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Length: 7 miles.
Location: Roadside parking by Lubenham’s village green, 40 minutes northeast of Rugby.
Date: 20/7/2015
This walk straddles the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, crossing the River Welland several times before heading up to the canal, and to the flight of ‘staircase’ locks at Foxton Locks, before heading back south to Lubenham. A generally enjoyable walk, although several fields toward the end of the walk were quite hard work to get through!
Yes, this walk was from the 20th of July. As I said, I have a backlog! I’ll keep working at it….
This was the walk I needed to ‘connect up’ my Northamptonshire and Leicestershire group of walks, in my long-running game of walking-Qix. I started the walk late in the morning of a rather gray day, with clouds that kept on threatening rain (which finally came just by the Foxton Locks), parking my car close to a stereotypically Victorian school building, and walking past several old brick buildings and the typical solid church, before heading off into a waymarked field.
The right hand edge of this field is marked by a stream, which turns into the River Welland, and forms the border between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, so this walk crosses between the counties every time it crosses the river. One crossing is on a small bridge which leads to the road to Marston Trussel, which you follow for a kilometre or so.
I’d been through Marston Trussell on a previous walk, and it isn’t really very exciting, although there is an interesting notice board about a Civil War battle. The walk turns off the main road to the right, along a farm track which turns into a field-side path that crosses the River Welland once more. You can tell when you cross into Leicestershire, as the footpath markers become a little easier to see, and there are more yellow posts!
After crossing the main road, and many fields, the path briefly joins onto a minor road before turning right onto the towpath of the Grand Union Canal, which we follow all the way to Foxton Locks, a set of two ‘staircases’ of locks, and the largest flight of locks like this in England. It’s a popular tourist destination, with several cafes, and makes an excellent spot for a rest/ice-cream break.
Break over, the route continues below the locks, heading right, eastwards into Foxton. I left the canal at the first bridge, although you could carry on to the next one, a swingbridge. Once off the canal, I headed up the hill, past a church and along the edge of a field, to rejoin a minor road next to a school building. There are good views here back over Foxton into the surrounding low-lying area.
The next section of the walk is a little fiddly, weaving around fields in a vaguely southerly direction (and skirting the grounds of a prison) back towards Lubenham. The first couple of fields were fine, but the next had some cows in that were too enthusiastic for a couple walking ahead of me. I went through fine, using my normal tactic of talking to them about what I was doing and not moving too quickly! A couple of fields later, the footpath follows a regimented route through some fields which seemed to be completely empty apart from two friendly goats.
After a couple of fields with no visible path markers, it was a relief to find my first yellow post for a while, and then to see Lubenham below me, although this happened at the same time as the weather turned on me and the rain finally decided to appear… The path took me to and through a recreation ground (useful if I take my kids on a similar walk in the future), and back into Lubenham village.
Summary: A decent circular walk in the Welland valley, with the natural half-way stopping point of Foxton Locks.
Walking Around Rugby 