Colnew one

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Colnew here.

I walked this one ages ago - autumn 2022 in fact - so my memories aren't very precise any more, but I do remember really enjoying it, but also really feeling it, in the effort of walking what felt like quite a long eight miles, plus the mental effort of being the first to walk it, and not knowing what I'd find. I remember cloddy mud rather than the wet mud of the previous reviewer!
Walking out of Coleshill was quick and easy, and I'd stayed the night there and bought breakfast to eat on the way. I didn't mind the industrial estate and liked that in walking out into the countryside beyond there were other walkers' tracks in the dew even that early in the morning.

The path shows as going along Bixhill Lane out of Shustoke, which is narrow but not a through road so there's not a traffic problem. Alongside the lane on the north side is also a footpath, which goes between the lane and the reservoir, so that's a nice option too. I remember dog walkers.

It was the fields between Furnace End and Monwode Lea that I found cloddy and hard going, and I couldn't see a way out at the Monwode Lea end so I joined the path that goes to Laxe's Farm and got to the road that way. I messaged the previous reviewer Steve more recently and he says he did the same. This is a big enough deviation to require a new version of this route, and I'll make one when I get a chance.

The chimney in the field all on its own was gloriously weird, although actually it was accompanied by cows on the day I was there.

I remember the Arley woods being nice, and then the double village hop to the end posing no trouble, and the end point in New Arley being by a pub in a very mellow residential village green.

I completed this walk yesterday travelling eastwards from Coleshill. Overall it's a good walk but not worth five stars due to the large amount of pavement walking. There are three or four opportunities for refreshments at pubs in the villages en route.

The centre of Coleshill is pleasant enough, with many places to shop if you need supplies. The walk out of the town does go on for just over a mile, passing mainly through a large industrial estate (photo 1), but after this the route does get better as it finds the footpaths. The path past Whitacre Waterworks has a couple of overgrown bridges (photos 2 & 3) before eventually you reach Watery Lane.

When researching the route, I wondered why it went on a little diversion here down Station Road and didn't take you direct over Watery Lane. When I reached the junction (photo 4) it became clearer as the given route has a footpath whereas Watery Lane doesn't. Furthermore Watery Lane has a blind summit of a bridge over a dismantled railway and the road seemed fairly busy.

The walk into Shustoke is along a very narrow pavement, and once in the village the route takes you alongside the reservoir. When you reach the railway, you go under this via an arched bridge. Immediately after the bridge , I found myself straying slightly from the path and picking the best route through a wet and boggy landscape as we'd had a fair amount of rain recently (photo 7).

After leaving Furnace End, the route takes you along the Nuneaton Road and to a pathway leading you to Sandy Lane. From Sandy Lane, look to pass through a tall signed gateway (photo 8) to go up a track to a farm. Once past the farm you have to keep an eye on the GPS to make sure you follow the route correctly as the pathway was lost in a couple of places. This was the case all the way till you next meet the Nuneaton Road just south of Monwode Lea.

Passing by the old toll house on the Nuneaton Road, a pathway then takes you past a random chimney without a house in a field. After you reach the road at Ballard's Green, the route then takes you through Arley Wood and then into Old Arley. You then pass under the railway yet again, before making the last leg of the journey up into New Arley.

The route was good in the rural sections, with just the aforementioned boggy section causing a bit of care to pick your way through. There were plenty of gates, stiles, footbridges and steps to negotiate, some in better condition than others. Overall I would recommend the route and do it again... perhaps next time after drier weather.

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