20/03/21 - The Centenary Way - Stage 1 - Kingsbury

Distance - 9.1 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Stephen Cross, former mayor of Warwick, has done this before.  He takes a midlands Long Distance Path, carves it up into a series of connected circular walks and then releases it as a book. Last time out, it was a walk per month on the Heart of England Way.  This time, I will be marking the monthly passage of time by the follow up, the Centenary Way.

So the Centenary Way - starts at Kingsbury, ends at Upper Quinton (Cotswolds, not Smethwick) and is 100 miles long.  The book promises 32 circular walks on the cover, yet inside I can find only 29.  This screws up my plans.  The finish was carefully timed to coincide with when I could retire - assuming there are any pubs to retire to.

32 or 29 Walks?

The First CW Marker

My walk starts at Kingsbury Village - where I save myself £4.50 by not parking at the water park.  The end of the blog will reveal whether I found anything to spend my saved money on.

The church is impressive, overlooking the River Tame and there's an ancient wall that looks rubbish photographed but must have historical importance.  If it was something interesting - my new discovery - https://wiki-map.com/ - fails to provide any information.  The OS Map marks it as hall in an ancient font.  Historic England provides the details of this castle/fortified farm.

Kingsbury's Highlight - The Church

The bad news is that this exact walk is taken in on the Heart of England Way (Stephen, you lazy Mayor).  I know what to expect. It was crap then and even after walking it in the opposite direction, it's still crap now.

Kingsbury Water Park is the highlight - if you can class a series of filled in gravel pits, honking geese and muddy tracks as a highlight.  Still, it must be all that passes for entertainment in these parts, as it is packed.  When teenage girl gangs have taken up rambling, you know the world is in trouble.  Although I couldn't help but overhear how hard it is to court boys on Snapchat. 

 

As good as it gets on the CW, Stage 1

Once you leave the Water Park, there's not much else to report.  A lengthy section of road walking leads to the pub at Whitacre Heath.  In a bid to stop a can bearing, well prepared rambler from using their garden furniture to reminisce on happier times when I was served a dodgy doom bar here, they have turned the tables to use as barricades.

No Rest Here, Mappiman

I promise to stop at the next available resting places - which transpires to be a fallen tree trunk in a copse, north of Nether Whitacre.  Since the girl gangs of Kingsbury, I have not seen a sole - yet the instant I pull the ring on my liquid lunch, along comes a lady on a pony and trap, who proceeds to use the field opposite to create the gypsy version of the Badminton horse trials.  At least she has an audience, a grumpy rambler, plagued by flies, extracting as much joy as possible from a 2.8% IPA in a 330ml can.

Can finished, the flies accompany me to Foul End, Camp Farm and then across the huge expanse of green that turns into a military firing range.  The flags are lowered, so not even any excitement of getting hit from a stray SA80 Round.

It's been a trudge but I'm ready to see what Kingsbridge has to offer the hungry.  No point bothering the Royal Oak - a huge Marstons Pub, overlooking the town from on high.  The White Swan is now famous for only having the bus stop named after it, serving currently as a chinese takeaway.  Eventually, I stumble upon a grim parade of shops under some flats - with one a cafe.  Joy at the homemade sausage rolls sign quickly evaporates, as the place is in darkness.

I know the route will improve, there are signs of spring and if I am lucky, the pubs of Shustoke will have ample beer gardens to take post 12/4/21 advantage of.

Signs of Spring