Wythen two

Verified Slow Way

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I completed this walk today traveling south from Wythall. A really good walk, with the overall descent in this direction being 594' and just 351' of ascent. The main factor stopping me give the walk five stars was the lack of clarity and maintenance on some of the paths - I wish I had bough a machete for one section. I'd read some of the previous reviews about the section through Clowes Wood being unclear, so i was careful to plot a new route through this section to avoid the difficulties mentioned by others. There is also some road walking, but the roads were quiet enough with plenty of decent verges to not pose any serious risk.

On leaving Wythall you have a 10 minute section on pavements next to the busy Station Road. After leaving Station Road the quietness is a relief as you descend down a track towards the River Cole and railway. There are some muddy sections on this track as the path follows the course of a drainage ditch, but there are boards strategically placed to aid the walk (photo 1). I can imagine these being inundated after or during heavy rain.

After crossing the railway for the first of many times, the path takes you to a very brief section along a road near Earlswood station before heading down a path towards Clowes Wood. As previously mentioned, don't try to follow the exact route through the woods given here. It can be done relatively easy following the mapped footpaths from either the Ordnance Survey or Open Street Map, but you do have to keep an eye on your GPS (well, I did anyway) due to the lack of landmarks to use for navigation in the woods.

After clearing the woods, you head up for another section of road walking which takes you over the railway again past The Lakes station, and towards the M42. The crossing across the motorway is via a tunnel which doubles up for the railway. Immediately after exiting the tunnel, the footpath isn't clearly marked so the GPS helped me out a bit to get back to the road. The closer to the road, the more overgrown the path became, but it wasn't too difficult to get through.

The section of road towards Wood End is another quiet Lane, and as previously mentioned, The Warwickshire Lad is an extremely convenient location for refreshments. The path leaving Wood End is very pleasant, crossing the railway and River Alne as you head towards Tanworth-in-Arden, and then on past Danzey Green.

The pathway after you leave Pig Trot Lane near Danzey Green then starts to gradually become more vague. In fact, the closer you get to the Mill Pond the more difficult it becomes. Eventually we had to follow the GPS and push our way through an extremely overgrown section around the Mill Pond (photo 12). I'm sure this wouldn't be as bad in the Winter, but it is the most difficult section so when you're through, the route gets a lot easier.

The only other thing I thought i'd mention which I thought was a slight oversight with this route, was the route reaches the end of Whitepump Lane, there is a footpath which runs diagonally across a field towards Hallend which this route misses out. It's only a tiny detour, and doesn't pose any difficulty. I don't think it warrants a whole new route to be created, but if there was the ability to edit routes i'd suggest editing that small section.

Overall, it is a really good walk. Plenty of decent views of the Warwickshire countryside, and if you're lucky like we were on this Sunday, you may even get glimpses of steam trains on the railway now and again. I'd say there are a greater number of footbridges than average on this walk, which also has gates, stiles and steps as well as a couple of pedestrian railway level crossings to negotiate. Can easily recommend this and would happily do it again, just be prepared for the poor waymarking and overgrown sections if doing it in summer.

Safe and reasonably direct with a lot to enjoy, this route falls down by how much work it leaves the walker doing. The section through Little Clowes Wood bore no relation to the reality of what I walked. The original path chosen has been closed because a conservation meadow. I knew which way I needed to go and followed the paths accordingly, the plotting was only of use to show me where I needed to finish. I'm wondering if it would be better to go straight on on entry to the wood as I effectively ended up going back on myself. The plotting generally was rather vague, but only to my annoyance rather than confusion. There are lots of stiles, but they're generally well marked and in superb condition. This route connects well with the railway and actually crosses it seven times! There is a pub, the Warwickshire Lad at almost the halfway point. If the plotting was tidied and the section in Little Clowes Wood was sorted out, this would have the making of a 5 star route.

We walked this route starting in Henley, and found it enjoyable and - if paying attention to the map - relatively easy to follow. As the previous reviewer noted, parts of the route are very overgrown; I should have paid more attention to this comment when deciding to wear shorts, as there was a proliferation of nettles and brambles that I would rather have not had in direct contact with my legs!
We lunched at The Warwickshire Lad in Wood End, which was directly on the route and served good food and beer.
It’s a route we would happily walk again.

A very nice journey with lots of changes in scenery throughout, from forests to fields, to pleasant towns. The route indicate in Little Clowes Wood is not accurate and requires some deviation to navigate through. Also there are some styles and potentially muddy section, why may put some people off.

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