19/06/26 - The Slow Way - Stourport to Droitwich

PID360 / VideoGuard 360

I walked much of this route in reverse, when completing the Droitwich to Hartlebury Rail Trail. It was a disaster of overgrown paths with terrible signposting. I really shouldn't have bothered this Slow Way, but someone has to review them.

To save repeating my moaning, I will simply put up my Slow Ways review. 

This is a disaster - particularly around the east side of the A449 around Stinton Pool and Acton Farm.

Before I start listing the problems, I think I have worked out that these slow ways have been developed on line and no one has actually walked them until they are on the website. I am the first to review this one.

I started at Stourport and ended at Droitwich. I have previously walked much of the route in reverse and it was a disaster then.

The issues? The paths are badly overgrown, signposting is minimal and in many places impassable.

52°18.606'N, 2°13.352'W - path disappears, Dense vegetation. Impossible to follow on the public right of way.

52°18.106'N, 2°13.099'W - a new solar farm. Approaching from the North - there is a clear path between the two fenced off solar farms. Later on, the path completely disappears at a brook. When approaching from the South, I wasn't even able to find my way through. Then, in the middle of the PROW at the co-ords, there is a machine. I have googled it. It is a PID360 / VideoGuard 360. On approach, it sparks up an alarm akin to an air-raid warning, which sounds twice. Lights come on and a very sinister Northern Irish Voice tells you that "Your approach is being recorded. The police have been notified". I am exaggerating when I add "So they have". I have seen the film Aliens. I thought it would shoot me.

52°17.986'N, 2°12.955'W - path disappears at a thicket brook. If you are approaching from the South, you won't even get this far. Forced to battle my way through.

Once (if?) you reach Doverdale Church - its plain sailing on lanes until 52°16.376'N, 2°11.516'W - the Monarchs Way at Nunnery Wood. There is high wheat in the fields. The farmer has left a path but not accurately where marked on the OS Map. Easy to lose it - and I ended up going around in circles on existing tractor tracks, trying not to make a crop circle.

I have reported the issues to Worcestershire County Council Rights of Way Management.

I seriously recommend that no one else attempts this walk.

Seems I am not the only rambler to fall foul of this device. Check out this BBC Story.

For what it is worth - here are the photos.

The Monarach's Way - Not quite where it is meant to be

Westwood House, on the approach to Droitwich

It's not all misery. The Hop Pole Inn is still serving a choice of Bathams beers in perfect condition.

12 miles of misery for this

And the 133 bus - which only runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday - was bang on its 13:30 departure time. 

I was the solo passenger.

It was like a big Uber.

Walk Details

Distance - 12 miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration

17/06/26 - Rail Trail - Langley Green to Smethwick Galton Bridge

Back to my roots

A combination of sources for today's walk, which is possibly the most personal one undertaken.

This month's History West Midlands Podcast is about racism in 1960s Smethwick and specifically Malcolm X's 1965 visit to the area. The next leg of my "rail trails" series is between Langley Green and Smethwick.

Peter Griffiths became Smethwick’s Conservative MP in the 1964 general election after running a notoriously racist and anti-immigration campaign, winning against the national trend and displacing Labour’s Patrick Gordon Walker. A few months later, on 12 February 1965, Malcolm X visited Smethwick at the invitation of Avtar Singh Jouhl and the Indian Workers’ Association to see the discrimination faced by Black and Asian residents, including the colour bar at the Blue Gates pub, where he was not served. He described the situation in Smethwick as even worse than America, and his visit became a powerful symbol of international solidarity against racism. Malcolm X was assassinated in New York on 21 February 1965, just nine days after the Smethwick visit.

I was born in Birmingham and spent the first two years in Smethwick. In a street very near and similar to where Malcolm X visited. My parents - white, working class, moved away in 1971. I never heard them be racist but their reasons were "they didn't want their kids to be in the minority at school".

With this as a backdrop - I trace a route between the two stations, taking in key locations to the story and from my life. It's an urban walk - so certainly not pretty.

Mappiman's First House - Remembered only through photos

There's not that many pubs in the area. The first seen, the Merrivale - a burnt-out shell that is bound to be demolished soon. Most in the area are "Desi-Pubs" - a perfect blend of beer and Indian Food, mixed grill platters a speciality. The Old Chapel is a surviving traditional pub and also the oldest non-secular building in Smethwick. Long been of interest, as we drive past it from the Albion. My mom tells me stories of sharing half a cider with my dad, unable to afford a drink each, having mortgaged themselves to the hilt to purchase the two-up, two-down.

I was hoping to visit today, but it appears to be going through a change of ownership. Stonegate has it up for sale and Facebook has an enthusiastic post suggesting a new chapter is starting soon. 

Old Chapel - I can claim a tick from my pram in 1970

Blue Plaque

Lunch and an interlude at Smethwick Heritage Centre in Victoria Park. A tiny room celebrating Smethwick's industrial past and West Bromwich Albion's former glories.

Picnic in a Park

The Red Cow - Peter Griffiths, the Racist MP, used to campaign from there. Now Desi

The Blue Gates - Visited on my Metro Pub Crawl Walk

My acting career died a death before it had chance to flourish. In Smethwick High Street - where I was busy photographing the mosque, I was approached by a film producer who needed white Caucasian males to appear as extras in a movie being shot. Photos taken and paperwork part completed until I asked how long I would be needed for. Alas, shooting was between 2pm and 8pm. I couldn't commit.

A statue to Sikh Soldiers in WW1

Marshall Street - not far from Smethwick Galton Bridge - is the logical conclusion to the day's activities. A blue plaque marking Malcolm X's visit to Smethwick.

A street of terraced houses

Malcolm was here

Walk Details

Distance - 5 miles

Geocaches - 2

Previous Stages on the Wyre Valley Line - Worcester to Droitwich, Droitwich to Hartlebury, Hartlebury to Kidderminster, Kidderminster to Hagley, Hagley to Stourbridge, Stourbridge to Cradley Heath, Cradley Heath to Old Hill, Old Hill to Langley Green

15/06/26 - A Bristol Ring - Stage 1

Go Jauntly

A new trail, a new app. I noticed another one of those "circular walks around a city" routes - this time, Bristol. 6 Walks, 33 miles - relatively cheap trains from Worcester. It's achievable.

The only place to get the routes is through an app called Go Jauntly. It all works perfectly - stage-by-stage instructions, real time progress on an open-source map.

Stage 1 is a decent enough ramble and it also brings the Bristol and Bath Railway Walk to my attention. A green corridor along the former 15-mile railway line, cutting straight through the City in a north-east direction. A little built up near Temple Meads - and it does run through a caravan shanty town - presumably forcibly removed from Clifton Downs, after pearl clutching segments on slow news days.

It's busy - and as expected, populated by walkers and dicks on all sorts of wheeled devices - all ignoring the "please share", "go slow and "keep left" signposts. I am two years into my retirement and cannot help but consider my own mortality. I never expected it to come from a dreadlocked hippy travelling 20 mph on a rickety bike with cow-horn handlebars.

Hiding from the city on the Bristol/Bath Walkway

Keep Bristol Weird

The route picks out green corridors when it can - before crossing rugby pitches and Chester Park, then continuing through the urban stretches of Two Mile Hill and Magpie Bottom. Our goal, the Avon Walkway - a gentle riverside stretch that provides the highlight of the day.

Messing about on the River Avon

Troopers Hill is the end of the walk - the chimney of the former copper smelting works, an unofficial symbol of East Bristol.

Troopers Hill Heathland

An encouraging start - that maybe took hiding from the city a little too seriously. 7 miles and not a single pub passed.

Hoping for better news from Stage 2.

Walk Details

Distance - 8.25 miles

Geocaches - 5

Walk Inspiration - A Bristol Ring, Stage 1

12/06/26 - On the Trail of..... Penda's Fen

Play for Today

Always on the lookout for new walking inspiration, I was intrigued when The Dispatch newspaper drew my attention to Penda's Fen. Alan Clarke's 1974 Play for Today—the same director who later made Scum and The Firm—is remarkable for more than just its storyline. In less than ninety minutes it tackles Christianity and paganism, sexuality, nuclear annihilation, working-class identity and the nature of England itself. The hyperlink provides a summary of the plot and its ongoing impact quite nicely.

More extraordinary still, it was broadcast on BBC1 at 9.30pm. At a time when there were only three television channels, the British public effectively had a choice: watch Penda's Fen or go to bed early.

Penda was the seventh-century Mercian ruler remembered as England's last great pagan king. The drama is set in Pinvin, near Pershore - a village whose name in Old English is Penda's Fen - although filming took place in Chaceley, across the River Severn from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.

The only walk I have in the area is from an old Country Walking Magazine. This, and some internet-based sleuthing to determine filming locations and a day out for exercise, followed the previous day on the sofa watching the DVD.

I start in the nearby village of Forthampton. In the play, The Vicar visits a parishioner on his death-bed to perform the last rites. I have my first location - an external shot of an impressive house opposite the church.

The last rites were shunned - the dying man happy that he had lived his life on earth

Forthampton Church is "doors open" and I am distracted before taking a step.

Forthampton Church

A Saxon Devil's Head above the front door - Other treasures include a rare stone altar and medieval pews

I'm off and away. The play's eeriness matched by an unchanged for centuries agricultural landscape, with many ancient dead and dying oaks hosting roosting corvids, which take cacophonous flight as I disturb them on approach. I am aiming for the weir at Upper Lode, with constant views of Tewkesbury Abbey on the opposite side of the River Severn.

Dead oaks and Tewkesbury Abbey in the far distance

The weir at Upper Lode

A long stretch of riverside walking passing a couple of pubs. I am too early for the Lower Lode Hotel and Yew Tree Inn, which marks the return inland. A road leads to Chaceley, the site of many of the filming locations.

The main characters family home at the Old Vicarage

The home of the TV scriptwriter

Chaceley Church features prominently - the main protagonist plays the organ there and during his crisis of faith, has a vision when the floor cracks and a voice is heard imploring "free me". It's "doors open" - with a sign saying to close the door behind otherwise birds will get in. There are already three ravens inside.

Chaceley Church

Church Organ

Another devil's head - in the keystone of the arch

Green lanes take me back to Forthhampton. I've been too early for the pubs found on route and nothing is to be found here. A remote good beer guide tick is available at the Railway Inn, Ripple. A 15-minute drive away.

Walk Details

Distance - 8 miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - The Dispatch Newspaper and Country Walking Magazine, January 1995 Walk 12

10/06/26 - Madresfield Court

Brideshead Visited

Convoluted inspiration for today's trip. A 2 mile jaunt across the plains below the Malvern Hills can hardly be described as a walk. 

Today's Walking

The inspiration? I thought the Pevsner Guide to Worcestershire would help with my understanding of the county. As Jonathan Meades stated in an associated BBC documentary - Pevsner is really just a book of lists.  

Madresfield Court piqued my interest. I have walked on the footpaths surrounding it many times but never visited. The documentary told me the house, and the family, was the inspiration for the Evelyn Waugh book Brideshead Revisited. I've unsuccessfully read Waugh before but gave the 1980s TV show and the 2008 film a watch. 10 hours vs. 2 hours but both entertaining enough.

Madresfield Court

The house is in private ownership - and has been for centuries - but they do have open days in the summer. £17 invested and a further £6 in takeaway cake. I am signed up for my latest early-retirement attempt at entertainment. Visiting Stately Homes.

Who would have predicted it?

It's a 90 minute tour of a house packed to the rafters with better quality tat than I have amassed over the years. They have gorilla skeletons, skinned tigers and tortoiseshell sideboards. I have the world's finest collection of walking books and Windows 6.1 Mobile phones. 

Of all the rooms, it is the chapel that is most impressive. Access via the library (smelled wonderful), it is quite the spectacle of art and god's glory.

We can compare Waugh's description, delivered as Charles Ryder is shown around by the dipsomaniac, doomed homosexual, teddy-bear-carrying Sebastian Flyte, with Pevsner's characteristically matter-of-fact inventory;

One of these was the chapel. We entered it by the public porch (another door led direct to the house); Sebastian dipped his fingers in the water stoup, crossed himself, and genuflected; I copied him. ‘Why do you do that?’ he asked crossly.

‘Just good manners.’

‘Well, you needn’t on my account. You wanted to do sightseeing; how about this?’

The whole interior had been gutted, elaborately refurnished and redecorated in the arts-and-crafts style of the last decade of the nineteenth century. Angels in printed cotton smocks, rambler-roses, flower-spangled meadows, frisking lambs, texts in Celtic script, saints in armour, covered the walls in an intricate pattern of clear, bright colours. There was a triptych of pale oak, carved so as to give it the peculiar property of seeming to have been moulded in Plasticine. The sanctuary lamp and all the metal furniture were of bronze, hand-beaten to the patina of a pock-marked skin; the altar steps had a carpet of grass-green, strewn with white and gold daisies.

‘Golly,’ I said.

Pevsner;

"An exceptionally complete piece of Arts and Crafts decoration of 1902.

The paintings are by A. Payne. The stained glass is by him and others. The triptych is by Charles Gere. The small crucifix and the candlesticks are by A. J. Gaskin... C. R. Ashbee's guild also did woodwork."

Sebastian was based on Hugo Lygon, represented as a child in the chapel. All that money and opportunity and he died at 36, falling off a kerb in Germany. The Lygons seem fully aware of the chance that fate plays in life. There is a huge portrait of the distant commoner from the Black Country, William Jennens. He died in his nineties, with a will that left all his money to his mother. The Lygons, after a court trial recorded by Charles Dickens, were the recipients of a third of his money due one married-in family member being a distant cousin. £800m in today's money.

Hugo, pulling the heads off flowers.

Since retirement, I have been posting a daily tweet of what I have enjoyed that day. Day 712 announced my upcoming visit and the watching of the film. 

I think my followers want me to get back to documenting the rough pubs of Cannock.

pic.twitter.com/b63rxdXTuN

— Cooking Lager is feeling divisive (@CarpeZytha) June 9, 2026

08/06/26 - On the Trail of.... George Eliot

No Access

Considering I have never read any of her books, it seems strange that this is the second George Eliot themed walk I have completed. With Middlemarch coming in as the second-best book of all time - as voted by Guardian readers over the weekend - maybe this is something to be addressed.

Previously, I've traipsed around South London looking out for where she lived. Today, it's Nuneaton, her birthplace. Apart from being the most populated town in Warwickshire, they don't appear to have much else to shout about. The hospital and a pub named after her. The pub possibly responsible for putting people in the hospital. Strangely open - but with pumping music, so it cannot be a 'spoons - at 10am on a Tuesday.

Random St George's flags replacing a flat roof (with dog on) as a warning sign

The route is from a 1951 guide book. The maps, and associated descriptions, have always presented a challenge to decipher. The theme is where George (Mary Ann Evans) was raised and some of the real locations that became fictional places in her works.

The lass herself

She was born at South Farm on the Arbury Estate - which in the 1950s was open to the public. The map cuts through this estate and even discusses an obelisk next to the farm in celebration. Public access is no longer available, so I have to adapt the route significantly. I do manage to track down the aforementioned obelisk, moved to the one nice part of town, the riverside park.

Previously next to South Farm

Griff House was her childhood home. I would have visited this too, but the public footpaths I need take me away from what is now a Beefeater/Premier Inn. Progress, hey.

Closest I get to Arbury Park - inspiration for Cheverel Manor in "Scenes from a Clerical Life"

My (replanned) route takes me around the northern side of the estate. "Private" signs are in abundance in case I get any ideas. Dull road walking along Astley Road to a proper, ruined castle with connections to Henry VIII.

A first glimpse across a pool

Up close - maybe too close, as you will find out.

Astley Castle, near Nuneaton in Warwickshire, was originally a 13th-century fortified manor house and later the seat of the Grey family. It is closely linked to Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days’ Queen”, who was the great-niece of Henry VIII through his sister Mary Tudor. Following Jane Grey’s failed claim to the throne in 1553 and her subsequent execution, the Grey family’s influence declined and the estate eventually passed out of their hands. The castle also has a literary link to George Eliot: it is generally identified as the inspiration for Knebley Abbey in George Eliot’s novella Mr Gilfil's Love Story, part of Scenes of Clerical Life.

There are plentiful information boards, direction arrows and even a sign saying "please respect the residents' privacy". Which leads me to think I can investigate the ruins in a little bit more detail. I get as far as identifying that a modern conversion is housed inside the ruins and it doesn't take long before I am hollered at as to what I am doing. The cleaners are in. This is now a holiday let owned by the Landmark Trust.

And can't cleaners shout when they spy middle-aged ramblers approaching their patch.

I apologise and try to explain the misleading signage that suggests it's open for public access. I am still not entirely sure it isn't.

I beat a hasty retreat to the church next door, having done my research into alabaster effigies and medieval misericord paintings of the apostles.

It's "doors locked".

Back to the walking. The guidebook wants me to head south to Corley and ultimately Allesley. There is little in the way of interest and a lot of it is lane walking. This might have been pleasant in the fifties but a look on Google Maps shows no verge and a lot of traffic.

I can escape North-West, through a damp wheat field with a narrow path (hello wet trousers and socks) and a golf course.

A revisit to a quite bonkers nautically themed pub - the Lord Nelson - which is almost as far as you can get from the sea in England.

Gah! I had just dried out

Bass in the Lord Nelson - Good Beer Guide Regular

"Get it at sea, take a ship / I'd christen her 'Victory', she'd make it."

Walk Details

Distance - 8.25 miles

Geocaches - 8

Walk Inspiration - Fifty Weekend Walks Round Birmingham - Walk 5

   

06/06/26 - The Three Good Beer Guide Ticks in Cannock

A Spoons and Two Micros

An oddly dull walk from Walsall brought me to Cannock, a previously unexplored town. If you ask AI what there is to see and do in Cannock, it tells you to look for a dogs grave, Freda, on Cannock Chase.

Which is probably not bad advice.

The Wetherspoons, Linford Arms, is where all the life is. A twin gabled town house, where nearly every single table was occupied. Thank God for their ruthlessly efficient app. An all day breakfast and a pint of Moorhouse Pendle Witches brew, whilst I guarded the last available single seater table.

Stand further back to get both gable ends in

The New Hall Arms is just a short walk away, opposite a shabby looking shopping centre. It's a bigger than usual micro, concentrating on cask rather than more esoteric international offerings. Bass was on, but in a move that showed a lack of care and attention, it was stuffed into a craft Vocation pint pot. Covered in art.  Give my boring brown beer in a boring nonic.

New Hall Arms

On the way back to the station is the final part of the trilogy, The Arcade. A quirky little micro pub, which appears to share its space with a music shop. People enter carrying guitars. An interesting collection of keg and cask on, I went for a previously untried Feld Helles lager from Ampersand Brewery.

Cannock, greened.

 

06/06/26 - Walsall to Cannock on the McClean Way

Arrow Straight to a Broken Boulder

Walk Midlands is such an excellent resource. Subscribe to their mail list and as regular as clockwork on the 1st of the month your inbox will be filled with wonderful ramblers inspiration. I had my eye on today's walk as it ended in the never explored before Cannock. As usual, I ask AI what there is to do there. Let's just say ChatGPT is not going to get employed by the Cannock Tourist Board.

If you're expecting a picturesque market town full of historic buildings, Cannock itself can feel a bit underwhelming.

As surprising as that sounds, it's quite a fair assessment. Who says we need to worry about the veracity of  AI?

Still, its probably better than Walsall. In the rain. I look to make my escape as soon as possible and pick up the McClean Way. A former railway line, its arrow straight, offers no views and makes canals seem exciting.

It's like this for miles

Until you escape at Pelsall

Cadman's Lane offers little to lift the boredom - a green lane dividing cow pastures. There's an oddly placed blue plaque in a thicket and even this is a memorial to something that no longer exists. John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, preached from a large sandstone boulder near Fishey. The boulder no longer exists. Kind of fitting for the walk, somehow.

Unexpected Plague

Impossible to say where Great Wyrley ends and Cannock begins but the last couple of miles are along the A34. At least there are three pubs for needed refreshment. I picked well at the first - The Star Inn. A community pub trying to be all things to all people. Food, entertainment and sometimes both. The upcoming England World Cup games can be enjoyed with a half time chip butty.

Well kept beer - HPA, Butty Bach or Timothy Taylor

Over two horrible roundabouts - and then I am in Cannock. A town where the planners really don't want the pedestrian to make it into.  

Three Good Beer Guide Ticks await.

Walk Details

Distance - 10 miles

Geocaches - 1

Walk Inspiration

 

05/06/26 - Masons Arms, Wichenford

Church Treasures and a Dovecote

The Pickerwheel is spun and returns Page 91 of the Hidden Places of Worcestershire book. Wichenford, for a dovecote and a pub.

My extensive library of walking books fails to find a single route in this small village. I am forced into making my own. It's a success - maybe the start of a new career. 6 miles through beautiful agricultural landscapes in the shadows of Woodbury and the Malvern Hills. Plenty of stiles to clamber over. 

Mainly on paths like this

With Views like this

Wichenford Dovecote - when I woke up this morning, I was unsure I could describe to you what a Dovecote is. Now, I know. It's got a brown tourist sign, pointing into the moated Wichenford Manor House. It's gated, so I nervously let myself in. The first building looks suitably ancient but on inspection, it's just stables. Around the corner, I find my quarry. 

C17th Birdhouse

Home for 557 Birds. Who, presumably, have all been evicted

 

Wichenford Church - This is what I love about exploring. The church is not only "Doors Open" but provides the WiFi password on the front door. Live blogging from the field was a possibility. The church is pretty enough and with the low lying land, is visible for much of the walk. Inside it housing two beautiful C17th shrines to the Washbourne family. 

St Laurence

Bunk Bed Shrines

And the loyal dog

The Masons Arms - is a food led country pub, which surprisingly has competition with the most bizarrely located Thai restaurant you will find. Housed in the barn at nearby Buryendtown Farm. One cask on, Wye Valley HPA, and I should have trusted my instincts, as it was badly on the turn. The landlady was that pleasant and attentive, I couldn't bring myself to complain. Besides, there was nothing to swap it with.

Repeat after me Mappiman - if in doubt, sample it; optimism pairs badly with blind ordering.

The menu looked fantastic

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 0

Walk Inspiration - Page 91 of Hidden Places in Worcestershire