[1] From the railway station turn left down the road, past Mary Arden's farm on your right to a T Junction with the Mary Arden pub opposite. (The village stores are just to your right if you need to stock up.) Turn left then immediately right up a road with new bungalows, past the entrance to the pub car park. Immediately after the road swings right, take a path between two fences on the left immediately after number 25. Emerge into a field and go straight ahead along a wide path with a play ground to the left. The path narrows but continues straight on until it reaches a gravel lane.Turn right for 20 yards then left over a stile by where the lane becomes tarmac. Go downhill between hedges then left at the bottom, with a wooden fence on the right, to a stile. Cross it and go left again, and soon swing right downhill to emerge in a field. Go straight across it to a tarmac drive and turn right to reach a road.
[2] Go right for about 20 yards to where a footpath and bridleway both start at a gate on the left. Follow the footpath half left with a hedge on the right. When the hedge swings right after a gap, carry straight on in the same direction, following a ditch on the left to a road. Turn right along the road.
Take care along the road. Keep to the right hand side and watch out for traffic.
Ignore the path going straight on at a sharp left bend and continue along the road. Just after a white house look for a stile on the right by a telegraph pole. Cross this and aim for a stile in the far left corner, at the left end of the buildings opposite. (This path is not on OS maps for some reason, but is there on the ground.) Turn right along the road to the village centre.
(A) Aston Cantlow is famous as the place where Shakespeare's Mother and Father, Mary Arden & John Shakespeare, got married in 1557. It is well worth walking round to the church to have a look in. The village derives its name name from Thomas Cantelupe, who was awarded land in the area by King John. Aston normally derives from "East Town". There are some beautiful timber buildings here. In particular the 16th century Guild Hall and the 15th century village pub, The Kings Head, which stand opposite each other.
[3] Continue along the main street, which has a mixture of old and modern buildings, and turn left down the dead end road, Chapel Lane. When it becomes unsurfaced, go ahead to a gate and footpath sign. Follow the left edge of the small field to a second gate and cross the old railway track to the gate on the other side. The railway was a little used branch between Bearley and Alcester that closed in 1951, long before Dr Beeching's report.
Take the rightmost of the two waymarked paths. It goes towards the end of a hedge then follows its left side to a redundant stile by a large gap into another field. Continue in much the same direction to the river bank on the far side of the field and turn right along it to a stile and gate which lead to a road. Turn left over the bridge to a T junction on a bend. Turn right for a short distance and find a kissing gate with a Monarch's way waymark on it. Between Aston Cantlow and Wootton Wawen, the route follows the valley of the tiny River Alne. The river rises just north of Henley In Arden and stays in Warwickshire throughout its length before joining the River Arrow at Alcester. You get to see some lovely stretches of it on this walk.
[4] Go through the gate and follow the path uphill along the left edge of the field to cross a stile by a gate. The path now gets a bit steeper as it continues ahead aiming for a gate in the hedge at the top of the bank, which is slightly right of straight on. From this gate, (which is a lovely spot for a rest!), the path heads downhill across a field with old ridge and furrow plough marks on it, to an easily spotted gate at the bottom, which is framed by two large oak trees. Cross the driveway and find another gate behind the leftmost tree. Go to the left side of the brick barn ahead and find a stile beyond it. Follow the right edge of the next field to a road. Turn right and go under a railway bridge that crosses both the road and river. Immediately afterwards, turn left along a concrete drive to a kissing gate on the right. (Technically, the path goes between two fences between the drive and the railway, but that is massively overgrown and everyone has been using the drive for years.)
(B)The route from Little Alne to Wootton Wawen follows the Monarch's Way, a 615 mile route following Charles II's escape route from the Battle Of Worcester to the south coast. This section was waymarked by Ramblers volunteers in 2009 so should hopefully be easy to follow!
[5] Go half left across the next field to the right end of a large concrete and wire fence which encloses a sewage works. Hold your nose and walk between the fence and the river bank to emerge in a large field. Keep right to another stile and continue following the river on your right to a footbridge. Do not cross, but go up the small bank ahead, which turns out to be the end of a flood bank, and walk along it, heading for the church tower in the distance, to reach a kissing gate by a cottage. Continue straight ahead up a drive to reach the A3400.
(C) Wootton Wawen is known for its Church, which is said to be the oldest in Warwickshire. It must surely appear near the top of the lists of most beautiful and interesting churches in the county too. Do go in and take a look at the Saxon sanctuary. To the left is a village shop and a pub if you need refreshments, and there is a railway station with trains back to Wilmcote if you have had enough. To the right, the grand looking Wootton Hall, mainly built in 1687, looks over some lovely lakes formed by damming the Alne. It was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers during World War 1. It was badly run down by 1958 and at risk of being demolished, but was bought by a developer who rescued it by converting it into flats and putting mobile homes in the grounds.
[6] Turn right and follow the road over the ornamental bridge. (Note the mile post on the left side. We are exactly 100 miles from London here!) Immediately after the bridge turn right up a drive, passing two impressive stone eagles on the left. After the brick and wood fence on the left ends, go through a kissing gate in the wire fence on the left and up to a gate in the far right corner. Go through it and follow the path as it goes left then meanders through the trees to a plank bridge and a gate onto the road. Turn right for 50 yards then left up a track that leads past houses on the left to the canal. (Ignore the private signs, which only apply to motorists.)
[7] Turn right along the canal. At bridge 55 the towpath crosses to the left hand side. Continue past lock 39 to reach the Edstone Aqueduct.
(D) The canal from Birmingham to Stratford was built between 1793 and 1816. Its most remarkable feature is the cast iron Edstone Aqueduct, the largest canal aqueduct in England. As you walk along the towpath over it you get a good idea of how it was constructed, and information boards tell you more of its history. Feel free to walk down the steps at the far end to view it from ground level. The disused railway we crossed earlier joined the main line at this point. As steam engines were always hungry for water, a hose pipe used to be connected to the bottom of the Aqueduct and locomotives could stop here to fill up.
[8] Continue a short distance further along the canal to bridge 57. Cross it and enter the field beyond. Turn right a short distance to the corner then left uphill with the hedge to your right. Before reaching the top right corner, look for a way mark on a tree by a boggy patch on the right, helpfully covered with some corrugated iron and planks. Go through the bushes to find a stile. Cross this and go half right to a stile in the wooden fence opposite. Continue in the same direction to a gate behind some rubble to a road at a bend.
[9] Go ahead along the road for 10 yards then left along a track with a hedge to the right. (The OS maps show the path on the other side of the hedge.) Go straight ahead over a cross path in the field corner, and in the next large field walk half left across the middle, keeping close to the bottom of the slope on the left, without actually going up it, to a stile in the far corner. Continue ahead to a stile in the far right corner of the next field. The path then zig zags with the hedge on the right to reach a cross path which goes right through a large gate in a wire fence. Follow this, but do not go over the stile next to the gate ahead. Instead, turn left and continue along two large fields with the wire fence and remains of a hedge on your right.
[10] At the far right corner of the second field, cross two stiles and continue ahead along another field with a hedge on the left. Cross two more stiles, beyond which the path becomes enclosed, and swings round the edge of Mary Arden's farm to reach the road opposite the village stores. Turn left, then left back up Station Road to the railway station.