11/11/26 - Crown and Sandys, Ombersley

Living Day by Day

It's been a while since I have looked at my 1950s guidebook, Fifty Weekend Walks round Birmingham. I was planning on doing them in order - but a 10 miler along the Welsh Road at Kenilworth may have made sense when traffic was light. Linear walks in Tamworth discounted due to the excessive public transport times. I've skipped to walk number 9 - "A Bit of Unknown Worcestershire".

First, I have to decipher the hand-drawn map. Suddington does not appear on any modern map.

Orientation doesn't help, either

Fortunately, I have access to historical maps through Hiiker. I am looking for Sinton to start the walk.

The walk heads for Droitwich, where I have two new Good Beer Guide ticks to go for. Alas one of them, the Freemasons Arms, doesn't want to keep daytime hours midweek, so I try and save myself for an Historic Inn of Interest when back in Ombersley. Lane and agricultural walking becomes dominated by churches.

Mysterious Salwarpe Church, high on a hill over the eponymous river and canal. Doors locked, hiding its secrets within.

Along the canal portal

I'll never see the 1613 Talbot Monument within.

A glimpse of the impressive Westwood House, as I head north from Droitwich. Remarkable history, with the lands dating back to a nunnery taken over during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. Then owned by the Pakington family, backing the wrong side in the English Civil War and also creating a deer park, which you can note is still marked on the guidebook map.

Incredibly, it's now private apartments, available for purchase on the open market. Who wouldn't want to live with such history?

Available to own (a small part of)

Back to the churches - Tiny Doverdale disappoints by being doors locked as well. Simply not very trusting in these parts, are they?

Only the churchyard to explore

Fortunately, I am moving away from the solar farms that have blighted other walks in this area. The paths - as faint as they are - deliver me back to Ombersley. An ancient, unspoiled village of black and white half-timbered houses and at last, a "doors open" church. Completely remodelled in the early 1800s by the Sandys.

The spire dominates the landscape - showing you how far you have to walk

Modernity

The Sandys were a prominent Worcestershire family who held the manor of Ombersley for centuries, producing several distinguished figures, including Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York (1519–1588), and Samuel Sandys, Chancellor of the Exchequer (1695–1770), and establishing themselves as one of the county's most influential landed families.

They also have one of the three pubs named after them.

Historic Inn of Interest

I wasn't sure what to expect - research indicated rooms, hosting of wedding parties and a restaurant. My plan was to enter and ask if they still had a public bar.

A Georgian makeover, hiding its age

I failed to get that far. A printed note originally said "We will be closed today" - to which a handwritten note on a fresh piece of paper added "Until Further Notice". Little online - with a Facebook page not updated since 2010 but my old friend AI detailed that the landlord is retiring and they are looking to transfer the lease in 2027. 

Daily Updates

I could have retreated to the Kings Arms or the Cross Keys. But the moment had gone.

Walk Details

Distance - 10.75 miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - 50 Weekend Walks round Birmingham, Walk 9

09/11/26 - On the Trail of...... Samuel Timmins

Shakespeare In Birmingham

A two part podcast from History West Midlands. A deep dive into the "Everything to Everyone" project promoting the arts to all classes. In particular, the creation of Birmingham's Shakespeare Library and the work of two of the City's Victorian benefactors - George Dawson and Samuel Timmins.

The ‘Everything to Everybody’ Project is recovering Birmingham’s unique heritage as home to the largest and oldest Shakespeare collection in any public library in the world. At the heart of the story are two Birmingham figures: George Dawson (1821–1876), a nonconformist preacher, lecturer and champion of civic reform, and Samuel Timmins (1826–1902), an industrialist, antiquarian and passionate Shakespeare enthusiast. Their collaboration began with the idea of creating a Shakespeare library for everyone, rather than restricting access to scholars and the privileged classes. Timmins first proposed the library in 1858, while Dawson publicly championed the idea in 1861, envisaging a collection containing every edition and translation of Shakespeare, together with books, portraits and illustrations relating to his life and work. Working through Birmingham's 'Our Shakespeare Club', they raised funds, solicited donations from Britain and overseas, and established the Shakespeare Memorial Library, officially opened in 1868.

Instantly, I've got an idea for a Shakespeare themed walk on Birmingham. There are two Nicholson's pubs by that name in relatively close proximity.

Lower Temple Street

Summer Row

I need a little more. ChatGPT to the rescue, with some excellent suggestions. This is good technology. It remembered it had helped me with a Dawson inspired walk and deliberately avoided any repetition. May I be the first human to pledge allegiance to our AI Overlords? Mrs M doesn't remember what we talked about yesterday.

I was sent to;

Mount Zion Baptist Church - Where they preached. Now a Sikh temple

Edward Street - Church of our Saviour, now demolished

As I was passing, a re-visit to the Shakespeare Room in Birmingham Library. It's free, warm and there are a handful of comfy armchairs to have a coffee and look across Birmingham City. Plus, I get photos for the blog;

A replica of Shakespeare's Death Mask

The Shakespeare Room at Birmingham Library

And a final jaunt to the home of Sam Timmins - the Dec to George Dawson's Ant. A rather modest but pretty house, commemorated with a blue plaque.  I wonder if the current owners know that the occasional bored retiree makes pilgrimages through unloved Five Ways to pay homage?

Sam Timmins

Elvetham Road 

The Timmins Blue Plaque

Walk Details

Distance - 3 Miles

Geocaches - 0

09/11/26 - Rail Trail - Moor Street to Spring Road

Starting the Shakespeare Line

There's no official walking guide from the Birmingham City Centre Stations. Almost as though the rail network doesn't want to promote walking in the sketchy locations.

However, a fella (it's nearly always a fella) has charted his walking route on the Chiltern Line from Marylebone to Moor Street. I can steal his final legs of his journey into the City.

He utilises the only green corridor available - the Grand Union Canal. I know what to expect - roads closed in Digbeth, lots of graffiti - a lot of it very artistic, increasing piles of rubbish and barely a soul to be seen. If you do see someone, be on guard. Oddballs abound.

Five stations in one walk - Moor Street, Bordesley, Small Heath, Tyseley (where we leave the Chiltern route) and then residential streets of Acocks Green onto the final station- Spring Road.

Little to say - other than I survived to rail ramble another day.

Digbeth in the C21st in a Picture

Re-routing around closed roads to look at Birmingham in the fog

Inspirational Graffiti 

The Grand Union Canal - most of today's walking

Walk Details

Distance - 5.5 miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration

  

04/11/26 - On the Trail of...... Alfred Watkins

Ley Line Hunting

Alfred Watkins wrote the first book on Ley Lines. Published just over 100 years ago, his academic study in The Old Straight Track noticed that ancient landscape features - churches, stone circles, hill forts, ford crossings, etc - often line up in a dead straight line.

The Man...

.. and his work

The book is a game changer for those that like exploring outside. It's highly dubious that Ley Lines actually exist. He argues in the book against popular counter arguments - such as the Lines taking difficult paths and artefacts being from a different age. More compellingly, modern sceptics have been able to draw Ley Lines between modern things - like BT telephone boxes. But the chapters do compel the walker to consider why things are built where they are and where places get their names from. A brilliant chapter on how often the name Cole (corrupted to Cold) appears in the British landscape. Cole - a name for a magician and carrier of a sighting staff.

Herefordshire Council has published a series of day walks and a Watkins Long Distance Path.

Walk 1 takes us to the place he had his revelation - a minor, non-descript crossroads just outside Risbury.

“Suddenly”, his son Allen would recount, “the scales fell from Watkins’ eyes and his mind was flooded with a rush of images forming one coherent plan. The realisation came to him that over many long years of prehistory all trackways had been marked out in straight lines by experts on a sighting system”.

The ley ran, he suggested, from an initial point on top of Croft Ambrey, down Croft lane, through the Broad, a hamlet south of Luston, up to this point at Blackwardine crossroads, over Risbury Camp all the way to the old Roman station on the high ground of Homend Bank at Stretton Grandison. So, the The Blackwardine Ley was the first one ever proposed.

Of course, I was going to walk it.

Little to see at Risbury, but as Watkins documented on his line, there is an ancient fort. Unusually, it's not on a hill but has contained man-made ramparts next to Humber Brook.

Risbury Camp - A hill fort - without the hill

Gob's Castle is the next item noted on the map - alas, it transpires that this is a ruined farm house in the middle of nowhere. Unusual for something so mundane to have such a grand title.

Who was Gob?

The Society of Ley Hunters have erected a standing stone to Watkins at Blackwardine crossroads. It's just not that easy to find! There is a small post, which I initially mistook for my quarry. I could see the letters A T E R etched into the flank and wondered what the connection to Watkins could be. After taking photos - now deleted and never to be mentioned again - I noticed the letter W at the top of the pole.

The standing stone and a memorial marker are located on the other side of the hedge, inside the grounds of a natural cemetery.

Not a municipal marker

Humber Court and Church provide the final interest on the walk. Alas, the church is not "doors open" but I did find the clergyman's name.

Would you believe me if I told you it was Reverend Cole?

Humber Church

Walk Details

Distance - 5.25 miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - Walking with Watkins, Walk 1