Distance: just under 7 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Surveys Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk across open countryside from the little cathedral city of Lichfield to the Chasewater Railway just south of Burntwood which specialises in preserving and celebrating the UK’s historic industrial trains and other rolling stock.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

A Little Railway Which Does

One of the interesting quirks of the digital Ordnance Survey Map software I use to plan these walks is that it gives heritage railways parity with actual working railway lines.

This has the potential to seriously inconvenience an unwary someone who expects to be able to catch the train somewhere… However, once you are alive to this feature it is fascinating to see the range of locations where heritage lines run in the midlands. From the extensive and very famous Severn Valley Railway, to smaller routes such as the Battlefield Line in Leicestershire and Ecclesbourne Railway between Wirksworth and Duffield (briefly featured on Walk Midlands here) the midlands has plenty of them.

So I found myself deeply intrigued by a small curve of railway with copious stations, bending around the upper part of a large body of water in southern Staffordshire just north of Walsall. 

Checking it out via Google I came across the Chasewater Railway. From the moment I read about this short heritage line (only 2 miles long) I was fascinated and thought it was well worth a walk to check it out in person.

It is not unique in this, but unlike many other heritage lines in the midlands and elsewhere in the UK, the Chasewater Railway does not focus on running preserved mainline trains. The interests of its members instead lie with the little industrial engines which served factories, mines and quarries across the UK, and were incredibly commonplace up until the 1960s and 1970s. These engines typically ran on internal railway lines providing links for raw materials, part finished, and completed products to be carried around dockyards, foundries, factories and locations where the extraction of raw materials was taking place.

I wrote a little bit about the importance of both mainline and internal railways to the development of the Austin Rover factory at Longbridge in south Birmingham in the introduction to my Dowery Dell Viaduct walk. Whilst my degree of interest has waxed and waned over the years, the little industrial railways which used to criss-cross the UK and the engines and rolling stock which worked them have always interested me. As a very small child growing up the shadow of the Cadbury factory in Bournville during the 1990s I was fascinated by the remains, visible here and there, of the company’s old internal railway network.This closed in 1976 having served the factory for 92 years, practically the entire length of time the company’s Bournville factory had been open.

So hearing that there was a heritage railway devoted to preserving and celebrating industrial trains and wagons just north of the Black Country, I thought that it would be great to go and see it for myself.

The lines that the Chasewater Railway now runs on once formed a part of the National Coal Board’s network serving the collieries that fringed Cannock Chase, with sections at either end having been constructed by the region’s railway companies during the mid-Victorian period. Mining had been undertaken in the area in the 19th and earlier in the 20th Century, however; as the industry moved on the trackbed at Chasewater became superfluous to requirements. This enabled a group of local steam engine preservation enthusiasts to lease it from the local district council who were reclaiming the land for recreation and as a nature reserve in the mid-1960s. From these beginnings the Chasewater Railway has developed into what it is today.

Chasewater itself is well worth a visit regardless of whether you are interested in industrial railways or not. The vast Chasewater lake was constructed in the 1790s as a reservoir for the complex and convoluted Wyrley & Essington Canal, which was built to carry coal from the first substantial subsurface mines in the area down to the Black Country. It also assists with maintaining water levels in the Birmingham Canal Navigations system as a whole. This section of the canal network is 160km in total length, making it little wonder that Chasewater is the largest canal feeder reservoir in the West Midlands region.

The area around Chasewater has a similar feel to Cannock Chase several miles to the north. As the signs of the mining and other industries which used to be located on the bank have faded, heath grasses, trees and mossy type areas have taken over. This makes it quite a pleasant area just to walk around. Doing this is aided by a half mile long causeway across Chasewater constructed in the 1870s and across which the heritage railway also runs. The water, mixed with the healthland and the heritage railway combine to make it a popular green lung for people from the surrounding towns, Walsall and further afield. 

The Walk

et the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file 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.

This walk to the Chasewater Railway begins at Lichfield City Railway Station on the Birmingham Cross City Line. The station is also handy for Lichfield bus station which is practically just across the road.

From Lichfield Railway Station concourse turn right and walk a couple of hundred metres along the busy Birmingham Road.

It makes sense to cross to the other side of the road near the bus station and walk along that side.

Soon you are walking along the outside of the hulking 1990s vintage Three Spires Shopping Centre.

Presently on your left there is a flight of steps leading down to one of the Centre’s entrances.

Turn left down here and follow the walkway.

Take the left hand turn outside a branch of Computer Exchange (following a handy waymark for the Heart of England Way, which much of this route to Chasewater runs along).

Then take a right turn to walk down the main avenue of the shopping centre.

Here there are a few places where you can get refreshments for the walk should you need them.

Eventually the shopping centre ends and you enter the city centre proper.

Keep on walking straight heading for the main spire of the cathedral ahead of you, passing the city’s marketplace on your left.

Soon you leave the shops behind and skirt a pool on the edge of the Cathedral Close which supplied the city’s water up until the 1930s.

Passing the pool you enter the Cathedral Close.

Here you turn left and walk down the nave of the Cathedral to the front end of the nave, where the two smaller spires are located.

At the front of the building you keep heading left and follow the road out of the Cathedral Close.

Once out on the main road outside the Close, turn right and start walking uphill.

Almost immediately on your right you pass the former house of Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles), which is now a museum. Erasmus Darwin was a medical doctor in Lichfield during its 18th Century heyday as an intellectual centre and a thinker and early scientist of some significance (a participant in the “Midlands Enlightenment”) in his own right.

Keep walking along the road up a slight hill.

Just before you reach a pub called the George and Dragon, cross over the road onto its left hand side, and then turn left down a narrow road called Shaws Lane.

At the bottom of Shaws Lane you enter a car park.

On the right at the bottom of the car park there is a snicket. 

Head down this snicket and follow it until you reach a park.

Once in park, turn right and walk across the grass, where there is a bit of a track cut.

Soon you reach a car park which you cross.

On the other side of the car park you come to a footpath. Head straight along it.

The path leads you around the edge of a golf course located just south of the park.

Presently you come to a wooden style, this marks the edge of the park and golf course, and the start of the more rural part of the walk.

On the other side of the style follow the footpath past a fenced off horse paddock.

After a short distance you reach another style which leads onto the side of the A51 Lichfield Western Bypass.

When there is a gap in the traffic cross over the road.

Once on the other side of the road – more or less directly opposite where you have come out – enter a field via a gap in the hedges and fencing.

Having entered the field, follow the path across it.

Soon you reach the other side and head down a slight bank, through a gate and a hedgerow into the field beyond.

Here turn right and follow the path around.

You join a track with woodland on your left hand side and a thick hedgerow to your right.

Follow this path heading in the direction of a stand of trees in the distance.

When you reach the trees head through a gate to the right of the path.

Then turn right and walk for a short distance along a well trodden path through the woodland.

Soon you come out onto a country road, with a small pale painted arts and crafts style house opposite you.

Here, turn left and walk along the lane.

The lane was not too busy when I walked the route on a Wednesday in the late morning. However, there were a few cars heading in both directions, so take care on this section of the walk.

Keep along the road as it winds gently uphill.

Along the way you pass a small but still pretty impressive rocky outcrop with buildings perched upon it.

Having passed this you keep on walking for several hundred metres more.

Presently on your right there is a footpath sign pointing into a field next to a metal gate.

Cross over the style and enter the field.

Follow the footpath across the field.

Soon you pass through a hedge into an adjacent field.

Then you head down the path as it slopes across, attractive, rolling open countryside.

The footpath passes through a scrubby hedge.

Then runs steadily uphill towards a large house on top of the hill.

You are guided by the path to the left hand corner of the property.

Here there is a style which leads into some bushes.

On the other side there is a short pathway through the bushes until you come out onto a lane.

Once on the surface of the lane turn right.

Again this section of road was fairly quiet when I walked the route but take care.

After a short distance walking along the route you come to a junction where two lanes join.

Take the right hand turn here.

Walking the next section you start off on top of quite a high ridge.

Then the road begins to slope down into a valley with the small village of Chorley at the top of the opposite ridge.

Soon you reach the floor of the valley where a small stream runs.

Here on your right you turn down a waymarked path through some trees by the water.

This path leads out into fields and along the bank of the stream.

Soon you reach a style set in a hedgerow.

On the other side walk across the field, keeping close to the bank of the stream.

You reach another style set in a hedge cross this as well.

Once over the style, walk across the field heading for a stand of trees.

Here you find a wooden style leading into the woodland.

Follow the path on the other side of the style through the trees.

Presently there is a plank bridge over the stream, cross this and continue on the other side.

Here you reach a road.

Turn left here and walk across the bottom of a patch of grass which serves as a kind of oddly shaped roundabouts where several lanes interchange.

Head in the direction of The Nelson Inn.

Just after the pub the road forks.

Take the right hand fork walking past the pub’s car park and follow the road uphill.

Partway up the hill the road curves to the right. At this point there is a green lane running straight off the road.

Keep on heading straight and walk onto the green lane.

Follow the green lane for some distance. It has an unpaved surface but is relatively flat so it is possible to make good time along it. 

Presently you come to a series of fishing pools on your left.

Walk past these and keep on the track as it slopes uphill.

At the top you come to Green Lane Farm, which appears to have a variety of leisure uses, including the fish pools.

Walk across the parking area for the farm and down the short driveway to the side of the Rugeley Road.

Cross over the road and walk down the lane on the other side, immediately adjacent to where you have left Green Lane Farm.

Follow the lane – which again was fairly quiet, though it’s important to take care on – downhill.

Near the bottom of the hill you pass through a small hamlet with a smattering of newly built houses on the edge of it and a pub called The Drill Inn. The pub was doing a good lunchtime trade in the early spring sunshine on the day I walked the route.

After the pub the road runs uphill slightly to a t-junction where you take the right hand fork.

This then leads up a steadily sloping road past scattered houses.

At the top of the road you enter the suburbs of the former mining town of Burntwood.

Burntwood has a comparable feel to many of the similar former colliery towns of Cannock Chase just to the north, or 20 to 30 miles further east in National Forest in South Derbyshire and North West Leicestershire districts. Compared to the stereotypes many people have about former mining towns, the town whilst retaining a distinctive colliery vibe, has a sense of having moved beyond coal. It has become a dormitory for the West Midlands conurbation, business and industrial parks near Lichfield and the motorways, and home to several local firms as well.

Turn left when you reach the road on the edge of Burntwood.

Follow the road as it slopes steadily uphill.

Then, as it runs downhill.

And, as it heads uphill once more for some distance.

Presently you come to the residential Morley Road on your right.

Head down Morley Road, passing a small branch on the Co-op on your left until you reach the busy Cannock Road.

Turn right here and walk along it for several minutes passing the Chase Academy secondary school on your right.

Some distance at the school you come to a roundabout on the edge of Burntwood town centre.

Turn left here and begin walking along the A5190 road, passing a retail park with a McDonald’s and a branch of Morrison’s to your right. Estates of new houses line the other side of the road.

You cross several roundabouts along the way.

At the final roundabout, to your right the red brick building housing the Station Cafe, and a small white painted signal box can be seen.

Cross over the road here and head through a metal gate into one of the Chasewater Railway’s car parks.

This is where the walk finishes.

However, if you would like to continue down to Chasewater itself you can do so by following the network of paths which lead across the moss like healthland towards the reservoir. Some of these paths run parallel with the heritage railway line, others strike off across the healthland.

Getting Back

To return to Lichfield from Chasewater walk back to Burntwood town centre. Here the quick and pretty frequent 60 and 62 buses can be caught. They take roughly 20 and 25 minutes to make the journey to Lichfield city centre, respectively. There is also a National Express West Midlands bus (Number 8) which connects Burntwood to Lichfield. This service also runs quite frequently. Buses also head up to Cannock, Rugeley and Hednesford, but if you have travelled from outside the immediate area, there is no advantage to heading to those destinations instead of to Walsall or Lichfield.