Mancetter - Broiled chickens, bean fields and Baronets

This was our second foray into the wilds of Warwickshire, just over a year after we did our first Warwickshire walk from Alcester to Stratford-upon-Avon.  Modern-day Warwickshire is a funny, kidney-shaped county and feels imposed upon by urban neighbours such as Coventry, Solihull and Birmingham.

The lurch of the urban sprawl into Warwickshire has left the county more or less divided into two parts - south Warwickshire, which we walked in last time - has the big tourists draws of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick town and Kenilworth Castle.  Rugby holds the middle ground, or the neck of the county and Nuneaton is the main settlement in north Warwickshire and was the focal point for our Mancetter walk.

One of the main reasons that we're doing this 'chester' series of walks is so we can visit parts of Britain that we wouldn't otherwise have visited and, I think it's safe to say, that north Warwickshire is somewhere we might never have been to, if it hadn't been for our Chester quest and the fact that the Romans found Mancetter to be a reasonable enough place to settle down in!

Lodgings and victuals

The Old House BnB in Witherley

We started our north Warwickshire experience by jumping off the train at Atherstone, which is the nearest station to Mancetter.  It was the last day of school for many teenagers around England and, during our walk along the Witherley Road, we were amused to find a trail of torn-up notebooks and other shredded remnants of academia, all leading triumphantly to the local high school!  I guess we've all been young at one point and the joy of 'School's out for summer' hasn't diminished since the days when BAM and I were in short pants!

This was one of those lucky occasions when we were able to find lodgings on a former Roman road, this time Watling Street, which was the road that ran from the Kentish ports to Wroxeter.  We had a lovely stay at the Old House BnB in Witherley and there was, very conveniently, a great pub opposite, The Bull Inn, which served up a mighty fine meal and great regional ale.

Witherley to Mancetter (0.4 miles/0.6 kilometres)

It's a short walk across a couple of fields to get from Witherley to Mancetter.  Witherley is actually in Leicestershire, so this short walk also included crossing the county border into Warwickshire.  The county (and regional) border is formed by the River Anker, a small river that runs from Nuneaton to Tamworth in nearby Staffordshire.

River Anker at Mancetter

The Roman name for Mancetter was Manduessedum which comes from the Celtic for 'horse chariot' and it's clear that Mancetter was a strategic staging point on the great road north.  It's believed that the Battle of Watling Street, when Celtic tribes rose up against the Romans, might have taken place around Mancetter.

These days Mancetter is quite a sleepy place and, as the traffic rushed by to the excitement of bigger towns and cities, we pottered around the Parish Church of St Peter's and marvelled at the sundial above the church door, which accurately told the time as 10:35.

Parish church of St Peter's in Mancetter

Church sundial at 10:35am

We were also quite impressed by the facade of Mancetter Manor - a privately owned house that dates back to the 14th century.

Mancetter Manor

An interesting piece of local history-in-the-making is the very visible campaign against a 'Chicken broiling' facility, which is proposed for the Nuneaton road, just south of St Peter's church.  I thought broiling was a cooking technique but, apparently, it refers to chickens that are bred purely for their meat and local residents are horrified by the impact on their village, of 40,000 chickens being bred to be slaughtered.  The villagers have successfully managed to block one application for the Chicken Broiling facility and they're currently resisting the appeal against this.

No Chicken Broiler in Mancetter

Mancetter to Oldbury Grange (1.5 miles/2.4 kilometres)

With thoughts of massacred chickens still on our minds, we took Quarry Lane out of the village and crossed the railway tracks and the Coventry canal, before skirting around Quarry Farm and making our way uphill towards Oldbury Grange.

We've seen quite a few canals on our travels, but the Coventry canal at Mancetter looks particularly un-canal-like, in that it's not very straight but meanders, much like it's wilder cousin, the river.  The Coventry canal dates back to the 1760's, so I guess it was one of the earlier canals of the Industrial revolution period.  We met the canal again at the end of our walk in Nuneaton and it was a lot better behaved and more canal-like there!

Meadow near Oldbury Grange

It's quite a pleasant walk from Mancetter to Oldbury Grange and surprisingly rural, considering how much urban sprawl emanates from Nuneaton.  This was a strange walk in many ways, as we spent the entire day skirting around Nuneaton and we were never more than a half a mile from Nuneaton's suburbs.  Yet the landscape was strangely peaceful and empty, despite the nice weather - I suppose most people don't venture too far from 'civilisation'.

There are great views from Oldbury grange across three counties and the nearby Hartshill Hayes Country Park attracts local walkers, runners and families escaping the cities to go on a day trip.  We had a short rest at the park's Tea kiosk, before heading off again in the direction of Ansley Common.

View from Oldbury Grange

Oldbury Grange to Ansley Common (0.7 miles/1.1 kilometres)

Just outside Oldbury Grange, we picked up a way-marked trail, part of the 99-mile Centenary Way, the centenary in question being the 100th anniversary of Warwickshire County Council.  True to form, the Warwickshire Centenary Way does a kidney-outline of the county, cleverly avoiding Coventry and other former parts of the historical county.

Warwickshire Way markers

There seemed to be a bit of competition going on in terms of the name of this trail and it sometimes felt as though the local Rotary club had been more successful in getting their way marks on the various wooden posts we passed along the way.  BAM seemed quite fond of the North Arden trail, whilst I preferred the officially sanctioned Centenary Way with it's way marks showing the symbol of Warwickshire; the bear and ragged staff (which you can also see on Warwickshire's flag).

Ansley Common to Robinson's End (2.4 miles/3.9 kilometres)

Anyone who's spent time in England this summer will know that it's been a pretty poor summer, weather-wise.  Cold, rainy and cloudy, our walks have felt more like autumn than anything else. However, it seems to have been a great summer for plants and our walk through the bean fields and meadows between Ansley Common and Robinson's End, saw us getting scratched to pieces by a range of brambles, nettles and crops, which seemed to have taken over the landscape in a scene reminiscent of Day of the Triffids!

BAM in a bean field

Wheat field and farm house near Robinson's End

This part of the walk involves getting around the main Leicester-Birmingham railway line and it was alongside the railway line that we found our flower of the day, the Rosebay Willowherb, also known as the fireweed.  

Rosebay Willowherb

At Robinson's End, we could see the suburbs of Nuneaton up-close, although it would still be a couple of hours before we made it to Nuneaton itself.

Robinson's End to Bermuda (2.8 miles/4.5 kilometres)

It was quite a zig-zaggy route from Robinson's End, through fields around Seeswood Pool, where we had to pause for a minute to let a local farm pass in his tractor, mid-crop chopping.  There was quite a sad memorial on Astley Road, for a group of young people who were killed in a car crash in November 2000, another local drama for us to bear witness to.

Coots on Seeswood pool

Turning right off Astley Road, we followed the trail across the driveway that leads to Arbury Hall, the historical home of the Newdigate Baronets.  Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Hall from the driveway but, by all accounts, it's a pretty impressive Elizabethan building in Gothic style.

Arbury Hall driveway

Continuing as far as the Nuneaton Academy, we turned right again and followed the path through farmland, all the way to Harefield Lane and the curiously named suburb of Bermuda. A former pit village, Bermuda was named after local aristocrat, Edward Newdigate, who became Governor of Bermuda in the 1880's.

Bermuda to Nuneaton (2.9 miles/4.7 kilometres)

The last three miles into Nuneaton took us over the A444 Coventry to Nuneaton road, through the Bermuda Industrial Estate, along the bottom of the Hill Top estate and across the Turn Over Bridge, where we turned left to follow the Coventry Canal towards the town centre.

Turn Over bridge near Nuneaton

We didn't quite know what to make of Nuneaton - it's a strange mixture of abandoned buildings and cautious new developments. They're building a new railway stop at Bermuda Park and there seems to be a lot of investment in the Nuneaton to Coventry line, so it's only a matter of time really, before Nuneaton itself becomes a suburb of that bigger city which is, after all, a mere nine miles away.

Coventry Street, Nuneaton

United Reformed Church in Nuneaton

The Victorian novelist, George Eliot, was born in Nuneaton and we found a George Eliot statue in the town centre.  George Eliot lived at a time when rural England was experiencing a great deal of change, due to the Industrial Revolution.  In many ways, her novels champion the simplicity of country-living and deal with themes that are as relevant today, as they were more than a century ago.

Statue of George Eliot in Nuneaton

With our city-dwelling clocks ticking, myself and BAM struggled to find somewhere that we could eat at 5pm in Nuneaton, but we finally settled on the Istanbul Grill, a really convenient cafe not far from Nuneaton station and six-thirty train back to London.

Access for wheelchair users

Path through crop fields

To be honest, very little of this walk would be accessible to wheelchair users and certainly not in a continuous way, although we did occasionally walk along country lanes. 

Hartshill Country Park is a nice place to visit and there is some accessible walking there which might suit wheelchair users.

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