(A) Hampton In Arden is a pleasant commuter village in the green belt between Birmingham and Coventry. The area around the ancient church is a conservation area. There is a pub, a shop and a railway station. Before Birmingham International Station was built in the 1970s, the express trains between New Street and Euston used to stop here to serve Birmingham airport. That explains the unusually long platforms for such a small station. Just to the east is a 15th Century packhorse bridge crossing the River Blythe on the old road to Kenilworth.
[1] From the top of the High Street at the bend in the main road, walk down Marsh Lane. Take the second footpath on the right, which is opposite Elm Tree Rise. Follow it to a field and cross diagonally to the far left corner. Go through two kissing gates to reach the end of a road. Go ahead, and when the road soon swings left, go straight ahead down a drive and along a narrow path to the left of number 31.
Emerge into a small field and cross to the gate opposite. You should now be able to spot the way ahead across two fields to a stile and then a kissing gate heading into trees. Go through the gate and follow a short boardwalk to a well made path. (Drivers who parked at the end of Marsh Lane should turn left back to their cars here.)
[2] Turn right and follow the path past a pond to emerge at the end of a large lake. Turn left and walk clockwise around the lake. As you swing right, note the packhorse bridge crossing the river Blythe with the railway viaduct behind. Carry on with the river and railway on your left to the far end of the lake.
(B) The river Blythe emerges from Earlswood Lakes and winds it way north through the Meriden gap for 24 miles until it joins the River Tame near Coleshill. It is actually a Site Of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) along most of its length, as it is "a particularly fine example of a lowland river on clay". The water in it is clean and it supports a diverse range of plants and invertebrates. We meet it at this point where it is crossed by the ancient packhorse bridge, and the more recent railway viaduct behind it.
(C) The railway is the main line from London Euston to Birmingham New Street. The 112 mile line, built by Robert Stephenson and opened in 1838, was the first Inter City railway into London, and was one of the earliest ever to be built.
[3] At the end of the lake continue ahead with a wood on your left and car park on the right to reach the steel entrance gates to the golf club. Turn left, and 100 yards after a bridge over the Blythe, go through right through a wooden kissing gate. Go ahead to the right of the barns and straight on along the right edge of the field beyond them to cross a stile in the far corner leading to a road.
Go along the driveway opposite, and at its end cross a stile to the right of a wooden gate. Go ahead between fences, ignore a kissing gate on the left and continue ahead on a grassy track which swings right and then left heading towards a barn. Just before the barn go through a kissing gate and continue along the right edge of the field, to the left of the barn, to a stile. Continue straight ahead across the middle of the next field to a stile onto the road.
[4] Turn right for 40 yards then left over a stile to the right of a metal gate. Go uphill with the fence on your right and a grand house up ahead. Go through a wooden kissing gate then across to a stile just ahead, and follow the left edge of the field to the corner. On entering the next field there is a path junction, where our route joins the Heart of England Way and the Millenium Way, whose waymarks we get to follow for a while. Turn right, downhill, cross two stiles at the bottom and go uphill along the right edge of the next field. Go downhill across the middle of the next field to a stile. Go ahead to a small bridge and up to another stile. The path then continues ahead between a hedge and a fence. Cross another stile and continue along the right edge of a field to a road. Turn left to the 16th Century Saracen's Head pub.
[5] Turn right down a small road just in front of the Saracen's Head pub. Turn right through a kissing gate into a small paddock with a new wooden fence opposite. Look for a stile near the left end of the fence, cross this and walk downhill with the fence on your left to cross it via another stile near the bottom left corner, to reach a kissing gate leading onto the road. (It may seem odd there is a surfaced path on the other side of the fence, but crossing the two stiles means you are following the legal line of the path. That is why the stiles are there!)
Turn left along the road to a stile on the right just beyond the house. But before crossing it, you may wish to divert slightly ahead along the road to take a closer look at the beautiful 16th Century wooden building, Magpie Farm.
Go ahead with the hedge on the right and swing left round an overgrown pond, then go downhill to a large footbridge. Go half left to a kissing gate. Cross a short distance to the end of a hedge and go uphill on its right side and across to a stile. Continue along the left edge of the next field, under pylons, to reach a path junction in the field corner. Ignore the stile on the right and go through the gap into the opposite field. The Heart of England way goes left here, but our route, still on the Millenium Way, follows the hedge on the right in a straight line to a road. Turn right, and say goodbye to the Millenium Way as it turns left up a drive, and continue to a tarmac footpath on the left, immediately before the bus shelter.
(D) Temple Balsall is a beautiful and interesting little Hamlet. It is named after the Knights Templar, who farmed a lot of land in the area and set up their preceptory, or headquarters, here. Their main hall is part of the building just beyond the church. Before reaching the church you will see the Almshouses behind a locked gate on your right. These were set up by Lady Katharine Leveson who left an endowment for them in her will in 1674. For many centuries the houses accommodated old ladies, who were known locally as dames. They all had to wear a uniform with a cloak and bonnet. You will see their graves in the churchyard, long rows of them with small headstones. The path you walk along to the church and Templar Hall is known as the breadwalk, as the Dames walked up to the hall every day to get their bread allowance. The almshouses are still used to accommodate elderly people, but there are no uniforms any more and men are allowed in too. The church is interesting and worth looking in, and it is worth looking upwards to see all the faces on the corbels.
If you are here on a summer Sunday afternoon they will be serving teas and cakes from the Templar Hall, and there are sometimes free open air concerts as well.
[6] Go past the Almshouses on the right to the church. Continue along the path to a path junction and go right through a wooden gate. Follow the path to a road. Go right, then immediately left at a T Junction. Follow the road to the entrance to Springfield House and take a path immediately beyond on the right just where the road bends left. Soon reach a tarmac drive. Ignore the kissing gate ahead and turn right along the drive until a gate stops you going further. Turn left along a narrow path in front of a house and follow it around the edge of Springfield House grounds down to a footbridge. Go ahead and cross a rather run down ornamental bridge over the River Blythe, and swing right along the track to the far left corner. Continue along the track through three gates to reach the house named, "North Lodge Piercil".
(E) Springfield House is an 18th Century stately home that has now been taken over by Birmingham City Council and run as a special school for children with learning difficulties.
[7] From the lodge, carry straight on along the tarmac lane. On reaching a road junction, go ahead 10 yards and cross a stile on the right. Follow the enclosed path until it emerges in a field corner. Keep to the left edge of the field to a gate leading onto a drive. (This path does not seem to follow the route on the OS map, but is clear and well waymarked on the ground.) Go through the gate opposite and across the field to a stile. Continue up the left edge of a small field, then uphill across the next field to a kissing gate in the far right corner. Go ahead through two more kissing gates that lead into Barston churchyard. Go ahead to the road.
(F) Barston is a quiet village surrounded on three sides by a loop in the River Blythe. It has never been near any main roads or trading routes. There are some beautiful ancient wooden buildings along the High Street and there is a welcoming pub with a nice beer garden should you need refreshments. The church was rebuilt in 1721, which is older than you may think for a red brick building. It is rebuilt on the site of an earlier church which burnt down. Some bits of the old church remain in the new structure. For example, look at the bottom four courses of the tower.
[8] Turn left, past the Bulls Head, and turn right along Oak Lane. Once back in open country, go round a right bend, and find a track on the left marked as an Unclassified County Road. Go along this to a cattle grid. Cross it and immediately go through a gap on the right and follow the hedge on the left uphill, with a golf course and distant views to the right. Once over the top of the hill continue downhill, still with the hedge on the left. Continue ahead in the next field, now with the hedge on your right, to a small bridge and up to a hedge gap. Go uphill to a marker post just right of a lone oak tree, then slightly left across the next field to a hedge gap. Go straight downhill to a bridge then straight up, and slightly left, to a Kissing Gate in a protruding field corner.
Go up the right edge of the next field then between hedges. Continue ahead alongside the left hedge when the right hedge ends at a kissing Gate Go through and then trough another wooden kissing gate and up through a narrowing field. Continue up a second narrow field and to the left of a house to arrive back on Marsh Lane. Turn left to return to the top of Hampton High Street.