Walk 2: Canals & Woodland Walk

Turn right out of Canalside Farm gate, cross over the road and the bridge. Turn down left to join the canal towpath (Trent and Mersey Canal). Go right on the tow path and then over the beautiful historic Junction Bridge that crosses the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Continue on for 200 yards to reach your first lock.

Dip down under a footbridge over the canal, and continue on the towpath for 100 yards to another old footbridge over the canal which used to be one of the main access routes into the Shugborough Estate. Leave the towpath and go over this bridge, turning right immediately after crossing into a beautiful small woodland sandwiched between the canal and the railway (you will need to climb the steep bank to view the railway in the cutting!).

Follow the lovely woodland path for a quarter mile until you reach a fence at the end. Retrace your steps to the start of the woodlands, but this time turn right under the railway bridge (instead of left over the canal bridge).

Follow the track out to the road and past the school. Turn left down road into Great Haywood village. At the Clifford Arms pub follow the road that runs between the pub and its car park, through a small industrial yard and down on to the bridleway at the side of the railway to the road (Mill Lane) at the end. Take care emerging from here, go under the railway bridge and head back to our Farm gate.