(A) Sarehole Mill

[1] Start from the car park, turn left across it and cross the mill tail-race by a footbridge into a grassy area. Bear left around the end of the mill buildings and follow a ditch and a metal fence along the left edge of the grassy area, emerging through a gate onto Wake Green Road. Cross Wake Green Road into Thirlmere Drive and walk through the housing estate. Turn second right into Pensby Close, keeping left as it forks. At the end of this cul-de-sac, cross the grassy verge to Coldbath Brook where it emerges from the forest edge beside the railings.

[2] Ascend the earth bank ahead on a short flight of steps and enter the forest, taking the path to the left. Follow the path as it skirts Mosley Bog (B) to the right. Continue ahead as the path runs up a slope and steps, ignoring tracks coming in from the left, and enter a small clearing dotted with bushes.

Follow the grassy path ahead, ignoring the right hand fork, to the end of the small clearing. Continue through a band of trees, through a second clearing, through another band of trees and into a third clearing. Where the path divides, take the left fork to the corner of the third clearing and follow the woodland path towards, and then beside, the left hand boundary fence. Where the main path bears right, leave it and follow the boundary fence to the corner stile on Yardley Wood Road.

[3] Turn left into Yardley Wood Road, follow it to the roundabout and cross Swanshurst Lane. Continue along Yardley Wood Road past the bus shelter then turn left through bollards into Swanshurst Park (C).Follow the tarmac path ahead to the edge of the lake.

Turn left onto the lakeside path and follow it to the far end of the lake then right along the top of the dam. At the end of the dam where the lakeside path turns right again, walk ahead up through the trees and emerge into open parkland. Walk across the grass, skirting the head of a shallow dry valley, towards the prominent fire station tower which stands at the high corner of the park. Keep to the right hand side of the tower and leave the park, turning left into Yardley Wood Road.

[4] To negotiate the roundabout ahead, cross Yardley Wood Road near the bus shelter and continue over the grass verge into Menin Crescent. Follow the crescent, then, opposite Menin Road, turn left on a tarmac path to the pedestrian crossing on Brook Lane. Cross Brook Lane and take the path ahead beside an unmade access road, set back from Yardley Wood Road. Follow the pavement past houses with 1920s mansard roofs to the new Greenridge Care Centre, then turn right into Billesley Common.

[5] Keep to the tarmac path beside the right hand boundary until the common opens out, then strike left across the access road and follow the left hand boundary fence.

Continue beside the boundary fence and follow it down to the narrow corner of the field. Take the path into the wood and just before it emerges onto the road, fork right to a footbridge. Cross Haunch Brook here and turn left beside it to arrive at Haunch Lane.

[6] Follow Haunch Lane across the brook to the mini-roundabouts and cross Yardley Wood Road. Turn right across Chinn Brook Road and continue ahead on the footway set back from Yardley Wood Road. Cross Firth Drive then turn left through a gap into Chinn Brook valley. Follow the grassy path ahead, with garden fences to the left and trees to the right, into a wide heathy area.

Continue along the grassy path, with Chinn Brook in the shallow valley to the right, to a crossing tarmac path. Turn right onto the tarmac path, cross Chinn Brook on the footbridge, then turn left and walk downstream beside the brook. At the end of the field, slant right towards a gap in the fence. Go through the gap, cross Trittiford Road on the crossing and continue towards a gap in the fence ahead (just left of the Highfield Road bridge).

[7] You are now in The Dingle nature reserve; take the path ahead signposted to Sarehole Mill. Follow the path along the top of a bank between the River Cole (D), meandering downstream on the right, and the Mill tail-race, running straight on the left. Cross the mill tail-race on a concrete footbridge and turn right along the right hand edge of a long meadow past the confluence of the tail-race with the River Cole.

Continue along the edge of the meadow to a junction of paths, turn right into the right hand path and follow it to a concrete bridge over the River Cole. Turn left at the concrete bridge (don’t cross it) and walk downstream beside the River Cole to a bridge over the head-race channel. Cross the bridge, turn right and follow the path through a gate into the end of Coleside Avenue.

[8] Walk along Coleside Avenue, past Four Arches Bridge, and cross new Brook Lane to a gap in the fence. Go through the gap onto a wide tarmac path and follow it, ignoring all tracks off to the left. Continue along this old rural byway towards the chimney of Sarehole Mill, poking above trees across the meadow on the left, and emerge through a gap onto Cole Bank Road. Cross Cole Bank Road at the crossing and walk through the gate back into Sarehole Mill car park.