29/09/25 - Kidderminster Circular Rail Trail

The Familiar with New Eyes

I know Kidderminster like the back of my hand. Its streets, churches, pubs, and jumble of buildings are everyday landmarks to me. But I’m also a completist. One of the half-dozen Circular Rail Walks passes through here, and I want to see the town through someone else’s eyes. Nobody does guides quite as thoroughly as Nikolaus Pevsner. His volumes are essentially “books of lists,” cataloguing the unusual and the unique—and who doesn’t love a list? 

The trouble is, Kiddy doesn’t quite lend itself to his method. Pevsner summed it up, with characteristic bluntness, as 

“...... a town uncommonly devoid of visual pleasure and architectural interest.”

This won't stop me exploring. The big old German Grump.

An easy walk along the canal to Wolverley. Too early for the Lock Inn. Back to town on newly discovered paths through Sion Hill and the urban regeneration that has happened over Springfield Park.

Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal before Wolverley

Urban Regeneration at Springfield Park

The only exception to Pevsner's grumblings is Church Street. But even then, the urban planners get it both barrels....

"..... Church Street, rising to the open space in front of a splendid church. This being so, the authorities have decided to absorb that very open space into the new ring road, cutting off the church. It is a crying-out crime against the town."

A nicer view of St Marys than from Church Street

He goes on to point out a rather pedestrian looking Georgian House (No. 30) and a c1600 timber-framed building.

Number 30 - Pevsner loved the doorways

Kiddy's oldest secular building?

I hoped to bring you liquid refreshment. Kidderminster has had a new bar/cafe opening - located in Church Street, housed in a repurposed Unitarian Church and imaginatively called "The Church". I wondered what clientele would be attracted to a venue that charges lunchtime sandwiches for £15.95. There is the promise of two cask hand-pulls. How much and what, I will have to come back to you on. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

My investigations need to continue - there is a page full of delights in St Mary's Church - and the occasional opportunity to climb the tower for "impressive views over all of Kidderminster". 

I'll make sure the planets align.

Or go to the Seven Stars.

Walk Details

Distance - 4.5 Miles

Walk Inspiration  

Geocaches - 3

Other Circular Rail Walks - Evesham

25/09/25 - Saltwells and Bumblehole

Lunch at Ma Pardoes

That's how the Ramblers enticed me in for a third walk with company in a week. Redditch Ramblers are on a day trip out and nothing can get in the way of their faggots and peas.

We start at Saltwells Country Park - one of 27 Geosites advertised by Dudley Council. Naturally, I have compiled a tick list for future days out.

Saltwells National Nature Reserve in Netherton covers 247 acres of former coal, clay and ironstone workings that have since developed into woodland, grassland and pools. The site includes Doulton’s Claypit, worked from the late 19th century until the 1940s to supply fireclay for the Royal Doulton company. The pit, with visible exposures of Coal Measure strata, is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geological importance.

Doulton's Claypit at Saltwells

Psychogeography at its finest. I have no idea which way the walk leader will take us. Dudley Canal Number 2 for a very important bridge. A first time climbing Turner's Hill. This is often admired, with its aerial masts and surprisingly home to a golf course with some exceptional views. Bumblehole and the ruins of Cobb's Engine House.

And we've not won anything since - the period covering my lifetime

Bumblehole

Dudley Canal Number 2

Cobb's Engine House and some Ramblers

Onto the Old Swan - known better as Ma Pardoes. A landlady who ran the pub from 1931 untill her death in 1984.

Etchings

Its a brew pub, with its own onsite brewery. There's no indication to their brews on the handpulls but the names are chalked above the bar. The 6.7% Old Ale - Black Widow- unavailable today but one to surely try in the future. Today, it was the aptly named Bumblehole.

Always tricky to photograph without getting run over

A labyrinth interior, but we have tables reserved in the front parlour. 

A walk up to Netherton Church on the hill and an unsuccessful attempt to find Ma Pardoes' final resting place. Apparently on the right-hand side of the graveyard as you enter. 

Walk Details

Distance - 7.5 Miles

Geocaches - 1

Future Walk Inspiration - 27 Dudley Geosites

24/09/25 - Icknield Street - Lifford to Beoley

Roman Roaming

The walk's premise is to trace the line of Icknield Street as it drives, arrow straight, through Birmingham.

Walk 2 from my 50 year old Guide Book

Before we get onto that, I have a simply perfect day, when everything aligns. Sometimes this happens with psychogeography. Unexpected finds and things tying together nicely, small and large. Let's detail the good luck;

• I made the connecting train to Kings Norton with 30 seconds to spare
• Kings Norton Church only opens on a Wednesday/Saturday at 10am. I arrived at 9:58am. On a Wednesday.
• The Coach and Horses is passed. It opens at 11:30am. I arrive at 11:27am.
• Through Geocaching, I find the tale of the only murdered policeman on active duty in Worcestershire. A change to plans, and I have found his final burial spot.

The walk is set to start at Lifford. This is the original name for Kings Norton Railway Station, so I alight there. It takes a bit of time to get through the housing estates of Walker's Heath before I pick up the trail, but there is time to explore the largest collection of Medieval buildings left in Birmingham.

The Grammar School and Kings Norton Church

Doors open to admire the Medieval Effigies

Icknield Street is a 2000 year old Roman Road that ran from Glevum (Gloucester) to Templeborough (near Rotherham).  In Birmingham, it linked Alcester and Studley, through Kings Norton and onward to Sutton Park. Previous Birmingham AZ Walks had shown me the Roman fort at Metchley

Plotting the walk proved much easier on an AZ Street Map than the OS Map. The arrow straightness becomes obvious and it's still called Icknield Street (and occasionally Ryknild Street) for the entire route. Its surprisingly car free and although completed on tarmac, a better walk than I could have really hoped for.

Street name

And it looks like this today

The Good Beer Guide perennial, the Coach and Horses is bang on route. First through the door and actually served 3 minutes before regulation opening hours. I have a named beer to compliment the walk. 

Country drinking at the Coach and Horses

Named Beer

A bit of local colour

Even the guide book states this is not necessarily a walk for the connoisseur, claiming the walker's first impression will be one of "surprise and disappointment". A geocache offers an alternative piece of local history for those interested in the macabre.

Lying on the side of the road is a simple memorial, containing initials and a date. There is no doubt I would have missed it and even if by some miracle I had spotted it, it would have meant nothing without the geocache to explain.  

JD 1885

PC George Davis holds a grim distinction – the only Worcestershire policeman ever killed on duty. In 1885, patrolling Icknield Street near Redditch at 3am, he challenged a man he suspected of poaching. The encounter turned deadly: Moses Shrimpton drew a knife and cut him down, leaving Davis bleeding in the road. Caught and tried, Shrimpton was condemned, and in 1886 he went to the gallows as the last man hanged at Worcester Gaol. Even that end was botched – the hangman misjudged the weight to drop ratio, and Shrimpton’s head was torn from his body.

Moses Shrimpton - with his head

Quite the tale. And imagine, a February night at 3am in the morning and there is a policeman actually patrolling. When was the last time you saw a policeman patrolling? At any time?

A little in-the-field research and I can slightly amend the route to find PC Davis' final resting place at Beoley Church. Located not far off route and atop a hill. Finishing the walk here avoids going through Redditch, which is something that should always be encouraged.

Beoley Church

The only murdered Worcestershire Policeman

A fitting location to complete the walk. With a nearby bus stop, I am whisked to travel connections in Redditch. Since my last visit - the Good Beer Guide Wetherspoons has closed. The Black Tap is still as bizarre as ever. 

It's best to return to Birmingham.

Walk Details

Distance - 9 Miles

Geocaches - 13

Walk Inspiration - 50 Weekend Walks Near Birmingham, Walk 2

Previous 50 Weekend Walks - Walk 1

22/09/25 - Brown Clee Hill

The Shropshire Summit

The Clee Hills Walks always come in pairs. A July summit of Titterstone, followed one month late by its Brown sister. One day, I am sure to walk the saddle between the two peaks.

This is a straightforward walk - park up on north-west flanks (SO607872)  and consider the changing seasons. Fleece on, a nip in the air, with the parked up cars bombarded with falling acorns. But it's bright and sunny and I really wish I could find a way of bottling it up for the cruelest of incoming months.

Early in the walk - looking over North West Shropshire

In terms of interest, there is little. Abandoned quarries, showing former mining activity. The highest coalfield in England. Dhustone - a hard dolerite - used in road building. Just the shells of former buildings, the old metallic posts and the dips in the landscape remain.

Mine Workings

And WWII air crashes. 23 Airman lost their lives. The wreckage of a Wellington apparently in Boyne Water (passed on this walk). A Junkers bomber, lost after a raid on Birmingham, cutting a swathe through the trees and resulting in the deaths of 4.

Near Monkey's Fold

A day to enjoy the views...

Atop Brown Clee Hill

Looking towards Titterstone - July's Conquest

Dropping down to Abdon 

After climbing back up, dropping down to the car

Walk Details

Distance - 9 Miles

Walk Inspiration 

Geocaches - 2

19/09/25 - Architecture and Oktoberfest in Cheltenham

Traditions and the Death of Pub Exploring

Traditions don’t arrive fully formed – they creep up on us, stitched together from small acts we stubbornly repeat. What begins as a comedy of errors gradually takes on the weight of ritual, the very mishaps becoming part of the story we tell ourselves about why we return.

In 2024, I turned up at Oktoberfest in the Sandford Park Ale House to find plenty of beer but not a hint of Bavarian food. Not on a Monday. In 2025, I try again, this time preparing with military precision: calendars consulted, reminders set, messages dispatched. Yet as I board the 7.27am bus from deepest Worcestershire, I know some minor disaster is already on the timetable. The only question is what shape it will take this year.

I want to earn my lunch - so I start the day on an architectural town tour promoted by the Council.

How to Explore Cheltenham

I concentrate hard on the Montpellier district - an area that is a showcase of Regency elegance: graceful terraces, ashlar façades, and classical detailing like Corinthian, Doric and Ionic orders everywhere you look. Perhaps the most striking are the caryatids lining Montpellier Walk — draped female figures under cornices, modelled on those from the Acropolis, lending the streets a sculptural poetry.

Here's the pictures;

This time yesterday, I didn't know what a Caryatid was

Queens Hotel

Imperial Gardens

Neptune's Fountain

There is more to investigate, as the morning gets hijacked by geocaching. I've been wanting to have another go at a Whereigo for some time. In brief, a more involved treasure hunt that involves collecting information from several places before the location of the treasure-box is revealed. The theme of this one is Penfold Post Boxes. Yes, I walked around 5 miles around town looking for half a dozen of these;

If I hadn't have started looking for Penfold Post boxes from the 1860s.....

..... I wouldn't have found the Pitville Pump Room

The church bells strike midday and I am ready to abandon amateur architecture and treasure hunting. Coordinates set for the heart of the Sandford Ale House. But where is the Deya van dropping off supplies?

Only Favourite Beers!

There's no doubt that the Good Beer Guide takes me to some wonderful places but I often wonder how much I miss. Favourite Beers is an impossibly richly laded Aladdin's cave of beery delights. It also sells keg. Great Keg. At great prices. I shall be forever grateful for being successful in today's mission. Paulaner Festbier. A bargain at £4 for half a litre.

Of course, take out was purchased. One beer made it home more or less intact

I don't know whether to be sad or grateful the shop is so far from home.

Onto my original quarry. The Sandford Park Alehouse - former CAMRA pub of the year - always hosts a fully fledged Oktoberfest. Beer! Music! Lederhosen! and Bavarian Food!. It starts today.

Little Germany

Except when they have marquee issues. The launch postponed until tonight. Not a single Oktoberfest beer available. Boring the staff with tales of my 2nd year of disappointment, I manage to get the Bavarian menu delclared open. But having had the items relayed to me verbally, rather than read on a page, I manage to make a monumental error of ordering.

Sausage sandwich with chips. With chips. With sausage on those chips.

Still, if you want to make friends, go around a pub offering free chips

It's getting to the point of my life when I don't want to go out with a chaperone to question my choices.

And does sauerkraut go with Uley Brewery Old Spot?

The only thing that can save Oktoberfest now is Lidl's suitcase of joy.

There is time for my final Good Beer Guide Tick in Cheltenham. Somehow, I manage to go from loving the Railway to hating it with a passion that has me leaving Google reviews and having a conversation with the head brewer of Nothing Bound.

An unassuming back street local

LOVING IT: £5 for Bristol Beer Factory Fortitude and wondering why more pubs don't play blues music in the afternoon sunshine. Eavesdropping on the boozy pensioners on the next table. Loving the lady who said that her husband can have a Thai bride when she passes as she knows he would be looked after. Mrs M says she is coming back to haunt me when she goes.

HATING IT: With an hour before the train that I know will be delayed, I decide to have a second pint. In the interests of experimentation, I go for (the not ironically named) Count Me Out from my local craft brewery, Nothing Bound. It's a 6% Keg. How much would you expect to be charged?

£7.80 is the answer here.

I am beyond outraged. Not only with the price but with the lack of warning from the server.

I am declaring pub exploring over and sticking to finding old post boxes in newly visited towns. 

17/09/25 - Historic Pub Tour of Birmingham

Magical Mystery Tour

A recent Ramblers walk alerted me to Birmingham Heritage Week. Most of the building open days were already booked up, but there were a couple of slots left on the third running of the "Heritage Pubs of Birmingham" tour. 

£15 to join a guided walk around 4 pubs that I had almost certainly been to before - but it offered the opportunity to learn something new and meet new people.

It turned out to be a fine day out.

I knew I was in good hands when we started at the Bull. A short distance but a completely different world from the bustle of the city centre. We were told about the gun manufacturing industry, the payment of workers in actual beer tokens, and fights that were broken up by the priest from the nearby Catholic church.

Two buildings knocked through

So what if most of the information was written on the wall

My fourth visit and being part of a group tour, it meant that this was the busiest I have ever seen the place. My last two pre-baggies visits, it was just me and an old boy in a brown three-piece suit, complete with a gold watch chain. And the resident cat, Ellie.

Onwards to the recently revived (last 12 months) Woodman, Fantastic, a group tour with added Bass. The smoking room was reserved for our use, so we got the leather banquette seating and access to the toilets all to ourselves.

If/when HS2 is finished, this will be a gold mine. Prizes for guessing what they'll use the Doric columned gatehouse for when the station reopens.

I admit, I was here for midday opening before the tour.

No alternative

A lengthy walk coming up and things get interesting...... where could he be taking us? My guess of the Craven Arms is dismissed in my head as being too far away.

We stop at the Crown to see the makeover that was completed in time for the recent Black Sabbath gig, rather than the sadder two week later demise of Ozzy. There was general agreement that someone needs to show a bit of imagination. Surely the pub could be supported by the worldwide interest in heavy metal music. It would be a mecca. Have you seen the flowers on the Sabbath Bridge?

The answer to stop 3 is a little left-field. The Victoria has a long history as a theatre-pub. Rumours of a tunnel linking the pub to the theatre next door. Charlie Chaplin is said to have been a famous former patron.

Probably best not to dwell on the rather dull deep green external paint job and head straight in for a glamorous interior. The beer is not much to shout about - with Ubu or Black Sheep the only two choices, but apparently they do the best pisco outside of Peru.

The Wednesday Afternoon Drinking Club

Of course, the Craven Arms was next. A survivor and now lovingly looked after by the Black Country Ales. Holders Brewery remodelled the Craven Arms in 1906–10, adding its bold tiled façade. More than decoration, the tiles projected respectability — a look designed to impress magistrates as much as customers.

Abandon all hope...

Alas, they were having a bad day. We all know that Black Country Ales stock too many cask ales. With a group party, I could get a fair representation of quality. Two hand pulls failed to produce any beer - just foam. This led to an argument between the staff - a severe lady berating the server for not pulling it correctly and him fighting back. Several alternative options were selected and from what I saw, there seemed to be an awful lot of murky beers being served. And many short measures.

Still, we enjoyed the chat and once the tour was declared over, we got to see the hardcore who stayed for just one more. 

And we found inspiration for the next day out.

I could walk that.