Cross Britain Way Walking Guidebook

authors: Tim Brunton and Dan Birch
The Cross Britain Way is a journey from the Lincolnshire Fens at the Wash to the Welsh coast in Snowdonia. The route has been created as a long-distance walk with a dual purpose - to create a new coast to coast route across Britain, and at the same time to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. It is one of the official Macmillan Way Paths and is 280 miles in length.

The Cross Britain Way starts at the Lincolnshire coast and heads westward across the middle of England taking in parts of six English counties and Powys and Gwynedd in Wales, finishing on the Welsh coast at Barmouth.

From the Wash it goes through the Vale of Belvoir, the Leicestershire Wolds, the Soar Valley and the National Forest. After the canals of South Staffordshire, it turns south-west across Cannock Chase, through the Ironbridge Gorge, into the Shropshire Hills via Wenlock Edge, and Welsh Borders, then crosses the rolling green hills of Mid Wales and over the Berwyn Mountains into the Snowdonia National Park. The final stretch is south-west, from Bala Lake through Snowdonia to Barmouth.

The route incorporates stretches of six canals, five of which are in England and one in Wales. It also includes stretches of twelve existing, named long distance footpaths.

The guidebook contains detailed route directions and Ordnance Survey based maps covering the whole route. There is an accommodation list and other information to help walkers, but of course this was only correct at the time of publication. Information about places of interest is included, highlighted in yellow panels to distinguish it from navigation text. There are also numerous colour photographs illustrating paths and places along the route.

The route is described in the guidebook in ten chapters as below, each of which represents two- or three-days walking for the average walker.
Boston to Folkingham - 31 miles
Folkingham to Hickling - 35 miles
Hickling to Melbourne - 26 miles
Melbourne to Barton under Needwood - 20 miles
Barton under Needwood to Penkridge - 29 miles
Penkridge to Ironbridge - 24 miles
Ironbridge to Church Stretton - 22 miles
Church Stretton to Welshpool - 25 miles
Welshpool to Bala - 38 miles
Bala to barmouth - 30 miles

Pages 144 (2014) 148mm x 210mm