it’s often said that Birmingham has more miles of canals than Venice and they are a great way of getting out of the city centre to the surrounding towns, villages and countryside.

The cars disappearing into the distance, cloaked in plumes of spray, are reminiscent of scummy bathwater gurgling down a plughole. The rain was keeping most sensible people indoors and looking down the street all you could see were kerbside refuse bins like so much flotsam and jetsam washed up on a beach

The river is dotted with brightly painted houseboats and even the residential properties on the opposite bank have a colourful carnival appearance. Every so often a blustery shower passes over, disappearing as soon as we secure hoods or open umbrellas

In the middle of an unassuming patch of grass, at the end of a non-descript cul-de-sac, right on the very fringes of London, is an unremarkable memorial to a man who literally (and I do mean literally) changed the way we look at this country.

The Twelve Quays Campaign was founded by Wirral resident Graham Handley. Over a period of 12 years campaigners fought to get the historic section of embankment re-opened…

“I’ll prose it here, I’ll verse it there/ And picturesque it everywhere”

As the immediate post-Olympic era seems set to revive the debate about the Big Society, especially as the 17,000 volunteer Games Makers were such a resounding success, it seems self-evident to me that we can learn a lot from organisations like Morley College and the Ramblers.

It is difficult to see how any of those who devised this plan have laced up boots let alone walked along any one of the thirteen English National Trails.

Speaking personally I know this leg of the Green Chain Walk very well – I’ve led walks along it, have been angered by the obstructions but literally found ways around them, and am now outraged by the increasingly selfish actions of the landowner who is depriving members of the public of an excellent walk in south east London

It goes without saying that for me this is one of the real joys of walking – it puts you in touch in a very real way with the past.