Distance: around 4 miles
Difficulty of the Terrain: Medium
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. from Dropbox
A largely rural walk from south Birmingham into north Worcestershire to the site of the former Dowery Dell Viaduct. Once a marvel of Victorian engineering now only ruins remain, but you can still get a sense of it’s scale and grandeur.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
Riding the Rails to Obsolence
In 1878 work was begun by the Great Western Railway Company on what became a branch line between Old Hill near Dudley and the little Worcestershire village of Long Bridge.
Their initial plan was for a short line running from their route into Birmingham which passed through Old Hill, to the colliery town of Halesowen which sits on the far edge of the south eastern flank of the Black Country. Having arrived at Halesowen, however, it was decided that it made sense to continue the route for a further five or six miles south of Halesowen to the Midland Railway’s line running south from Birmingham. In doing so creating one of the many little single tracked tributaries which criss-crossed Britain prior to the railway network’s mid-20th Century pruning.
Constructing the route chosen for the railway entailed crossing a steep and quite wide ravine known as Dowery Dell.
The solution was a mighty, and highly unusual trestle viaduct, running more than 30 metres above the valley floor. Made from wrought iron girders arranged in a lattice formation the line was carried for 180 metres on an intricate and spectacular metal framework. Quite the engineering feet for a line which must have never been expected to get all that busy.
And indeed traffic was generally quite quiet with the final scheduled passenger train running between the line’s small number of stations serving what was sparsely populated countryside in 1919 (see colour photos from the mid-1950s of the route here).
The development of a striking technical innovation, one which ironically would eventually do for the Old Hill – Long Bridge Line and dozens of others like it, which came into being three years after the line opened in 1883 gave the line a new lease of life from the time of the First World War onwards.
In the 1890s a small printing works had been established at Long Bridge adjacent to the track. By 1904 it had ceased operating as a printing works and the modern factory buildings were taken over by the Austin Motor Company which quickly established itself as one of Britain’s biggest carmakers. The First World War provided a further spur to growth with the company – and it’s factory – swelling in size off the back of military procurement contracts.
Fulfilling these required the extensive application of labour power, which had to come from somewhere. The boundaries of Birmingham at this time, and it’s built up area, were still several miles away from what was now known as Longbridge.
A solution was to hire workers in the Black Country and bring them to the factory on specially chartered trains. As War Ministry money swelled the Austin Motor Company’s coffers so the factory expanded to encompass both sides of the railway track, whilst additional rails were laid to allow for supplies to be hauled between different parts of the factory by train. In the centre of the line from Old Hill to Longbridge a new station was built at the heart of the works. This station allowed the company to bring in it’s new workforce from the Black Country and enable them to commute home again at the end of their shifts.
In this way the early days of what became one of the most significant components of Britain’s car industry, and global car culture with all that has entailed, was built quite literally upon a railway. Without the railway bringing in a stream of raw materials – including Dudley coal – and providing a handy link which brought Black Country workers into what was a fairly remote site the explosive growth of the Austin Motor Company during the First World War would not have been possible. During the interwar period the workforce at the factory fluctuated drastically as labour was laid on and off at different points in the trade cycle. However, whenever demand for cars was deemed high trains would shuttle back and forth across the Dowery Dell Viaduct carrying workers to and from the Black Country to Longbridge.
Of course, the success and eventual dominance of mass motor ownership was what eventually doomed the line. Quite literally in fact: as the route of the M5 motorway which cuts along the south western edge of Birmingham, separating the city from Halesowen, necessitated it’s closure. By that time the relative affluence of car workers in post-war Britain meant that many of them owned cars themselves. This reduced the need for special car workers trains, and the last one ran in 1958.
The branch line itself shut in 1964 with the Dowery Dell Viaduct and all the other railway infrastructure being demolished in 1965. The wrecking gangs only took the ironwork however, leaving a set of mighty brick piers in Dowery Dell where they remain to this day.
One autumnal Sunday afternoon, inspired by stories and pictures of people encountering these fascinating examples of railway (and car) architectural history, and aided by a low resolution scan of a council countryside department walks leaflet from circa 2000 my sister had tipped me off was online, I decided to head off and explore.
The Walk
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. from Dropbox
I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.
With the elderly leaflet for the “Iley Way” saved safely on my Google Drive I set off for Woodgate Valley Country Park where the walk begins.
Woodgate Valley Country Park – of course – is the final resting place of the Lapal Tunnel, another important and spectuarly strange industrial age piece of architecture, which has a walk I have created in it’s own right.
To get to Woodgate Valley I took the Number 11 bus from near where I live up to War Lane in Harborne and then took a short journey into Quinton on the 24 getting off at a road called Six Acres. From here I crossed the road and walked down a small snicket between two rows of terraced 1970s vintage council built houses towards the entrance to the Country Park.
Following the path I headed down the slope to the Bourn Brook at the bottom of the valley. From here I followed the well made path beside the Brook for about ten minutes making for the far-side of the park where the walks officially begins. Presently I reached Watery Lane which leads past an incongruous horse sanctuary/trekking centre, apparently somehow affiliated to Birmingham City Council, and emerged onto Woodgate Lane opposite the flat roofed Old Crown pub.
It is here by the Old Crown pub that the walk commences. As is the way with these things as I was checking directions and preparing to cross Woodgate Lane a Number 23 bus sailed past me, suggesting that I could actually have got a 23 from Harborne instead and missed out Woodgate Valley Park altogether. Oh well.
Having crossed over Woodgate Road head down Lye Close Lane which starts straight in front of you and runs down the side of the Old Crown’s beer garden. It’s quite busy and cars come quite fast, so best to walk along the pavement on the right handside. This initial section also forms part of my Lost Lapal Canal walk which is another “must” for those with an interest in industrial history, heritage and archeology.
After several minutes walking the 1970s terraced houses and other buildings which line the road peter out in favour of bushes.
By this point the roar of traffic will be quite loud. Presently you emerge onto a bridge running over the M5 whose six lanes whoosh beneath you.
Once you have crossed over the motorway bridge you have left Birmingham for the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.
Immediately after the bridge turn left down Lapal Lane South.
After a short while you come to a bend in the road, turn left here and walk down a steadily narrowing lane past a terrace of houses.
Just after the houses stands a gate with a style next to it.
Cross over the style, the step of which was still sturdy but very rotted through when I walked the route and carry on down the pathway in front of you.
These paths, according my trusty Illey Way leaflet scan, are green lanes which apparently date back as trackways between farms, hamlets and villages in the area to the middle ages when Halesowen and the surrounding land was controlled by the large Abbey of Halesowen (the ruins of which you can see on my Lost Lapal Canal walk).
After a sharp turn you enter into a lightly wooded section which has views both back towards the M5 on your left (the sound of heavy traffic moving fast is ever present on this walk) and towards Halesowen and the north Worcestershire hills beyond on your right.
Presently after a short while you reach a fork in the path. Take the left hand fork here.
Then enter a slightly uphill section flanked by two tall, very old looking hedge rows.
After a short while you come to a boundary marker.
Having passed the boundary marker you enter an impressively tangled section of woodland which runs fairly steeply downhill.
This tangled section runs adjacent to a copse called Coopers Wood.
Shortly after Coopers Wood you enter an open field.
The very pastoral scene, of small fields broken up by ancient looking trees and hedgerows, is offset by the sight of a raised section of the M5 and it’s gantries in the distance as well as a mass of pylons. It is a great walk for aficionados of the weird landscape of the greenbelt.
Having left the wooded section turn right and walk through a series of interlocking, long narrow fields.
There are cows grazing them, but when I visited the farmer had apparently left the gate open and the cows were free to roam.
Presently having crossed the fields you encounter a wide expanse of mud. This has been churned up by the cattle moving between the field and wherever they’re milked. The cows have also churned their dug into the mud which oozes out oily from under the surface as it decomposes. All very natural but also pretty rank.
I was wearing high boots and I found it quite difficult to traverse, so definitely a very tricky section if you are in shoes.
Having crossed the muddy expanse you arrive after a couple of minutes at a lane which makes for much easier walking.
At the top of the lane you pass a set of farm buildings on your left.
One your right, one of the quaintest styles I have ever seen beckons invitingly, but it’s not on the route so keep on walking up the lane.
At the top besides a set of farm cottages – or where they used to be – they seemed to be being demolished when I walked past, there is a gate.
Pass through the gate (which has half a faded, half fallen off, Iley Way waymarker on it).
And opposite stretching along the main road you find yourself on, is The Black Horse Pub. It’s a fairly typical greenbelt food focused pub now part of Sizzling Pubs, but it’s the only place for refreshments on the route before the Waseley Hills Country Park where the walk ends, so if you arrive at lunchtime it’s the only bet.
Beyond the pub stretching either way is the hamlet of Iley, which thanks to being situated slap bang in the middle of the greenbelt, has probably changed relatively little since the 1950s.
Crossing over the road towards the pub’s carpark, turn left and walk along the perimeter of the carpark.
Just after the carpark there is a footpath sign leading onto a lane running uphill.
Walk up the lane.
At the top of the hill the lane curves round to the left.
Follow the curve and walk down the lane towards Iley Farm.
The view is pretty impressive from up here.
Having walked past the Iley Farm Buildings, keep following the track steeply downwards.
Presently you come to two further houses at the bottom of the track.
Follow the path down beside the sides of the houses. One of these buildings called “Iley Lower Farm” is of a similar – old vintage – to the Iley Farm higher up. The other is a fantastic looking 1970s style house, of an increasingly rare design, which looks not unlike a suburban pub or perhaps a motel, of that era. This one is large and has been well kept. A sign of the relative affluence that was still comparatively common in the West Midlands in the 1970s no doubt.
After the two houses follow the track down into a wooded section.
Presently you cross over a small brook.
After a short while you come to a gate with a style.
Cross over the style and walk up the short, steep bank in front of you.
At the top turn right and walk directly across the field in front of you past a line of trees running down the middle of the field.
On the far side of the field there is a gateway and style which lead through into another field.
Head through here and keep walking straight following the path in the direction of a stand of trees straight ahead.
Once you reach the trees follow the path down a slope (which can be quite muddy) past two posts with white painted tops into the trees.
Follow the path as it weaves through the woods.
Presently you come to a short wooden planked bridge. Use this to cross the small stream which flows underneath it.
Having crossed the stream carry on towards another style which leads out into a steeply sloping field.
On the way you have to step over a slightly forlorn looking carving of a fish. The sole survivor it would seem, of a public art project created in the area around the time of the Millenium.
Once you have crossed the field if you look back there is a faded, but still intact waymarker for the Iley Way Walk, bearing a nicely stylised illustration of a small steam train crossing the Dowery Dell Viaduct, this is a sign that you are nearing the bridge’s remains.
Upon entering the field following the path that is on your left which leads around the left hand perimeter of the field.
After a short while walking up the slope it levels out somewhat, to reveal a long steadily rising field which runs up to a line of trees and shrubbery in the distance.
Long before you reach the top of the field a signpost is visible next to a style on your left.
Turn and cross over this style.
Once on the other side follow the clearly defined path across the field that you are now standing in. You are now on the well used and clearly defined Monarch’s Way footpath which you will continue on for the rest of the walk.
On the far side of the field you are now walking across stands some woodland. This is Dowery Dell which the viaduct used to cross.
As you approach the line of the old embankment coming to an abrupt end at the top of the little valley is clearly visible inside a thicket as you approach a gate.
Once through the gate follow the path down into the woodland.
A little way inside the woodland the dark blue or black brick piers of the old viaduct are clearly visible in tiers on your right hand side.
Some of the brick bases are fairly accessible from the path and still pretty intact.
Others are harder to easily access and increasingly overgrown.
Nonetheless, when in the dell the line of the old viaduct and how the piers were arranged running up and down the sides of the valley to carry the viaduct, can clearly be seen.
Several of the better preserved piers even have a few jagged ends of girder still affixed to the top of them. However, the main slightly eerie attraction of the dell is the way in which the woodland with all it’s branches, roots and tangles is overtaking and absorbing the long derelict nearly 150 years old remains of the viaduct.
To head down into the bottom of the dell there are some handy steps provided.
At the bottom of the steps stands a tumbled down, but still quite sturdy overall, wooden bridge across the small river that flows at the bottom of the dell.
A further set of steps on the other side of the valley takes you back up to near the top of the dell, past the remainder of the viaduct’s piers.
At the top of the steps immediately in front of one of the brick piers the path veers to your left.
Follow the path round continuing through the woodland.
After a short way a style comes into view leading out onto an open field.
Cross the style and head into the field.
Follow the path as it tacks close to the edge of the field.
After around five to ten minutes walking a concrete bunker looking building becomes visible on the crest of the small ridge immediately to your left. This vaguely military looking structure is actually an access point for the Elan Valley Aquaduct which brings water from a gigantic reservoir system in mid-Wales into Birmingham. The walk crosses over the pipeline a bit further down but it’s not especially apparent.
Close to where the pipeline runs you take a slight turn to your right and across a style as the path heads into woodland once more.
Once inside the woodland walking close to a brook, you soon come to a fork in the path.
Take the left hand turn and head uphill through the trees on a well defined track like road.
The path flattens out leading through the trees to a gap out onto another field.
Once in the field follow the clearly defined and pretty flat path as it hugs the edge near the woods.
Once in the field follow the clearly defined and pretty flat path as it hugs the edge near the woods.
You walk in this fashion for at least 10 minutes.
Presently you come to a ditch with a wooden plan board over it and a gate.
Once on the other side of the gate, part of the hill top village of Romsley is visible through the trees. It makes you feel as if you are much further away from Birmingham than the kilometre or so that is actually the case.
Also next to the gate is a memorial plaque recently erected by Romsley Parish Council to the memory of 3 young British airmen who were killed nearby when their plane crashed during a training exercise in World War Two.
Continuing on the path a little further along you come to another gate.
On the other side of the gate take the clearly defined path across the corner of the field.
Then head up the sloping hill towards a stand of trees at the top.
Once you’re near the top look back for an excellent view back towards Halesowen, Rowley Regis, Stourbridge and the entire south western flank of the Black Country as far as Oldbury, Tividale and the Rowley Hills (which at nearly 300 metres as the highest point in West Midlands county).
Right at the top of the hill you’ll come to a style leading onto a lane.
Once you’re over the style you have completed the footpath based section of the walk. Turn right and walk a short way down the lane.
This brings you to a junction – which is usually fairly busy with cars travelling fast so take care.
Turn left at the junction and walk across the road bridge. Below you once more the M5 roars.
Once over the bridge the sign for Waseley Hills Country Park should be apparent.
If you are there during opening times you can stop there to use the toilet or get refreshments from the cafe.
This marks the end of the walk.
Getting Back
To get back continue walking for several hundred metres along the road past the entrance to Waseley Country Park.
The road is surprisingly busy and cars travel fast, so take care and be sure to make use of the grass verge which runs for most of the length.
Walking along this rat run is interesting mostly for the chance it offers to encounter one of the weirdly overgrown and tangled woods that is a feature of a surprisingly large amount of greenbelt land.
After 5-10 minutes walking houses suddenly appear on your left hand side.
As a road sign proclaims this is New Frankly, a 1970s council estate, with all manner of infill housing, which was annexed to Birmingham from Bromsgrove in the 1990s.
What survives of the estate’s original 1970s design and building is architecturally interesting, the more recent structures less so, but it is kind of enthralling how developers have gone about trying to squeeze more houses onto the edge of the city.
At the first junction you come to if you look to your left you will see a bus stop. Number 63 and 202 buses run from here every day of the week. The 63 takes you straight along the Bristol Road right into the centre of the city, with interchanges to other bus routes like the 11, 76 and 8, as well as stations at Selly Oak and New Street along the way.