From St Giles’s Church head into the village to a crossroads and then turn right for 250yds (229m) along Common Lane until you get to Sandy Lane. Turn right on this wide earth track until it bends hard right, and here go ahead through a gate and continue in the same direction to the corner of a wood.

Go through a swing gate and head slightly left through the wood, on a small brambly path, ignoring bigger paths setting off to left and right. At the residential tarmac road bear left to a wider road, and then right, to pass the Staffordshire Regiment Museum and go onto the A51. Turn right and walk along the pavement for 700yds (640m), passing a roundabout on the way. At South Lodge turn along a wide track to Freeford Home Farm.

Turn left onto the earth track of the Heart of England Way. Where a track joins from the left, move slightly right through a gate onto an enclosed grass track. Keep ahead for 0.75 miles (1.2km), through several gates and across a horse gallop, to a metalled road. Cross onto a hedged path, which passes a small square of trees on its right then crosses a farm track. Another 500yds (457m) brings you to the junction with Knox’s Grave Lane, a wide sandy track.

Turn left along here and then fork right at the top of a field to reach the corner of the sand and gravel pits. An abandoned tarmac road ahead threads between the pits on either side, down the dip and then up the other side. At the top of the rise, cross the stile on the left onto a field-edge alongside the gravel pit. At the far side of the field, cross a stile and the A51, and then go straight up the track to a T-junction. Turn left and follow the edge of Hopwas Hays Wood for 0.5 miles (800m). At a range flagpole, bear left to a major track junction at the corner of the wood.

Turn hard right at the major 4-way junction, almost back on yourself, for a slightly sunken track up through the woodland. At the top bear right and stay straight along this wide dirt and gravel track, ignoring any smaller paths off to the left or right. The path drops through the woods to pass a range flagpole. Keep following it round to the left to the canal bridge.

Cross the canal and turn left along the tow path. Walk for 1.75 miles (2.8km) to pass under Hademore House Bridge. In another 50yds (46m) turn right, up off the tow path. Return to the bridge and cross over the canal. Continue straight ahead along a wide, sandy track for 100yds (91m) and then turn right along another sand track between poly tunnels, as far as a gap between two hedges.

Go through the gap and continue in the same direction, with a hedge on your right, following a track and then a path until it goes between two hedges along a narrow dirt trail. At a T-junction with a wide track, turn left and then immediately right, along another narrow dirt trail to the right of a hedge. Beyond an iron gate and a military firing range sign (see warning below). Follow the footpath sign to the right along the faint grass trail around the edge of the field, keeping the hedge on your right. Carry on to the far righthand corner of this field where the hedge meets a small cottage and the metalled road (Common Lane) leading back into Whittington.