Worcester Ramblers Barn Owl Circular 29 January 2026

 

A  Worcester Ramblers circular walk that started at the Barn Owl pub on the North side of Worcester. Very muddy in places but at least it didnt rain seriously. 

The route visited the 12th century Grade 1 listed. St Nicholas church, the oldest in the Worcester Parish

total of 5.7 miles in around 2 hours

Worcester Ramblers Sinton Green 22 January 2026

 

Liz had bought me membership of Ramblers Uk as a christmas present. It took until January 15 for the membership pack to arrive! Looking on the web site the first local walk was with the Worcester group on January 22 so i decided to join them

This walk started at the bus shelter on Sinton Green. I was made very welcome. It was very muddy but at least it didnt rain

6.6 miles total in 2 hours 20 minutes

CWOG Reccie to Barby Northants

This was to be a CWOG reccie for a future walk. It was to start from the Barby Church at 1015. However when I arrived there was no sign of the other three expected participants, I did search all entrances to the church, churchyard and  hall without success. I hung around until 1025 (meeting the priest arriving for the 1030 service) then decided to go for a walk on my own. 

As I hadnt planned anything i decided to visit Ashby st ledger, then the locks at Braunston then back up the Oxford canal to HMP Onley then back to Barby. Navigation was challenging for the first half due to fog, resulting in compass navigation Practice. 

The Lower Braunston lock was inspected 

then the grand union canal was followed to its junction with the Oxford canal. 

The Junctiion Grand Union goes left, Oxford canal goes Right

The entertainment at the junction was provided by a long barge (from Bristol) taking the Oxford canal then realising the mistake and reversing back into the junction before continuing on the Grand Union canal. 

The Oxford canal has a very narrow towpath (12" in places) very muddy and inundated by the canal in places causing one to have to step over water connected to the canal. Onley had a large marina and a cafe . Unfortunately it was closing 10 minutes after I got there! I completed the walk by walking up the muddy Barby hill back to the Church

The view of HMP Onley and the Marina from Barby Hill. The Fog had not cleared