Centenary Way Day 6

Day 6 - Leamington Spa to Itchington Holt- 10.4 Miles

As usual Rob and I started day 6 of Centenary Way later than we had hoped. It is now quite a drive from home to the start of each day's walking, making early starts difficult. Also on this occasion the car was playing up and popping and starting from about three quarters of the way to Leamington. I later found out it was one of the coils in the fuel injection system malfunctioning. Anyway, we made it eventually, and parked in a multi-storey car park and made our way through the Regency Period town centre to the Pump House (1814) where we finished day 5 of the walk last time with my friend Lindsay.
It was a lovely day, ideal for walking, sunny but with a slightly cool breeze. From The Pump Rooms our day's walking commenced through the lovely Jephson Gardens. They are named after Dr. Henry Jephson, who was a leading figure in the town's early 19th Century expansion as a health spa. We took photos of the numerous fountains and monuments on our way through as we walked alongside The River Leam. At the far end of the park our way was very annoyingly blocked by fences around a worksite, meaning we had to retrace our steps to another entrance gate and walk around the edge of the park via the road. Much of the park is being worked on at the moment, but it will be very worthwhile when its all finished.	Rob going through the gates of Jephson Gardens opposite the Pump Rooms in Leamington, at the start of Day 6
Me sitting by a fountain in Jephson Gardens, Leamington Spa
Rob by the fountain in Jephson Gardens, Leamington.	Rob by monument to Dr. Henry Jephson.
The statue of Jephson, the man himself, inside the monument.
Once we rejoined the official route at the far (blocked) gate of Jephson Gardens we crossed the road and entered Newbold Comyn Park, which again was a lovely ribbon park along the River Leam, and gave this 'town stretch' of the walk a very rural feel. From this point we had a choice to make. We could either follow the official route of Centenary Way along the Grand Union Canal or take an alternative route proposed by our guidebook again, which we decided to do as it sounded more varied. The path climbed above the valley carrying the canal, and through the former parkland of Offchurch Bury, a house said to occupy the site of a hunting lodge used by King Offa of Mercia. We stopped for a pub lunch at the Stag's Head in the pleasant village of Offchurch.
Rob on the bridge over the river just before we enter the grounds of Offchurch Bury.	Rob outside our lunch stop in Offchurch - The Stag's Head.
From the pub we set off up a field path to the top end of the village and from there across bright fields of yellow rape until we joined the busy Fosse Way. We walked along this for almost half a mile to the canal bridge, where we once again rejoined the official Centenary Way route running alongside the Grand Union Canal. After about a mile we got to Longbole Bridge over the canal, and crossed this to join Ridgeway Lane, which is a hedged and rutted ancient track.
Rob in a field of rape, between Offchurch and The Fosse Way	Beautiful fields of rape between Offchurch and The Fosse Way.
Me by a lock on The Grand Union Canal, just before we head for Ufton.	We followed this across the valley and then uphill into the village of Ufton, which stands on high ground and commands good views out across the rolling landscape down in this part of Warwickshire. We called in briefly to see my cousin who has recently moved to this village, but time was pressing so we couldn't stay for more than 5 minutes. We had hoped to get to The Burton Dassett Hills by the end of today's walking. However, this was now looking incredibly unlikely, as my mum was having to come and pick us up from wherever we had got to at the early time of 5pm, as she was going out early in the evening.
Rob on the way to my cousin's by Ufton Church.	View out over the shallow valley from Ufton (My cousin's back garden)
We pressed on, out of the village and through Ufton Fields Nature Reserve. These 77 acres of ponds and grassland are managed by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and were established in 1972 on ground worked 20 years earlier for limestone. After the reserve we entered a lane and then cut across long field paths towards the village of Harbury. Just before the village we joined a track which crosses the impressive brick viaduct over the Leamington Spa - Banbury railway line. Apparently this railway cutting was the world's deepest when it was dug in 1852. The village of Harbury seemed quite pleasant, and is apparently famous for the fossilised remains of a toothy 15ft dinosaur (a macroplata) buried 190 million years ago and dug up in 1927. It is now housed in The Natural History Museum in London. We didn't have much time to wander about the village and take it all in, as by this time I had rung mum and told her we would meet her at Itchington Holt at 5pm and there was still a good way to go!
The pub at Harbury. I wish we'd had the time to explore the interesting buildings such as the old windmill and church.
As we left Harbury, the views out over the shallow valley were beautiful and we caught glimpses of Chesterton windmill (attributed to Inigo Jones) to the north west. This was built in 1632, as an observatory for the Peyto family and has long outlasted their great house. Warwickshire south of the Avon is known as the Feldon, from the Saxon for field domain. The word suggests a landscape very different from the wooded Forest of Arden north of the river. The last part of the day was a bit of a forced route march along a 3 mile section of bridleway edging arable fields to reach our arranged meeting place at 5pm. It would have been nice to have taken our time at the far end, where the bridleway skirted the great wood of Itchington Holt, which is one of the few woods in the Feldon area. Unfortunately we couldn't spare any time and didn't reach mum until 5.30pm anyway! On our final approach we had good views of the M40 and the Burton Dassett Hills in front of us…but they would have to wait until day 7. Mum drove us back into Leamington to collect the car from where we'd left it. The car was ok until we got nearly home, when it started popping and starting again. It didn't bother us as we stopped for a lovely Thai meal on the way back anyway, having worked up a nice appetite :) A lovely day all in all…even with rushing towards the end it was definitely the best and most rural day of the whole walk so far.