Baddesley Clinton to Packwood walk
Baddesley Clinton is a secluded, intimate estate which was home to the Ferrers family for 500 years, whilst just over the fields Packwood was transformed by Graham Baron Ash in the 1920s from a 17th century farmhouse into a dream-like vision of a Tudor country home.
Map
Start:
Car park 139:SP199723
1
Begin at Baddesley Clinton's Visitor Reception. The walk begins by continuing left along the drive, passing Badger's Dell on the right just before the drive curves to the left.
2
At the end of the drive, cross the road and walk up the lane opposite. Look out for a public footpath sign on the left and follow the path across the fields, going through a series of kissing gates to rejoin the road at a canal bridge.
3
Turn right along the road and right again down a drive for The Grove, just after the railway bridge. At the end of the drive follow the footpath sign to the right along a hedge lined path which circles round to the left.
Baddesley Clinton
4
Emerge onto a lane and take the footpath signed opposite, heading up the field with the hedge on your left to meet a road.
Baddesley Clinton
5
Turn right along the road, taking a footpath on the left by the sign for Packwood House. Follow the avenue back to Packwood, crossing over Two Pits Pool and onto Chestnut Avenue from where you get a beautiful view of the house.
Baddesley Clinton
6
A good place to stop for a break would be at Packwood's Garden Kitchen restaurant, serving a range of hot and cold lunches, hot drinks, cakes and ice-creams.
Packwood House
Packwood House was described by a visitor in the 1920s as ‘a house to dream of and a garden to dream in.’ The house was originally built in the sixteenth century, yet its interiors were extensively restored between the First and Second World Wars by Graham Baron Ash to create a fascinating twentieth century recreation of a domestic Tudor house.
7
Make your way onto Packwood Lane, then follow the road to the left to meet Rising Lane.
8
At the junction go straight ahead along the road, following signs for Lapworth.
Baddesley Clinton
9
At a fork in the road, take the left hand lane and turn left over a canal bridge. Cross the road and on the far side of the bridge, take the footpath down to the towpath.
Baddesley Clinton
10
Turn right along the towpath, following the Stratford-upon-Avon canal past a series of locks and passing through the Kingwood Junction, where the Stratford Canal meets the Grand Union. Follow the Grand Union Canal and after the railway bridge, turn left over the footbridge and carry on along the towpath with the canal on your right.
Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal runs from Birmingham’s suburbia to Shakespeare’s Stratford in 25 picturesque miles. The canal is split into a northern and a southern section and the southern section was restored by the National Trust between 1961 and 1964. The revived canal was re-opened by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1964 and responsibility for it was transferred to British Waterways in 1988.
11
At bridge 65 take the steps up to the road, turn right along the road, past the Navigation Inn and take the footpath on the left signed for the Heart of England Way.
12
Follow this along a drive, through a stable yard and across the fields to meet the drive at Baddesley Clinton.
Baddesley Clinton
Baddesley Clinton is a remarkable survival of a medieval manor house and was home to the Ferrers family for over 500 years. The family was steadfast in its Catholic faith and the house passed from father to son for twelve generations. The name Baddesley refers to a Saxon called Baeddi, who cleared the site in the Forest of Arden. The house became Baddesley Clinton when the de Clinton family dug the moat in the thirteenth century and in 1517 the house passed into the Ferrers family who made Baddesley much of what it is today.
End:
Car park 139:SP199723
