(S/E) From The Butchers Arms, front door, cross the road and turn right. Take the first left into Hall Street and walk past the library and theatre to the end of the road beyond the junction with Hill Terrace.
(1) Descend the steps into the wood and walk down the slope to a bridge over a small stream. Continue ahead to a kissing gate into a field and follow the left-hand edge up the slope.
Cross a short boardwalk and go through a wooden kissing gate in the far corner. Follow the snaking left-hand edge of the next field to a double stile and footbridge in the corner (though in all but the driest weather you may need to divert right around the low marshy section of the field).
After the footbridge, turn right and follow a hedged green track round to the left. On emerging into a field, turn immediately right and follow the hedge on your right.
Go through a kissing gate and turn left, now with the hedge on your left. At the next kissing gate, turn left and follow a fence across a paddock.
(2) After the next gate, climb a flight of steps to the former railway. Turn right and follow the rail trail for a little under half a mile until you reach a road bridge overhead. Pass under the bridge and turn left up the steps.
Follow the pavement ahead, crossing the end of Heathcote Road.
Continue past two terraces of houses separated by a former Primitive Methodist chapel.
(3) At the timber-and-thatch Miles Green Farmhouse, turn right through gates into a farm drive. Beyond the last house, continue to a metal gate and wooden kissing gate before a barn.
Immediately beyond the gate, leave the track over a stile on the left, and turn right to a second stile.
Climb the next field obliquely to a stile in the top corner.
Follow a fence along the contour to another stile.
Continue in the same direction, parallel to the fence on your left, to the far side of the field, where you will find a stile hidden in a dip.
The path beyond continues through rough grassland and scrub to a stile into more mature woodland. Swing left above some ponds, ignoring a stepped path on your right, to reach a blue-painted waymark post beside a crossing path.
(4) Take the path straight ahead, staying within the trees, and shortly ignore a path off to the left by another blue waymark.
At the next blue waymark, turn right as indicated by a public footpath roundel on a post. The path winds along the valley bottom, passing some overgrown ironwork spoil on the left, beyond which ignore a path joining from the left.
At a footbridge over a small stream, continue along the lower path, straight ahead.
(5) On reaching a track by a metal gate, turn left and pass between two large ponds (if the path is flooded, a diversion via the right-hand side of the second pond and the woods beyond is possible).
Continue to a horse stile and follow the hedged path uphill beyond, ignoring a crossing path partway up.
The path joins a driveway, passing between houses and to the right of an old blast furnace. When the drive swings right, turn left over a hidden stile and walk up the hill to a stile in the top left-hand corner of the field.
Follow the field edge beyond to a gate behind some houses, where you turn left.
(6) Turn left through another gate and past some garages, behind which cross a stile on your left. Turn right to another stile and follow the fence beyond; partway across the field, at another stile, the path switches to the other side of the fence.
Continue until the path drops to a stile and footbridge in a small wooded valley. Once out of the dip, follow the hedge on your right, then a fence, then when this bends right cross the field ahead of you to a wooded corner close to the road.
(7) Cross a stile and turn right to the road (B5500). Turn right along the pavement then cross to a stile on the opposite side. The path beyond leads past a covered reservoir to the Wedgwood Monument.
From the monument, bear right down the hillside, steeply at first, towards the A500, keeping a wooded pond well to your left.
Towards the bottom of the hill, the path turns left to cross a stile beyond a belt of trees and continues to a gate and stile. Follow the track beyond, which runs parallel to the A500.
(8) Cross a disused railway bridge and continue along the track to a metal barrier. Not long afterwards you meet a road, where you turn left, along the pavement and away from the A500 bridge.
Shortly after the pavement ends, cross to a stile on the right-hand side of the road. Walk up the slope to a gate and stile and follow the farm track beyond. The track continues through further gates until you reach Great Oak Farm, beyond which is a road.
(9) Cross the road and negotiate a stile next to the gate opposite. Swing left and walk down the left-hand side of the field. Continue along the left-hand side of the next field to a footbridge. Cross the stream and a stile and bear left into a recreation area.
Pass a bench, and beyond the last house turn left into a narrow path between back gardens and a cemetery.
At the cemetery entrance, turn left out to a road.
(10) Turn right and follow the road past a primary school, the entrance to Ravens Close and the football club. Follow the road as it curves left and climbs to meet New Road. Cross carefully and go through the kissing gate into a Wildlife Area.
Follow the path downhill through the trees then, at a fork, turn left to a bridge over the stream. Turn right and walk past a pond. Bear right to a bridge and recross the stream to re-enter the trees.
Climb the slope ahead and then some steps to emerge at the end of Hall Street. Walk out past the theatre and library to Church Street, and turn right to return to the Butchers Arms. (S/E)
