Adderley footpaths -- your help is needed

Adderley footpaths -- your help is needed

It is with great pleasure that I can report that it is now possible to get from Bagley Lane straight through to Adderley for the first time since the 1950's! In an earlier report I showed the new kissing gates on each path just over the Cheshire border. I attach some photos of the route from the canal bridge on past Pool House and the lake.

There are three new large gates and one old one by a cottage on the left. Act courteously near the cottage. Most people from Audlem will want to access the canal towpath from bridge 73 before Pool Farm. Unfortunately due to miscommunication within the Shropshire Rights of Way team the gateway to the canal has been securely boarded up. They acknowledge the mistake but point out that before anything is done to access the canal the way through must be officially approved by the Canal and River Trust. The Trust was asked to help a month ago but have not replied. This is where I need your help. If I can get a barrage of emails to them they might stir their stumps.

So please write to enquiries.westmidlands@canalrivertrust.org.uk and include your pleasure at the footpath reopening and your dismay at the gateway to access the canal being blocked up. If you have used the route before please mention it.

So how do you legally get to the canal at the moment? Some walkers, frustrated at the lack of access to the towpath, have made a large hole in the barbed wire fence. This gives animals access to the canal and should not have been done. The sensible legal way at the moment is to continue through Pool Farm and past the lake until you see the large footpath sign on a new post. Then turn left down the bridleway until you meet Vicarage Lane. A few yards further to the left is a gateway to the towpath.

Peter Kay