Walk 2 - Sulgrave via Magpie Farm

From Culworth, take the Banbury Lane down past Culworth Garage and take the footpath which goes straight on as the road bends to the right…. a rather tricky stile if the gate is closed.  The footpath goes straight past the new barn conversion.  Keep the hedges on the left all the time, heading towards the pig farm and solar park.  At the solar park carry straight on along the path between the solar park and the new hedge on the right.   At the end go down a slope through the hedge in the corner, cross a bridge and turn left.  The path heads to the left-hand corner of the field with Magpie Farm on the left as a marker. Magpie Farm was an old drover’s inn on the Welsh road.  The small triangular field opposite would have been where the drovers kept their cattle for the night on their way down to London. 

The stile in the hedge leads onto the road.  Cross this road and then head right along the top, Brackley road. Walk along the road past the HS2 works and take the signed footpath on the left. At the end of the field, through a gate and take the left-hand path which provides us with wide open views. This is a long footpath and about half way along, in the second field you take a left-hand foot path heading towards Sulgrave.  Cross the field, keeping to the right of the telegraph pole, through a gate and then diagonally heading past an area of trees and towards the houses on the right.

In the corner of the field by farm buildings take a sharp left turn over a bridge then head up the slope and out by some cottages.  Follow the path towards the church and through the gate in the left corner of the churchyard by the old Castle mound, which, like Culworth’s, is all that remains of the old Norman castle.  Through the churchyard, then on the road turn right and then left by the village shop into Stockwell Lane. The footpath back to Culworth is on the left at the bottom of the slope, round the garden made from what was until about 15 years ago, the site of the mill ponds of Sulgrave Mill.  The path (which can become quite muddy) then passes an orchard on the right and the old windmill which was restored in the 1980’s and is now home to a Sufi community and organic fruit farm.

Walk along the now metalled lane back to the main road, then turn right and follow the road back into Culworth.

This is not a strenuous walk with few hills and only a couple of stiles.  It takes about 2 hours and is just under 5 miles long.