Shustoke to Balsall Common

I had slept badly; it was not at all the fault of the wonderful Balsall Common Premier Inn where we were staying - apart, perhaps, for the fact that it's close to the flight path for Birmingham Airport. I don't think this would have kept me awake by itself, but when the usual worries and the remains of a cold woke me up, hearing planes probably made it harder to go back to sleep. So I didn't feel great in the morning; not the best of starts, and I didn't have high expectations for today's walk, but I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. Today's walk included parts or the whole of five of the Guidebook's short legs: Whitacre Heath to Dovehouse Farm; Dovehouse Farm to the Kinwalsey; Kinwalsey to the Queen's Head, Meriden; Meriden to Berkswell; Berkswell to Temple Balsall. Our speed on the different legs seemed to vary quite a lot, but it was rather slow in places, in particular between Dovehouse Farm and the Kinwalsey. Usually we are slowed down by steep ascents and descents or difficult terrain (in particular mud); that wasn't the problem today. The route finding was sometimes a bit fiddly and crossing potato fields was slow (because of having to jump from bank to bank of banked up soil), but the thing that REALLY slowed us (in particular me) down was the stiles - on one occasion a combination of a narrow gap between holly hedges; nettles; a high bar, a wobbling cross bar and a steep descent from the stile to a road, made it almost impossible for me to get over. Then, just minutes later, we had a clamber over an electric fence. Come on Warwickshire County Council, get your act together!

We were walking back to the Premier Inn this evening so only had to take one car out this morning, back to the Shustoke Reservoir car park (SP226901). Incidentally, the opinion of others on the internet seems divided on the subject of whether you need to pay to park here; there were machines when we were there which were willing to relieve us of £1 to park for the day, which seemed quite reasonable, but other people didn't seem to be using them. We had decided not to return to the point at which we had left the Heart of England Way yesterday, to the north of the reservoirs, but rather to walk along Warwickshire's Centenary Way and the North Arden Heritage Trail, both of which head along the south shore; we therefore parted company (slightly) with the route along which we had approached the car park close to the Shustoke Sailing Club, passing a tree surgeon up a tree and his colleague operating a big shredding machine.

Although we were slightly further from the big reservoir we were also slightly higher so the views were slightly better, and the slightly misty views to the church at Church End were lovely. The Centenary Way left us to head closer to the small reservoir but the North Arden Heritage Trail continued alongside woodland to be reunited with the Heart of England Way before turning right and heading south.

We were now in a field of oilseed rape and there were occasional views towards the centre of Birmingham, amazingly just about 10 miles to the west. We passed through the delightful Dumble Wood then across a large field to Parsons Wood (where we stopped to eat the Maltesers I had been given for my birthday) then along a lane past the attractive Collier's Oak Farm. It really did feel as if we were in the middle of the countryside, in many ways reminiscent of the countryside close to where I grew up (in Cheshire when I was born, now Greater Manchester). From here via Green End to the M6 crossing was the area of tricky navigation, potato fields and difficult stiles mentioned in the top paragraph, but it was nevertheless pretty countryside.

There were more good views to Birmingham as we crossed the M6 and just beyond at Kinwalsey, and I was surprised to discover that we were still in North Warwickshire, but we soon crossed the county border into the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull. After a confusing section near Hayes Hill Farm we walked around Birchley Hayes Wood and, joining the route of "A Coventry Way", on to the wood at Meriden Shafts where we stopped for lunch. From here we walked along country lanes, under the A45 and on to the Queens Head at Meriden. Meriden is fabled to be at the centre of the country but it isn't...and the Queen's Head isn't even in the centre of the village. However, St Laurence Church and Moat Farm House, in the original centre of the village just to the south were pretty. After meeting a tree surgeon and a man with a shredding machine back in Shustoke, there was another one of each of these working in the churchyard here.

We continued on a rural corridor known as the "Meriden Gap", now with Coventry to the east as well as Birmingham to the west, though we could have been in the middle of nowhere. The next village that we reached, Berkswell, was absolutely delightful. The name is probably from Bercul's Well, and we admired the well and the church then walked on past the Berkswell Hall and its lake. It wasn't far from here to the main A452, which we crossed and walked alongside on the Heart of England Way so as to use its crossing of the main London to Birmingham train line. Indeed we continued slightly further south on the A452 to the northern tip of Balsall Common where the Premier Inn is located.

After collecting the car from Shustoke Reservoir we just had time to drive to the National Trust's Packwood House for a free pot of tea for two and a walk around the kitchen garden; unfortunately we were too late in the day to visit the house and the short journey back to Balsall Common was tortuous as a result of an unexpected road closure, an accident and rush hour traffic. After two consecutive celebratory meals out, this evening we had a take away.

following leg