(S/E) From the front door of the Bell, turn right. At the road junction, go straight on into Church Lane.
Follow the road until you reach the church.
(1) Take a footpath over a stile on the right just before the churchyard wall and cross the field to a double stile and bridge. Turn left over a stile a little further on by a gate, and cross a paddock to a second field gate, beyond which turn half-right to a stile in the corner of the next paddock.
Continue in the same direction to a double stile and footbridge in the field corner. Cross to a belt of trees, within which is a double footbridge and two stiles.
Walk uphill across the field to a stile in the hedge, then cross the next field heading in the approximate direction of Hampton Gay church.
(2) After a stile by an old ash tree, follow the field edge ahead then, when the field boundary bends left, keep straight on across the field, past an overgrown pond, towards the ruined Manor House. Turn left in front of the ruined manor house, and bear right along the fence to Hampton Gay church.
Go through a wooden kissing gate between church and manor and head half-left down the field along an obvious path. Pass under the railway bridge alongside the river. Bear left across the field to a footbridge across the river.
(3) Cross the bridge and follow the path towards Shipton-on-Cherwell church; bear right to cross a stile before the canal bridge. Turn left along the towpath (optionally, cross the bridge to view the church and manor house).
Follow the canal as it widens (Thrupp Wide) and then turns sharp right.
(4) By the lifting bridge in Thrupp village, turn left past a tea-room and car park, and pass to the right of a thatched house. Follow the track under the railway into Thrupp Community Woodland.
Take the path straight ahead that parallels the river through the woodland for 3⁄4 mile. Emerge in a large field and take the path across the field that leaves the river and heads somewhat to the left of the spire of Kidlington church.
(5) Cross a reed-filled ditch and continue towards the church (the middle of three paths). Enter a wood by an old moat and follow the path through the scrubby woodland until you emerge in the car park by the church.
Having viewed the church and adjacent cottages and almshouses, follow Church Street back to the car park entrance, but do not enter; instead go through the metal kissing gate and follow the surfaced path ahead of you. Follow the path left and right as it leaves the wood, crossing a bridge over a ditch.
(6) A second bridge crosses a further ditch, and then you can either walk along the field edge or between the trees to the River Cherwell. Cross the bridge over the river and bear right to a stile by a gate (ignoring the footpath straight ahead). Walk parallel to the hedge on your left to a gate into a narrow path between gardens.
(7) When you meet the road, turn right back to the end of Church Lane. Cross the road and keep straight on back to the Bell. (S/E)
