The Three River Ramble – Badby circular walk

This eleven-mile circular walk loops widely around the ancient hillfort of Arbury Hill. At 225 metres, its flat-topped Northampton Sand summit is the county’s highest point. Within the route, three rivers rise: the Nene, Cherwell, and Leam, flowing towards The Wash, the Thames, and the Avon respectively. You can start from any of the seven villages or hamlets along the way, but I usually begin in beautiful Badby, which also has The Maltsters Arms—a welcoming pub and the perfect place to finish with a well-earned cold beer and hearty food.

The route originally began in Badby, starting from the Badby Youth Hostel, which operated from 1932 to 2005. During that time, it occupied three different mid-17th-century stone cottages. When I worked for many years as a schoolteacher at Southbrook School in Daventry, I used to walk students across the fields to the hostel, where they stayed overnight, played games, and cooked a simple meal in the tiny kitchen as part of their induction to the school.

The route now connects the Jurassic Way with the Knightley and Nene Ways, forming part of the county’s established network of long-distance paths. The 12-mile Knightley Way runs from Badby to Greens Norton and continues as the Grafton Way, which meets the North Bucks Way near the county boundary at Cosgrove, a further 12 miles away. Together, these routes cross rolling countryside once owned by the Knightley family and the Dukes of Grafton. The Nene Way was the county’s first long-distance route, following the River Nene valley for 70 miles from Badby to Wansford through historic towns and villages. It has since been extended to The Wash, making the full route 110 miles long.

Badby

Badby has been described as “one of the prettiest villages in the county”, with its ironstone cottages, thatched roofs, and attractive village green. The Maltsters Arms is the village’s only remaining pub, offering walkers local ales and food after a walk through the woods and around this delightful village. Unfortunately, the 16th-century stone-and-thatch Windmill Inn has now closed. I always enjoyed stopping off at The Windmill, so I was disappointed to find that it has been closed for some time. Recent research has shown that over thirty pubs a week are calling time on last orders, with the closures worst in the rural areas of Britain. Use it or lose it, if we are to help save our village pubs.

South of the village, the route passes through Badby Woods, an ancient 180-acre woodland that began as a medieval deer park. It was designated a deer park in 1245–46 for the manor’s owners, the Abbey of Evesham, whose abbot had a grange in the village. The Abbey enclosed the wood, and the remains of the park pale—ditches and earth banks built to contain the deer—can still be seen today. They are among the best preserved in the county, especially along the woodland’s eastern edge.

Badby woods are famed locally for its carpet of bluebells in the spring months of April & May. The woods are over seven hundred years old and were designated a site of Special Scientific Interest in 1985. You will see native Hazel, Oak and Ash trees in the wet areas down by the streams and a mixture of Birch, Elder, Honeysuckle, Holly and Rowan across much of the woodland. Woodland plants include wood anemones and wildlife includes badgers, foxes, pipistrelle bats and many birds such as the nuthatch, wood warbler and tree pipit. Within the wood there are bracken glades, ancient earthworks and streams which can at times prove awkward to cross so make sure you are wearing the correct footwear.

Fawsley:

A short walk around the eastern side of the woodland brings you to Fawsley Park, with its beautiful lakes, the isolated church of St Mary the Virgin, and Fawsley Hall Hotel, an elegant country house hotel set among formal gardens and parkland landscaped by Capability Brown in the 1760s. The name Fawsley is said to come from the Saxon words “Falepe”, meaning the colour of fallow deer, and “ley”, meaning meadow. In 1540, Edmund Knightley built the great hall, which remained home to successive generations of the family until 1938, when the last baronet died. As on many great estates of the period, sheep pasture replaced arable fields, and village tenants were evicted. St Mary’s Church now stands alone, the former village site lying beneath the lakes laid out by Capability Brown in the 18th century. Set on a grassy knoll and surrounded by a ha-ha, the church contains the Knightley tombs, which range from ancient splendour to simple elegance. Look out for the stained glass commemorating the Knightley family’s links with the Washingtons of Sulgrave, including the “stars and stripes” in their family crest.

Church Charwelton & Charwelton

As you approach Church Charwelton, you pass one of the county’s lost villages, where residents were evicted to make way for sheep pasture. The isolated parish church of Holy Trinity is the only remaining sign that a village once stood in these fields. Continuing to Charwelton, on the main Daventry to Banbury Road, you will find a 15th-century ironstone packhorse bridge just three feet wide. Packhorses were later replaced by horse-drawn carriages, and the narrow bridge fell out of use except by pedestrians. If you cross the pack – horse bridge you will see The Fox and Hounds, a very popular community owned village pub. Fortunately, it has been preserved for everyone to enjoy. As you walk, look out for the ridge-and-furrow pattern of the former common fields, still clearly visible and among the best preserved in the Cherwell valley. Also note the large spoil heaps on the left, left behind during the construction of the railway and Catesby Tunnel. It is hard to believe today, but there was once a railway station between the two settlements, just east of the packhorse bridge. It closed in 1963, and the line followed in 1966 as part of the Beeching cuts.

Hellidon

From the hill above Hellidon, the route descends gently past the old windmill, giving walkers their first view of The Red Lion, a low stone-built village pub and a welcome stop for anyone ready to rest, take off their boots, and enjoy food and drink. The windmill on Windmill Hill was built in the late 18th or early 19th century. Derelict by 1973, it has since been restored, apparently as a family home, and once had its own vineyard. Hellidon is the source of the River Leam, which rises near Leam House before flowing into Warwickshire and joining the Avon. The 14th-century church of St John the Baptist stands in the village centre. In 2020, Hellidon’s estimated population was 265, far below its recorded peak of 449 in 1861. Like many rural settlements, the village declined as farm labourers and other residents moved to expanding towns such as Daventry.

Catesby Viaduct and Tunnel

Continue through the village along Stockwell Lane, passing the church before reaching Catesby End and the gated road to Lower Catesby. Catesby Viaduct soon comes into view, crossing the River Leam at the northern end of the tunnel that once took the Great Central Railway underground from Charwelton to Upper Catesby. Still striking in the open countryside, the viaduct points the way towards Staverton, another mile away across arable fields.

Staverton

Staverton has kept much of its village character, despite its closeness to Daventry and the Staverton golf course and hotel complex on its eastern edge. From its position on the edge of an escarpment, the village looks west across the River Leam valley into Warwickshire, with the Malvern and Shropshire hills visible on clear days. The Countryman, formerly the New Inn, is now the village’s only pub and is well worth a visit, although there were once three, including The Windmill on Windmill Lane and The Crown, now a private house facing The Green in the village centre. After refreshments at The Countryman, follow the A425 towards Daventry, pass the garage, then cross the road to the cricket field behind the veterinary surgery. A final two-mile walk across open fields brings you back to Badby, where you can enjoy a well-earned break at The Maltsters Arms, the village’s only remaining pub.

Badby to Fawsley: 1½ miles

Fawsley to Church Charwelton: 1½ miles

Church Charwelton to Charwelton: 1 mile

Charwelton to Hellidon: 2 miles

Hellidon to Lower Catesby: 1 mile

Lower Catesby to Staverton: 2 miles

Staverton to Badby: 2 miles

Total distance: 11 miles

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