[1] Leave the car park (SJ339268) and turn right over the canal bridge, then right again to the towpath. Put the canal on your right to commence a tree-shaded walk along this peaceful waterway. The whole canal is a linear nature reserve and the number of boats strictly limited, meaning only an occasional narrowboat will disturb your wildlife watching. After two miles, the canal bends sharply right to reach Bridge 78. Slip up to the left and through the adjacent bridlegate. From the foot of the earth ramp, head to the far-left corner of the field and a stile 20 paces left of the oak. Follow the old hedge on your right to a boggy corner and a footbridge. Cross this to reach the half-timbered building guarding St Winifred’s Well here at Woolston hamlet.
In AD1138, the bones of St Winifred were rested overnight by zealots, who were taking her relics from Holywell (Flintshire) to Shrewsbury Abbey. As with other places where her body was said to rest, a spring immediately issued from the ground. This miracle ensured that pilgrims were drawn here to pray and take the waters, said to cure broken bones, bruises and eye conditions. The well still flows and a few hardy pilgrims still take a dip. The chapel building is now a Landmark Trust holiday let.
[2] Return to the canal and turn left, continuing to Maesbury Marsh – a former canal port still with remnant warehousing, a crane and a former bone works nearby. There’s also a welcome pub, the Navigation Inn, here at a settlement, which essentially developed as Oswestry’s distant canal wharf.
[3] Leave the towpath and walk past the inn. In 200 yards turn right along Waen Lane, remaining with this roughening byway all the way through to the imposing Bromwich Park farmhouse. Continue along the tarred lane for a further 900m to a sharp-left bend, keeping ahead-R here towards nearby Fox Hall farm. Within 50m look on your left for the fingerposted stile and turn right inside the hedgeline. Keep immediately left of the spindly firs skirting the farmyard and remain with the hedge, which shortly becomes a line of ancient, gnarled old lime and beech trees, ending up near the secluded Keeper’s Cottage.
[4] Go through the gate farthest-right of the cottage and then ahead to use another gate at the near end of a wooded strip. Bear right along the field (not the wooded strip), aiming to pass immediately right of the stand of 6 trees visible ahead. Off to the left, the imposing façade of Aston Hall draws the eye, and nearby is the creeper-clad ruin of the estate church. You may share this parkland pasture with a herd of pedigree highland cattle, for which the estate is renowned. Climb the waymarked stile (look out for the electric fence!) and go ahead through a gap onto a woodland path. At the far side, look for the stile and cross the narrow field to a tree-shaded footbridge leading onto Oswestry Golf Club. Frequent waymarked posts keep you on the path, eventually reaching the clubhouse. Walk through the car park, carefully cross the very busy A5 road and turn right to the nearby left-turn for Queen’s Head.