THE restoration of the Droitwich canals is making good progress and a new public park – Droitwich Canals Gateway Park – has recently been established close to Hanbury Wharf.

It includes a children’s play area and a nature reserve. The site was found to be home to a range of wildlife, including slow worms, grass snakes and great crested newts. Children were involved in the design of the play area and helped with the information panels erected in the park. There is a children’s trail too, with plaques posing questions about the canal’s history.

The park makes a good starting point for this lovely and varied walk which includes both the Droitwich Barge Canal and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, together with beautiful Hanbury Park which is particularly lovely at this time of year.

It also offers good views of Church Coppice and Piper’s Hill Common. Further south, the Wychavon Way is followed for a couple of miles, and includes a delightful ridge-top section along Puck Hill, followed by a stroll through the secluded and unspoilt valley of Dean Brook, where buzzards soar overhead while grey herons stalk the brook.

FACT FILE

Start: Droitwich Canals Gateway Park, on B4090 Hanbury Road between Droitwich and Hanbury Wharf, near the rugby club, grid ref SO916630.

Length: Eight-and-a-half miles/13.5km.

Maps: OS Explorer 204, OS Landranger 150.

Terrain: Pasture, parkland, canal towpath, lanes, slopes – no hills.

Footpaths: Mostly excellent, apart from poor waymarking in places.

Stiles: 16.

Parking: Droitwich Canals Gateway Park.

Public transport: 144/244 or train, daily to Droitwich, then WCC services 151/158/354 Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; or walk from Droitwich – it’s only a very short distance; worcestershire.gov.uk/ bustimetables or 01905 765765.

Refreshments: The Eagle and Sun near Hanbury Wharf.

DIRECTIONS

1 Take the recently constructed towpath of the Droitwich Barge Canal and follow it to Hanbury Road Bridge. Join the towpath of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal opposite the Eagle and Sun and walk north. Leave the towpath after about half-a-mile, just before bridge 36, and join a track which crosses the railway. Walk to the far left corner of a pasture, go through a gate and then diagonally left across Summer Hill to meet a track by the edge of Summerhill Wood.

Walk up to a gate and enter a large field.

2 Go straight ahead for a few metres along a sunken track, then bear slightly right, passing to the right of a pool and continuing across the field to pass the far corner of Lady Wood. Proceed to a hedge, cross to the other side and turn left to a field corner. Turn right and keep to the field edge until the path bears left, going through a copse and past a pool to meet a lane. Join another footpath and walk across Hanbury Park.

Pass in front of the hall, across a lime avenue and through a gate.

Keep straight on until a waymark directs you to the right. Walk to a lane.

3 Cross to a gate opposite. Walk across a field to a stile then keep to the left edge of a second field until a stile gives access to a third field. Go diagonally across to the far side, then continue in the same direction across another field.

Keep straight on at a junction, cross a plank footbridge near the far side of the field and proceed along the edge to Pumphouse Lane.

Turn left then take a path on the right. Walk across a field to a stile, ignore a cross-path and gradually bear left across another field, passing close by a house to meet a lane.

4 Turn right then go more or less straight on at a staggered crossroad at Mere Green. Walk along a quiet lane, passing Mere Hall and Madam’s Hill. Turn right at Broughton Green, then right again when you meet the Wychavon Way, going through a gate to walk along the top of Puck Hill. After passing through fields the Wychavon Way briefly enters woodland then meets a track which runs along the outer edge of Goosehill Wood. Turn right along this track but don’t miss a gate on the left after about 400m where the path enters a field. Head diagonally downhill, not to the bottom corner of the field but towards the bottom corner of Puckhill Wood.

5 Cross Goosehill Lane and walk along the edge of Puckhill Wood. At the end of the wood, just beyond the first of two pools, the path goes diagonally left then follows Dean Brook. Don’t cross a footbridge but stay on the same side of the tree-lined brook. When the Wychavon Way eventually emerges from the trees it crosses a field and passes under the railway.

Turn left, cross a footbridge and enter a field on the right. Head for the far right corner, join the towpath and turn right to follow the Worcester and Birmingham Canal to Hanbury Road. Follow the Droitwich Barge Canal back to the park.

Worcester News recommends the use of OS Explorer Maps, your ideal passport to navigating the countryside. This walk is based on OS Explorer 204.