For a New Year’s Day recovery stroll we stayed local. Robert had researched some of the drier pathways and we had a walk that avoided the worst of the mud that abounds. While most of the country was recovering from the New Year storms, Knowle escaped the worst and Robert divined that the rain should stop by the time the walk started, and it did (always a first time).

We walked down the canal from Kixley Lane until we picked up the Kenilworth Road, following that past the infamous Hedge House (mutter! mutter!) and followed a footpath that led nearly into Temple Balsall. Several members who walked locally claimed never to have used the path, and others recalled the strange days of going out for walks in the strange days of Lockdown when the countryside was quiet, the weather was a glorious spring.

We then skirted Springfield House, a school converted from a stately home. Some evidence of the estate still exists in the form of the bridge we used to cross the River Blythe, which to our surprise was not flooded at all.

We turned towards Barston, using the quiet roads and then returned across fields to Knowle, while discussing what we’d been up to over Christmas and New Year along with general putting the world to rights.

You can find the route we used on OS Maps here, which you can access the web or using the OS Map app for free which makes it easy to follow.

You can find a shorter variation of the walk in Solihull Council’s 12 Country Walks book (walk 3) which we have put a scan of in our Walking Guides.

Happy New Year!