Hunningham
Circular Walk 8 (5 Miles)
Walk Overview
This is a completely new walk created in 2021 to avoid HS2. It is just under 5 miles, across mostly flat open countryside, starting and finishing at The Red Lion - a lovely riverside pub in Hunningham. You are welcome to use the pub car park if you are returning for refreshments.
PLEASE NOTE: (A temporary diversion is in place on this route owing to a damaged & dangerous bridge on the original route)
The GPS file has been updated to reflect this diversion
Walk Details
- Start: Red Lion Hunningham CV33 9DY
- Start Grid Ref: SP373 685
- Parking: Pub car park or very limited roadside
- Refreshments: Red Lion (01926 632715)
- Maps: OS Explorer 221 or Landranger 151
- Distance: 5 miles
- Time: 2½ hours
- Stiles: 1(dog friendly)
- Download: Walk GPS (GPS Exchange Format, GPX)
- GPS and GPX explained
- Find a mobile app on the Apple App Store or Google Play
Updated May 2024
Walk Instructions
Section A
Turn right out of the Red Lion car park to cross the bridge over the River Leam. Pass drive on left and immediately after the Severn Trent booster station take kissing gate left (marked with the distinctive Millennium Way waymarker).
PLEASE NOTE: (A temporary diversion is in place here owing to a damaged & dangerous bridge on the original route)
The diversion is shown as a purple dotted line on the map above.
Follow the hedgeline on the right up the field and go through kissing gate. Continue with the hedge on the left to the kissing gate (just after 3rd large tree; the first of which is dead). Slip through the gate and walk with hedge on your right to another kissing gate. Turn half right to diagonally cross field to NE corner, and another kissing gate. Path leads across field to a grassy lane and a gate onto the road.
Red Lion PubHunningham
Idyllic settings
Section B
Cross road and go left, passing St. Michael’s Church, Weston under Weatherley, and continue to follow the road around to right and, just before the bungalow, enter track on right, next to "Little Haven" to enter footpath on left, to go past power pole. Stay along with hedge left and go through corner gap, staying ahead on a gently rising path to enter a large field. Stay with hedge left to wide corner gap with waypost. Follow waymarker, still on rising path to cross young trees. Continue straight ahead to hedge gap across large field just to left of lone tree. Go through hedge gap to cross another set of young trees and then stay directly ahead across next field towards clump of trees to exit by waymarked metal kissing gate. Cross small wooden ditch bridge and stay ahead with hedge left. Just before the corner of next field look out for gap left ( with damaged waymarker post in hedge). Go through gap and past hedge corner to take diagonal path across large field to exit via waymarked metal kissing gate and awkward ditch to road.
Section C
Turn right on road to walk past Waverley Lodge and 50 paces past the 50mph sign take waymarked path left into field and go with hedge left. Exit at corner across small wooden bridge and kissing gate and continue with hedge left. After 30 paces take two further metal gates over damaged wooden ditch bridge and go right on very narrow track between hedge and fence (this narrow path can be quite overgrown during the summer months). Go past one red topped gas pole and eventually reach another red-topped gas post by a wide gap. Go under power lines and through gap and bear right keeping trees right to reach a waypost. Go right over wooden ditch bridge into large field. Follow the line indicated by the yellow waymarker by going over the field centre, bearing slightly left, to reach a waypost and stile in top left hand corner (if this field has been recently ploughed with no obvious path, just go left around the field edge to reach the same gate). At the corner go over the dog friendly stile and continue with small stream and trees left. After a short way go left over stream via wooden bridge into large field with wooded area on left. Go straight ahead towards corner of wood walking up field to reach waymarker. Go right to pass a second waymarker to reach corner of Wappenbury Wood. Then, at the corner of the wood, stay ahead across large field where the downhill path is usually well demarcated and you will have a nice view of the church at Weston under Wetherley over to the far right.
Open countryside
Quiet paths
Section D
On reaching the road, cross over junction towards Wappenbury & Eathorpe. Stay along road to reach Wappenbury Hall on left and just opposite bear right down cul-de-sac towards St John the Baptist's Church (St Anne's Church is close by!). Just past Roman Camp Farm, reach the church then turn right at waypost to follow blue bridleway waymarker. Pass some small dwellings on your left then stay ahead on track keeping long laurel hedge on right to reach two metal gates. Take the left-hand gate to continue along the bridleway to walk slightly downhill and take gated bridge over River Leam. Go straight on to walk under power lines and take metal gate to stay along bridleway walking parallel to overhead cables. Eventually you will reach a gate leading to road. Turn right on road to return to your starting point at The Red Lion for some well earned refreshment.
Points of Interest - What to know and what to see...
by Andy Botherway
Bridge at Hunningham
The Red Lion
Our starting point, The Red Lion, was flooded in 2007 and subsequently refurbished. It has numerous riverside seats for eating outside and is well known in the area.
Hunningham Bridge over the River Leam is of medieval origin and Grade II listed. It was rebuilt in 1651 at a cost of £20.
Hunningham
The name Hunningham comes from ancient times meaning 'Homestead/village of Huna's people' or 'hemmed-in land of Huna's people'.
The church of St Margaret with its picturesque timber bell cote dates from 13th Century. There was already a church at Wappenbury but parishioners on the Hunningham side of the river were often prevented from attending services due to flooding so Sir Geoffrey Corbucion, who died in 1242, built St Margaret’s.
To the north of the church are the holloways of an abandoned part of the village. The village population shrank in the mid-1800’s due to closure of the local lunatic asylum.
There is a nature reserve close to the village, managed as a hay meadow, called Hunningham Meadow.
St Margaret's
Weston Under Wetherley
The Church of St Michael was built during the Medieval period with some work carried out in the 16th century and a vestry built more recently. The village is 4 miles north-east of Leamington Spa and stretches along the B4453 Rugby Road for a mile. The census shows a population of 454 living in 164 houses.
Wappenbury
This is some A small but interesting village situated on the north bank of the River Leam, Wappenbury sits almost entirely within the ramparts of an Iron Age hill fort. Wappenbury Wood, well to the north of the village, has some attractive walking paths and is the habitat for some unusual species. Worth a short diversion towards the end of Section C! Unusually there are two churches close to each other - St Anne's and St John the Baptist.
Wappenbury Hall
The long-time home of Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Cars Ltd. In 1937 William Lyons and his family moved from Gibbet Hill Road, on the outskirts of Coventry, to Wappenbury Hall, a large Victorian house set in extensive grounds close to the centre of Wappenbury village. During the 1950s and 60s, the hall appeared in a number of publicity shots for Jaguar Cars. Sir William Lyons died at Wappenbury Hall in 1985. His wife, Lady Greta, died the following year. They are both buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Wappenbury, a short distance from the Hall.