Phonebox Walk
Rambling Away To Cosgrove - Revisited
This is an easy circular walk, and features canal and riverside walks. Cosgrove is situated in the North West corner of Milton Keynes, just off the A508.
Duration: circa 5 miles and it takes about 2 hours. It's mostly flat with just a couple of stiles.
There is very little parking in the village, but if you clear it with the landlord of The Barley Mow (where refreshments and food are available) he may be happy for you to use his car park. The Galleon along the Old Wolverton Road is also available for refreshments.
1. Leave the Barley Mow car park, turn left and walk down "The Stocks" by some pretty cottages towards the Grand Union canal. Pass through the "Horse Tunnel" and then climb up on to the canal, (this was built during the 1790's) and turn left this takes you past the locks and then towards Wolverton to the "Iron Trunk" aqueduct (this was manufactured in 1811to replace the collapsed brick construction) . Once across the aqueduct , leave the canal to the left and head down the steps to the river path.
2. Keep right here and with the river on your left, (across the river, The Great Ouse is Cosgrove Leisure Park), follow the path in a large arc to the right towards Wolverton viaduct (this was built in 1838 at a cost of £30,000.00). Ignoring the path under the viaduct , the path continues to the right and proceeds along the back of the Old Wolverton Road industrial area, at a fork in the paths keep to the right passing to the right of Manor Farm, the barn has roosting for bats on high on the wall. The left fork takes you straight up to the canal. After the farm the path bears round to the right and then left up to the canal.
3. Turn left on the canal and up to the Old Wolverton Road with The Galleon pub across the canal, here turn right cross the bridge and just after the pub turn right in to the ground of Old Wolverton Church , this is also the site of the old medieval village of Wolverton the outline of the buildings can be seen in the fields. Pass the church , which has Saxon origins but was rebuilt in 1819, and follow the path down to the right to the river, here we turn left towards Wolverton Mill.
4. Now converted in to flats there was milling here before the Doomsday book of 1086 but this building was erected during the late 1700's. On reaching the mill we turn right to the bridge and cross over into the field heading in a slight diagonal direction to the right we eventually pass through a gate and continue diagonally right to another gate and then right towards the woods that border the canal. Keep left in the corner of this field and eventually join the "Old Stratford Cut" (Buckingham Arm) a disused spur of the canal now used as a mooring turn right here back to the main canal and cross over using the footway on the right hand lock gate.
5. Once over turn to the left and walk back along the canal to Cosgrove, at the Horse Tunnel sign leave the canal to the right and drop down on to the road and then left under the canal, back up "The Stocks" and in to the Barley Mow.
48 Phonebox Magazine
Graham Edwards