Market Drayton to Sutton upon Tern Loop – Family-Friendly Canal Walk with Sunset Views (Shropshire)

Making the Best of the Weather

Saturday 19th October 2024. Having had probably the wettest week we’ve seen for some time, we made the decision to not walk this weekend.

Just kidding! 😉 Our new outlook actually saw us, instead, plan a route that would avoid the wettest areas, so for us, a walk down country lanes would be our best option. Like most of the UK, the huge amount of rainfall we’ve had in such a short space of time has seen most of our local fields waterlogged, but we were also mindful of how easily some of our lanes flood too. My suggestion was a route I did regularly when I was running, that was just a shade over a 10k, and would be a relatively quiet walk, with plenty of ‘bail out’ options should anyone become tired or we hit any floods. By anyone, I mostly meant me, as I’d woken up full of cold on Thursday and it wasn’t getting any better. That said, when it’s just a head cold, I still try to continue getting outside, and I nearly always feel better for it (mentally, anyway)!

Over the Canal

Despite the weather this week, and even this morning, Saturday afternoon was forecast as dry. Our walk started later than we’d hoped, as my husband had a longer than expected day at work, but by mid afternoon everyone was home and ready to head out. The first section of our walk saw us starting at the Four Alls, and heading toward the canal, where our youngest was disappointed to learn we weren’t actually going to be walking down the canal. Unfortunately there are sections of the canal towpath that never seem to dry, even in a heatwave, so we made the call not to even contemplate that today.

However, he was soon distracted at the thought of a road he’d not actually walked up before – and it was made even more exciting at the discovery of conkers – there were loads along this walk! Sadly though, we didn’t find any lovely round ones, they were all deflated. Either the squirrels have done a thorough job of collecting the good ones this autumn, or it’s not been a good year for them. I wonder how many children (or adults!) still play conkers? It’s not something our boys talk about playing with their friends in the school yard, and just tends to be a silly thing we do as a family each autumn!

A Tiny House

Right at the top end of Tyrley Road is an interesting little building that has always sparked curiosity with me, but I’ve always passed it either in a car or running, and never taken the time to actually stop and have a nose. Fairy recently, it has been surrounded by building site fences with warnings about crossing them – I wish I’d made the effort to stop and take a look earlier, before these were erected. The boys of course were also very curious, and we walked up to the fences to take a closer look. What we had initially thought was a random, tiny cottage, looks like it was likely something larger. Upon closer inspection, we saw the brick outlines of other walls, although weirdly, a thick tree trunk sits within one of the walls. I’ve googled it in the past, wondering what information I would find on its random location, but found nothing. After today’s walk I did another search, this time based on my photograph – and I’m still non the wiser! So, if by some stroke of luck, someone who does know reads this blog, I’d love to hear from you!

After our building inspection we plodded along the route, joining Tag Lane ever so briefly, talking to some cows (who were fixated on our little jack Russell – perhaps they thought it was some kind of miniature cow) and then joining Berrisford Road. Aside from a beautiful view point halfway up the lane, there is not much more to see until you reach a small clutch of houses in Peatswood.

There is also this beautiful spot on a bridge overlooking Coal Brook. We had assumed it either was, or eventually joined, the River Tern, but upon inspection of a map back home after the walk, it doesn’t actually go anywhere! Beautiful non the less!

Under the Canal

Around the corner from this beautiful location the road runs alongside, though not directly next to, the Shropshire Union Canal. The sides of the road here are banked, with brick walls holding them up, and we spotted this tree which is firmly at one with the wall – and our youngest really wanted a photo of it! I’ve always said nature always takes over in the end, and this was a great example!

As you round the corner toward the town of Market Drayton, you go under this bridge, which carries the Shropshire Union Canal over you! There is a route that our youngest did with his Beavers group that comes out here. I’ve drawn it in blue on the map at the end of this post (in case anyone local fancies walking it). It’s definitely a route we will try for a longer walk for another day – but not today, because I imagine the fields will be soaking! He enjoyed it when he walked it though, and he found a Geocache too!

After passing under the Shropshire Union canal bridge, we had the choice to take the muddy towpath back home if I was still feeling rough – but I insisted we soldiered on! Here we passed almost instantly over another, smaller bridge – this time it was the River Tern. We have walked this section before many times, when walking down the canal and into town, and this sign always makes us chuckle – I hope you can see why!

A brief visit to Market Drayton

Along Berrisford Road, you pass the local high school, then turn left and down a narrow street, with lots of interesting houses, that feeds you into the main part of the town. If, by this point, you fancied a brew or a refreshing cold drink, you pass very close to The Red Lion Inn, Jones’s coffee shop, or (for those who prefer the comfort and familiarity of chain stores), there’s a Gregg’s and Costa further into the town. We recommend Jones’s – they do lovely food and make their own wine too, as well as offering cakes, teas and coffees, and are dog and child friendly. Today, though, it was too late for a stop, so we continued down Phoenix Bank toward Walkmill Road.

Passing through the outskirts of the town was short, and otherwise uneventful. When we hit the A529, it was another bailout opportunity but I resisted again! The boys seemed happy at this! Often there can be some negativity when we get ready for a walk (the reality of hiking with children!), but I’ve come to believe this is solely because they want to veg out on the sofa (it’s like they are mini teens already!) Once out on walks, they are different children altogether and we’ve yet to get home and have either of them tell us they didn’t like the walk, which is awesome! So if you are starting to do more outdoors activities with your children, don’t despair if they aren’t showing a keen interest as you get yourselves ready to leave the house, chances are once they’re outdoors with you, they’ll love it too!

Heading Home

Turning onto Sutton Lane, we were on the last leg of the journey. A third and fourth bail-out option arose but I continued onward. This gave us another family photo opportunity on another bridge over the River Tern, and some more conker searching. There were a couple of flooded areas on this road – fortunately they were much lower than other times we’ve been through – but it was great to watch the boys navigate this together to avoid getting wet feet!

The sun was beginning to get low as we headed down the final stretch of the walk, and I grabbed this photo of the boys admiring the incoming sunset through the elephant grass. It was in this field that we saw a fox bouncing around the other morning on the way to school – it’s been years since I’ve seen a fox, and for the boys it was their first encounter – we never thought we would see anything like that at 8.20 on a school day morning!

Family Feedback on the Market Drayton – Sutton upon Tern Loop

For me, this is a great circular route, of a good distance, and one that is perfect for keeping your feet dry when there’s been a spell of bad weather. It isn’t the most exciting route though – sure, it’s pretty, but it’s not list-worthy with a tonne of view points and interesting features to share. Even writing this post I thought “What’s exciting about this?! Who’s going to read it?” – but despite it’s shortcomings, it is still a great circular route, and hopefully someone local, or visiting, will see it and give it a go (and please let me know if you do)! Ultimately, the ability to keep everyone dry (and relatively mud free – especially our small-legged dog!), coupled with the several “bail out” options if we felt tiredness or sustained injuries, makes it a good circular – especially for families looking for hard-surface routes for pushchairs etc.

I was intrigued to see what the boys would say about this walk, especially emphasising the fact that there really isn’t much exciting for them along the way, but actually their responses surprised me. Our eldest, always eager to please, said he really enjoyed all of the walk. I told him he could be very honest, but there was nothing he could think of that he didn’t like, and his favourite part was “all of it” 😄. His younger brother piped up quickly saying his favourite part was looking for conkers and making a little conker family!

TOTAL MILES: 6.46 | TOTAL TIME: 2h35 (2h27 Moving Time)

Good to Know

Car Parking: Tyrley Locks, Four Alls Inn, Peatswood by Canal, Swimming Baths (marked with orange dots). All are on the route and the route can be done from any of these points and in any direction.

Toilets: At the swimming baths carpark (may be a charge?), Four Alls Inn.

Accessibility: Easily accessible with prams, some lanes are narrow/one car wide, so be wary with wider pushchairs.

Café/Picnic Spots: Cafes and Pubs in the town, several benches along the way, Four Alls Inn near Tyrley locks.

Terrain: All tarmac, some small hills, pedestrian footpaths through Market Drayton.

Family-Friendly Tips: 1 Geocache en-route, 2 just slightly off the route. Lots of footpaths within the loop that can be used to make the walk shorter – be aware some may be muddy and are not all suitable for pushchairs.

Points of Interest: Tyrley Locks, the crumbled old building, Tudor buildings with Market Drayton.

Safety Information: This walk is all on road. There are pedestrian footpaths through the town but the rest of the walk is on country lanes. Although not busy, the roads are used regularly by cars and agricultural vehicles, and are single lanes – please be vigilant!