[1] With your back to the Medical Centre, looking across the car park in front of you, take the path off to your left. Pass a children’s play area on the right, take the bridge a few metres ahead and fork left. You come to a wall on your right, which you continue along. Shortly, you come to the end of a cul-de-sac. Continue straight ahead along this road. (Alne Close).
If arriving by public transport. Locate the parish church on the High Street and walk down the road, Beaudesert Lane, to the right of it. At the far end, by a second church, you reach the end of Alne Close. Go ahead on the tarmac path, which is the one in the following instruction.
At the far end of Alne Close turn right along a tarmac path. (A church yard is directly opposite you). Cross the end of another cul-de-sac and continue straight ahead following the footpath waymarker. Continue on, passing a primary school on your right. At the end of the school’s playing field turn right along the far side of the playing field along a picket fence. Cross another cul-de-sac and maintain your route ahead to reach a grassy area where children play. Veer left to pick up a path entering a wooded area and make a steep climb up a flight of steps. At the top of the steps, climb a stile and turn right to negotiate a second stile almost immediately in front of you. After crossing this stile, turn left and follow the left hand edge of a field. At the end of this field exit by a stile and turn right on to Edge Lane.
[2] Almost immediately turn left over another stile and continue ahead in this field with the hedgerow on your left hand side. At the end of this field continue ahead and cross another stile and eventually pass through a gate directly ahead of you. Continue to the left hand corner of the next field and cross another stile. Turn right at this point and continue ahead. A few metres in front is another stile on your left. Take this and enter another field. Cross the middle of this field. At the end of it, cross a stile and continue straight on. The hedgerow is on your left and you exit this field by a stile in the top left hand corner. Pass through an area surrounded by trees then through a gate, keeping the hedgerow on your left hand side. Go through another gate and then traverse diagonally right across a field to an exit gate about half way along the far side of the field, just to the right of two oak trees. After passing through the gate carry on ahead with the hedgerow on your left hand side. At the bottom of this field pass through a gate. Continue ahead over a wooden footbridge and through a further gate. Walk ahead and pass through another gate until you reach a lane by Church Farm (A), with the Rectory directly ahead of you.
(A) Church Farm is a Tudor timber-framed building, remodelled in the 17th Century.
[3] Continue ahead through a kissing gate, climbing slightly uphill along a path directing you to Preston Bagot Church (B). At the top of the climb pass through another kissing gate. Keep ahead, passing the church on your left hand side.
(B) Preston Bagot Church was built in the 12th Century on an Anglo-Saxon foundation. It is worth going into the church in order to see the beautiful Burnes-Jones windows. These were made in 19th Century at the William Morris factory in Birmingham. They were moved to Preston Bagot Church from a church in Birmingham during WW2 to save them from the bombing there.
Just past the church go through a gate to reach a lane. Go right and then immediately left through a gate opposite. Go across the middle of this field to a gap in the hedge, heading slightly downhill. As you pass through the gap the path veers right and more steeply downhill with the hedgerow on your right. The path swings round to the left at the bottom of the field and a few metres along passes through a gate on your right hand side. Cross a bridge in front of you then follow the path round to the right and climb up to the Stratford upon Avon canal near a lock.
(C) The Stratford Canal was built between 1793 and 1816. It runs from Kings Norton on the south edge of Birmingham through 26 miles of Warwickshire countryside before joining the River Avon at Stratford. It has several distinctive features including lock keepers cottages built with rounded roofs, as the only workmen available to build them were tunnel builders. The gap in the middle of the bridge is for the horse’s rope to go through.
Cross the canal and take the path that goes off on your left hand side. (This is not the towpath). You now come into a field and you walk along the left hand edge of the field parallel to the canal but separated from it by a hedge.
After 300 metres, not far before the field corner, cross a stile hidden in the hedge on the left and continue ahead to your right. The canal is immediately to your left at this point. Cross over a small stream then veer right travelling diagonally across a field to a waymarker post that you can make out in the far right hand corner. At the post turn right steeply uphill, keeping the hedgerow on your left, to reach a stile at the top left hand corner of the field. Cross the stile and pass straight ahead along the edge of a sports field.
At the end of the sports field cross a stile and continue on into a wooded area. Ignore side paths and carry on straight ahead along a dirt track through the woodland to reach a lane at Yarningale Common.
[4] Turn left along Osset Hole Lane and in a few metres reach the junction with Yarningale Lane. Go left along Yarningale Lane and take a path on your right, immediately beyond the post box and notice board.
The path goes up alongside the hedge to an open barrier and continues ahead up into the trees. Bear left in front of a fence and continue uphill with the fence to your right. Pass through a further open barrier and continue ahead through a third open barrier and turn right immediately to continue along a soil track. Cross a stile next to a field gate opposite a house and turn left along the track. On reaching a tarmac lane turn left and head downhill. At the bottom of the tarmac lane turn right. (You have a farmyard in front of you.) Carry on along the soil track, which can be very muddy.
The footpath veers left, and a little further ahead right, and then left again. The path then continues straight ahead for about 400 metres. A few metres before a left hand bend, at the end of a steady incline, there is a stile on your left. Look out for this carefully as it is concealed somewhat on the side of the path. Cross the stile and continue ahead with the hedge to your right. Pass through a kissing gate in front of you and pass a post in the next field, continuing ahead. The ground drops somewhat towards the far edge of this field and you exit by crossing a small stream and a stile some thirty metres in from the left hand edge of the field.
Continue uphill by the left hand hedgerow and exit by a gate onto a lane. You have now reached Peacock Farm.
[5] Turn right along the lane for about 100 metres and then turn left on to a bridleway. Walk across a field with the hedgerow on your left. Descend down a steep embankment until the ground levels out and veers right. Follow this keeping the hedgerow on your left hand side. Pass through a gate. Ignore gates to the left and right which are for a cross path, and go right through what is often a very wet patch which leads into the next field. Walk diagonally across the middle to a gate in the far right hand corner. Pass through the gate and continue with the hedge on your right hand side.
Pass through two field gates and continue along a track for about 300 metres, crossing two cattle grids. The track bears right and brings you to a minor road. (Narrow Lane)
Turn left and in 50 metres take the footpath on the right. Walk beside a high fence going through several small gates. At the end of the fence turn left through a wrought iron gate, then immediately go right over a small bridge and through the field to another small gate. Walk past the gallop and up the hill alongside the field edge. Go through the gate at the top and walk past a tractor shed and on to a stile. Turn right here along a tarmac track to the lane at the end. (Mill Lane) Turn left and continue along Mill Lane for 400 metres, crossing Finwood Bridge and then the Stratford upon Avon Canal, to eventually arrive at a crossroads.
[6] Go straight on over the cross roads. You have now joined The Heart of England Way. Keep looking out for their green signs as you will be following them all the way back to Henley. A short way along the lane, cross a stile to the right. Walk across the field, over another stile and then up to the top of the field. At this third stile, turn sharp right and at the two kissing gates turn left. Follow the field boundary on your left to a stile at the edge of a wood. Take the path straight through Coppice Wood and as you emerge from the trees turn right and on towards a bridle path. Here turn left, walk down to the opposite field edge and turn right, walking alongside a dismantled railway line. At the end go through a small gate and turn left along a stony metalled track that crosses the railway. Continue along this for 400 metres.
(D)The now dismantled GWR branch railway from Lapworth to Henley opened in 1894, after being 30 years in construction. It had a short life as in 1908 the North Warwickshire line opened between Birmingham and Stratford and this provided a better service.
[7] Turn right onto Henley Road and walk around the bend. Turn right through a gate, which is just before you reach a large set of gates at the end of a drive leading up to a big house. Bear left over the drive and through a gap in the hedge and up the left side of the next field. Take a gate and bear to the left. You can see Hungerfield Farm straight in front of you. Bear left to the left hand side of the field and walk through a small woody section. At a kissing gate walk diagonally across a small cultivated field and up along the right hand field edge to the top. Cross a track and walk across a cultivated field to its left corner and cross a stile.
Turn left on entering a green lane (which is an extension of Edge Lane you walked across earlier). Soon cross a stile on the right and walk diagonally across a field to the left corner. Cross the stile and go through the trees, left along the hill edge. You can see Henley down to the right here. Continue on until you reach a bench. Go downhill towards Beaudesert Castle. The path will take you up and then over the top of the castle site. Follow the path down from the castle to a gate where you return to Alne Close.
If you came by Public transport, carry straight on ahead along the road back to the High Street.
If you came by car, retrace your steps left along Alne Close. At the end take the tarmac path to the left and go right over the foot bridge, past the children’s playground and on to the car park.
(E) Beaudesert Castle was a Motte and Bailey castle built shortly after the Norman Conquest. There was probably never a large Keep but just a hall instead. It was investigated by the Time Team television programme in 2002. More information about the castle can be found at the Henley in Arden Heritage Centre on the High Street. There are also places for tea and coffee there, and the well- known Henley ice cream shop. There is pedestrian access to the High Street from this car park.