(S/E) From The Joshua Bradley entrance on the main road (Hyde Road), turn right and immediately right again over a stile into a wooded valley.
Descend to the stream, cross and climb up the other side. Bear right and walk up the side of the valley, keeping just inside the woodland edge.
(1) On emerging from the trees walk up to Bowlacre Farm and take a narrow path straight on between wall and hedge. Cross the next field to a kissing gate behind a lone alder tree. Bear right and walk up the right-hand side of the next two fields to a track.
Turn right (signposted Woodley) and follow the track along the contour, ignoring the uphill track through the farms on the left.
(2) Below Back o’ th’ Hill Farm, turn left, passing to the right of the first building (“The Barn”) then between farmhouse and barn to meet the entrance drive. When the drive bends right and downhill, go straight on onto a level path across a field. Cross a stile and follow the bottom edge of the next field to a stile on the right by an isolated house. Turn left and follow the drive out to the road.
(3) Turn right (downhill) to a T-junction; cross over and turn left, with the school on your right. Beyond a left-hand bend, turn right into Greave Fold (“Unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles”) just before the Foresters Arms. Follow this narrow lane between cottages and past a converted chapel; beyond (Whitegates Cottage) follow an alleyway to emerge among modern housing.
Turn left then immediately right along a grassy gap between two houses. Cross a grassy area to join a wall by an old stone slab stile and continue to a metalled road (Healdwood Road).
(4) Turn right (uphill); when the road bends right follow it past a house (Wildervank) and keep on as it degenerates into a track and starts to descend.
Keep left at the Heald Wood interpretative sign and follow the path downhill with an old quarry to your right.
(5) At the bottom of the hill, just beyond a second interpretation board, turn sharp left along the bottom of the wood, with fields on your right. This path is narrow and may be a little overgrown. At a gate before another old quarry, keep right to pass through a hedge, then turn right and skirt the right-hand edge of the field down to a farm. Beyond a menage turn right to meet Hillside Lane.
(6) Turn left to pass under the railway arch. (To avoid Woodley Tunnel, turn right after the railway but before the canal along a metalled alleyway with a “no cycling” sign, and follow Langdale Road; at the end turn left and rejoin the towpath next to Bankfield Road; skip to waypoint (7).)
Otherwise, cross the canal and turn left down the steps to the towpath. Turn left again to pass under the bridge, and follow the canal for 1⁄4 mile to and through Woodley Tunnel.
(7) Beyond the tunnel, pass under the railway bridge and the subsequent bridge 12 and continue along the canal. Pass bridge 11 and continue past open fields, and then the derelict Unity Mill, on the far bank.
At bridge 10, cross the canal and walk up the field to the railway line; turn right to the mill entrance. Turn left over the railway and then left up Poleacre Lane. Turn left again at the main road to return to the Joshua Bradley. (S/E)
