30/07/26 - Lammas in Halesowen

Early Harvest

I may be two days early for Lammas, but the strange weather makes a mockery of the calendar. All the conditions for a pilgrimage walk seem to have fallen into place. The farmers are already bringing in the harvest, and I find an oak beneath which to eat my ham sandwich. I have neither loaf nor companions to complete the ritual as tradition prescribes.

August brings Lughnasadh (or Lammas), the ancient Celtic festival of the first harvest, celebrated on 1 August. Lammas, from the Old English hlaf-mæsse ("loaf mass"), marks the baking of bread from the new grain and giving thanks for the harvest. This is the time for bread baked from new grain, for gathering berries on hedgerow walks, for songs of John Barleycorn, the spirit of corn who must die so we might live.

Pilgrimage at Lughnasadh is earthy and practical, when you can bring a loaf, break it with your companions beneath an oak, and share it together.

Harvest Special

I'm in Halesowen with plenty of plans - a new Adventure Lab Cache, a local walk in Country Walking Magazine and a lunchtime visit to CAMRA's Cider Pub of the Year (Stourbridge and Halesowen Branch).

It's a walk I know reasonably well but there's always something new to discover.

The remains of Halesowen Abbey - built 1218

A new waymarked walking trail

I knew that Leasowes Park was a Dudley Geosite but the new trail, with fresh waymarker signs is a bit of a mystery. A Google search and the only reference is an upcoming Ramblers Walk that follows a route from Halesowen to Waseley Hill Visitor Centre. Considering the effort they have gone to on plotting the walk on the ground, they could do with a little more advertising on the route it takes. And saying it is Geotrail 1 suggests more Geotrails are coming. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Perhaps the most intriguing feature of this walk are the remnants of the Halesowen Branch Line.

Old Hill to Longbridge

The map shows the course of the route from Old Hill to Longbridge, but offers no clues to the engineering feats involved in its construction. Fallen trees forced me into the woodland, where the surviving brick piers can still be found. These once supported a lattice ironwork viaduct that rose 100 feet above the valley floor and stretched for 700 feet. Built in 1883, it lasted just over 80 years before being dismantled in 1965. All that effort, but would it have passed today's health and safety tests? It looks rather delicate!

Reclaimed by nature

10 mph speed limit. Unsure if it ran when windy

The route - unusually for this summer, completed in rain - is back to town via Leasowes Park and the disused number 2 canal.

Post walk refreshment has to be Roberto's Bar. For daytime drinkers, this means arriving on a Thursday/Friday or Saturday - when it opens at midday. Come on a Sunday and it opens at 2pm, but selling the most extraordinary looking Bloody Mary's - made in a vat and sold until gone.

You know what day it is! Don't miss out! I'm away next Sunday so you'll have to get your fix today! Cheers! pic.twitter.com/pTiaTVqXcA

— Roberto's Bar - Halesowen (@RobertosBarHale) July 26, 2026

No "Breakfast of Champions" on this Thursday afternoon but the electronic menu does demand some attention. Two pages of ciders were expected. About a dozen different meads wasn't. But there was only one choice for me. Not often I see the laughing abbot on draught.

Straffe Hendrick Quad chaser also available

Walk Details

Distance - 8 miles

Walk Inspiration - Country Walking Magazine, April 2026, Walk 12

Geocaches - 10

Previous Celtic Pilgrimages - Imbloc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas

14/07/26 - Rail Trail - Smethwick Galton Bridge to The Hawthorns

Quadruple Inspiration to Find "Sand Well"

A lot going on for a simple walk between two West Midlands Railway Stations.

History West Midlands Podcasts

My monthly listen is the opening podcast about the Black Country, focusing on the post WWII glory years. Full employment, workers rights, massive house building. Setting the boomers up for a life of good luck unavailable to the future generations. 

There is nothing specifically mentioned in terms of people or places to base a walk on. The Bentley Estate in Darlaston a possibility but I doubt it offers much in the way of walking or pubs. The GKN factory in Heath Street long gone. Inspiration was found from the former mining works in Sandwell Valley Country Park. A walk - the Miner's Trail - was found and adapted into the walk.

Sandwell Country Park - a pond hiding former mine works

The real interest here is from a much older age. Three information boards tell all you need to know about the spring that gave the area its name, a priory and a later hall. Only some foundations - and the unattractive, sandbagged spring remain.

Tucked away in Sandwell Valley are the remains of Sandwell Priory, a small Benedictine monastery founded in the late 12th century beside the Sand Well, a natural spring believed to possess healing qualities that gave both the priory and the modern borough their name. Following the priory's closure in 1525, the site later became home to Sandwell Hall, a grand country house built by the Dartmouth family in the early 18th century. Although the hall was demolished in 1928, archaeological excavations have since revealed the foundations of both the medieval priory and the later mansion, allowing visitors to trace more than 700 years of history in a single peaceful corner of the valley.

Priory and Hall Remains

Sandwell, bubbling up

Pub Walks in the Black Country

My next walk from this book is in Sandwell Country Park. Only two miles, and covering the afore-photographed pond, Swan Pond and the priory remains. Two miles cannot justify the public transport costs for a separate visit, so I simply add most of the loop into the walk. And the pub? The Churchfield Tavern, Little Lane is recommended for Banks Bitter and Mild.

Demolished in 2013

From the photo, it looks a mishmash of extensions, with a rather oddly positioned chimney. Research shows that somewhere there was a both a bowling green and a petting zoo for goats, horses and rabbits.

High in the list of google results was Alan Winfield's epic (aren't they always) 1988 pub crawl of West Bromwich. Added to my to-do list to see if anything still remains in this fast changing pub ticking world. 13 pubs are listed, my betting is there are no more than four remaining. 

I will report back.

Dudley Geosites

Sandwell Valley Country Park and Smethwick Galton Bridge are both Dudley Geosite locations. 2 more knocked off.

Rail Trails

Of course, there is no official route from Smethwick Galton Bridge to The Hawthorns. An unofficial one from Railwalks.co.uk is only 1.2 miles (but the next stage is perfect, downloaded and ready to go). It's down to me to work out how to cross the bridge and get to Sandwell Country Park. A decent enough urban walk on properly marked walking/cycling paths. I learn just how close the Vine is to SGB station, which I am sure will come in useful. Handy twirly footbridges allow for safe crossings of dual carriageways and an interesting way to access Dartmouth Park.

SGB, 1829 and once the highest single span bridge in the world. Looks better from the canal below.

A view of Turner's Hill from a twirly footbridge

Dartmouth Park leads to Sandwell Country Park, where Park Lane can be avoided by a parallel, unmarked footpath that avoids death-by-hatchback. Into Handsworth Cemetery, where a handily placed exit leaves you opposite the Hawthorns, stadium, not station.

Proving just how much of a community club West Bromwich Albion are, they offer a lovely Garden of Remembrance. Loved ones' ashes can be left looking at the stadium. It has been my dad's home for the last 11 years.

Of course, I popped in. 

"Gone for a shout"

Walk Details

Distance - 6 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, Langley Green to Smethwick Galton Bridge

07/05/26 - Dudley Geological Heritage Trail

Rock and (beef and onion) Roll

My latest West Midlands History Podcast is not really suitable for going on a fact-finding walk for. It concerns the improvement in household living in the Black Country home.

I could have gone to the Back to Back Houses in Birmingham, but have already visited. The Black Country Living Museum falls into the same category, but next door is the free Dudley Museum and Art Gallery.

This is the first listing in Black Country Geosites list and there is a Good Beer Guide Tick up for grabs. A day out is possible, although we're going back further in time than the podcast.

Would have more apt

I'll look at plastic dinosaurs, instead

I did manage to get all the leaflets I needed for future Black Country Geo-sites walks. Including a heritage trail around Dudley town centre, where 23 interesting rock locations are highlighted. I enjoyed the statues and priory, Poundland and the Halifax less so.

What retirement holds in store for you

Duncan Edwards - the best statue in town

Priory Park is lovely

Nothing says tourist more than a man struggling to unfurl an A1 sized leaflet in a town centre. And Dudley doesn't get many tourists. It was best that I repaired to the unvisited GBG Tick at the Malt Shovel.

Former Banks

Should you be able to zoom in on the external chalk board - it says they do have Real Ale. Not that this was encouraging my fellow lunchtime drinkers, all on Carling. Comfortable enough and my Pictish Brewing Blue Moon was perfect, even if it was from Rochdale, rather than Scotland, as informed by the bar staff.

A cob lunch, perfect.

A two phase lunch

The Fellows is highlighted on my Google Maps as being part of the Holdens chain, but my spider senses were instantly alerted to this being fake news.

Too smart

Online, its still listed. It serves a perfect Golden Glow. And Holdens scratchings. Yet it has been sold and is now an independent concern.

Lunch - Part 2

A walk back to Tipton Train Station (evidence that the future tram extension may make getting to Dudley slightly easier). Long closed pubs, ruined vans with repossession notices on the smashed windscreens and celebrations of the local celebrities.

The Tipton Slasher

Walk Details

Distance - 6 Miles

Geocaches - 12

Walk Inspiration - West Midlands History Podcast and the Dudley Geological Heritage Trail

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

17/07/25 - Saltwells to The Bull and Bladder, Home of the Bathams

Blessing of your heart: You brew good ale

The Ramblers Meetup Invitation had me at "and then we will visit the Bathams Brewery Tap".

I failed to notice distance, walk type, where we would be going or indeed, who I would be going with.

Let's answer the questions in turn....

Distance - 5 Miles

Walk Type - Planned as linear, with the bus for the last 1.5 miles back to Cradley Heath Station. I was too tight to pay the £3, having more time at my disposal than funds.

Where We are Going - a walk through Saltwells Country Park - visiting the quarry and a reservoir. Then along the Dudley 2 Canal, including the nine locks. Walk leader then "abandons" his flock and says "time for the pub, I will you show you the bus stop, but I plan to stop for a session. You are welcome to join me or make your own way back.

Who I would be walking with - Its the Ramblers. You are never sure who will turn up. But I probably didnt expect a gentleman in Chelsea boots who then commented on the Meetup Page post walk that he "thought the lady who patted me on the train was lovely, but they were all very nice". I have no idea what he assumed this type of group would be. Once again, I was the youngest - but only by two years. Reminiscing about the hot summer of '76 always provides the necessary data to make deductions.

Photos:

Doulton's Quarry - Zoom in to the rock-face for a giant dragonfly

Nine Locks down to Delph Road

The walk leader was correct to make it an "every person for themselves". He had done his work and only gone wrong twice. Some stayed for one. Some drank cider, coke or Stella. Most had a Bathams. I stopped for three and left the hardcore for their afternoon session. Complicated rounds were starting to form and I didn't want to leave in a pensioner's debt.

Always keen to find something new - I noticed that the pub used to be a lodge for the Buffs. See the RAOB glass above the door.

The beer, as good as always.

RAOB

Bathams in the Garden

The horrified bar man recovering from 15 ramblers, paying separately. 

The classic frontage through rush hour traffic

Walk Details

Distance - 5 Miles

Geocaches - 5