last time we were here. We were in Hartfield (and walking) yesterday, and needed to visit Richard’s Mum this morning, so it was after lunch when we left home and we then had a slow journey, by a rather circuitous route (partly to enable us to use a route we knew, given the ongoing problems with routefinding using either my iPad or my phone, and partly to avoid a short section of A45 between the M1 and Upper Heyford which was closed for road works). My iPad had indeed not been helpful on the route, so I was relieved when Richard overtook me on the motorway then pulled in front, and he helpfully then stayed largely within sight.
We drove on from Nether Heyford in my car, and parked on a lane between the A5 and Whilton Locks at SP616643, presumably on a former route of the A5. It was 3.30pm when we left the car, but we weren’t bothered about what time we got to the Premier Inn at the end of the day, so we were quite relaxed about this.
The road up to Whilton Locks (and thence over the motorway to Whilton) was quite busy and we had to wait for a gap in the traffic to walk through the bridge under the railway. This brought us to the various businesses around Whilton Locks and Marina. Note that there are various car parks here, but most have fierce signs saying that parking is for patrons of the various establishments only. We crossed over the canal by a lock and turned right along the tow path, soon passing the bottom lock on the flight of seven locks referred to as either Whilton Locks or Buckby Lock Flight.
We passed Whilton Marina, with the railway beyond. We soon reached an attractive wooded section of canal, with delightful bridges and an occasional narrowboat passing us for company. It would have been blissful were it not for the roar of the motorway to our left. Thankfully, after Diamond Bridge we diverged slightly from the motorway and a couple of bridges later we emerged into more open countryside. We passed interesting houseboats and what looked like a man in old-fashioned canal-worker clothing sitting by the opposite bank (he’s actually a dummy).
As we neared Weedon Bec we passed under a half built bridge, part of the construction work associated with a new route for the A45. We were now in rolling Northamptonshire countryside and the canal was contouring i.e. wiggling to maintain a constant height. There were good views to the Church and village of Flore to our left – and the motorway beyond. In contrast, the canal passes above Weedon Bec itself and despite being only just on the other side of the canal, the Church was only just visible through trees.
I stopped at a bridge to rearrange an uncomfortable sock and was surprised to find myself on the route of the Nene Way, which I associate with locations rather closer to home in Norfolk. The linking possibilities go on and on..[and we returned to the Nene Way at the end of 2018 and completed it in 2020] .Shortly afterwards, as we approached Stowehill, we passed under the A5 (for the second time on the walk) with the Narrowboat Inn high above the canal. We’d passed the Narrowboat in the car when turning right onto the A5 from Nether Heyford, but on our canalside path we still had a fair bit of contouring to do. Eventually, we reached Heyford Wharf where we left the path and walked back to the car by the Green in Nether Heyford.
