Objective: take train from Bedworth to Tamworth, and cycle back along the Coventry Canal.

Trip Type: solo cycle

Distance: 23 miles

Time to complete: 3 hrs, 8.2 mph

Nicholson Guide: Guide 3, pp 53-59

Costs: free parking at Bedworth. Train from Bedworth to Tamworth £7.70 (1 per hour)

Difficulty: fair

Adjacent Rides: Coventry to Rugby, Fazeley Junction to Gas Street Basin, Fazeley Junction to Burton, Ashby Canal

Overview

Not the most exciting of rides, but easy to navigate apart from the initial ride through Tamworth. There is the odd tree root, sloping towpath, and protruding piece of sheet piling (watch your tyres!) but generally it’s fine. There’s only a couple of pubs en route, and nowhere worth mentioning for your post-ride pint.

1. Bedworth to Fazeley Junction (3 miles cycling)

Park your car in Mitchell Road, Bedworth, CV12 9HP. Go back to Coalpit Fields Road, turn right and head up to the station which is on your right, across the main road. Access down to the platform for trains to Tamworth is just before the bridge. There is 1 train per hour, no bike reservation required.

Emerging from Tamworth Station bear south on the A513 Saxon Drive past Aldi down to what is effectively a massive roundabout. At the pedestrian crossing cross the road towards Frankie & Benny’s. Turn left on the pavement and cross over the bridge. Drop down the slope and go straight across the cycleway crossroads towards the snowdome. Just before you get to it bear left under the ’roundabout’ to be alongside Peelers Way, A51. The cycleway chicanes left under Peelers Way, and continues on the left-hand side. After 1/2 mile, and passing under the A5, the path bears left up to the canal. Join the towpath and head south (turn right). Continue to Fazeley Junction, about a mile.

2. Fazeley Junction to Bedworth (20 miles)

This is a significant canal junction, taking boats into the heart of Birmingham, as well as up to the Trent and Mersey, or into the East Midlands, so take a good look around.

Turn round and head back the way you came. The towpath is good all the way out of Tamworth, although compacted earth and gravel it is wide and flat. There are some wide earth sections through nice country parks.

After Polesworth conditions worsen a little, but are still decent. The towpath improves again at the start of Atherstone Locks, and continues to be good through Hartshill and Nuneaton to Marston Junction (where the Ashby Canal joins the Coventry Canal) and then all the way to Bridge 13 at Bedworth (the far side of which the towpath is pretty poor to Hawkesbury Junction, as described in the Coventry to Rugby ride).

Climb the shallow steps before the Bridge 13, or continue under the bridge and use the slope at the other side. Cross the bridge and return to your car along Coalpit Fields Road.

I went to The Boat Inn near Hawkesbury Junction for a pint, but I wouldn’t recommend it – The Greyhound across the junction is probably a better bet.