Distance: 3.3 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

Walk right along the Lickey Hills ridge dividing Birmingham and the West Midlands from Worcestershire. Walk starts at Barnt Green Railway Station and ends on Rubery High Street.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

A Slice of Rural Worcestershire Which is Forever Birmingham

Located on the south western edge of Birmingham, forming a pretty imposing geological barrier between the city’s suburban fringe, and small town north Worcestershire.

As Birmingham expanded and steadily merged with towns and villages in the surrounding counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries so pioneering conservationists hit upon the Lickey Hills as the perfect firebreak between the West Midlands metropolis and rural Worcestershire.

The Lickey Hills are geologically diverse, much like the other little upland areas which stud the edges of Worcestershire, away from the River Severn plain in the centre of the county. Their primary composition is Lickey Quartzite, a tough ancient rock, augmented with numerous other varieties, some ancient others more recently occurring.

From the top on a clear day the Malvern and Abberley Hills can be glimpsed on the other side of Worcestershire. While to the north the Clent Hills and Rowley Hills can be seen in clear relation to the Lickey Hills. Together they form part of a distinctive north Worcestershire upland landscape. One which demarcates the watershed between the Severn and the Trent, one of the most important geographical features defining the Midlands.

Everybody associates the Lickey Hills with Birmingham, and Birmingham City Council maintains the country park around them. However, with the exception of a north western slither of hillside near Rubery the hills are entirely within the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire.

This unusual arrangement is due to the recent history of the hills. How through a series of purchases some by public subscription others by the philanthropic rich, between the 1880s and the 1920s the hills were brought into public ownership as a kind of quasi greenbelt one or two generations prior to the 1948 Town and Country Planning Act which defined the first official greenbelts in the UK.

Historically the hills were a royal hunting lodge. The first part of the hills to be opened up to the public was Rednal Hill purchased by the Birmingham Society for the Preservation of Open Space in 1888. The Society then leased Pinfield Wood and Bilberry Hill at a nominal rent. In the first three decades of the 20th Century the remainder of the Lickey Hills: Beacon Hill, Cofton Hill, Lickey Warren and Pinfield Wood were purchased. In 1923 the purchase of the Rose Hill Estate completed the creation of the modern Lickey Hills Country Park area and open access land. Meaning that 2023 therefore marks the 100th anniversary of the Lickey Hills in their entirety becoming an open civic space for the people of Birmingham.

The Walk

Get 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 right along the Lickey Hills ridge begins at Barnt Green Railway Station.

Barnt Green is a commuter village just inside north Worcestershire, situated within Birmingham’s southern greenbelt.

Upon alighting at Barnt Green Railway Station, which is served by trains south from Birmingham New Street, and north from Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Worcester, Malvern and Hereford as well as Redditch, use the footbridge to exit the station to the right onto the main road through Barnt Green beside the railway station.

On exiting the station, to the left on the far side of the road there is a wooden gate way leading onto a track running uphill along an avenue of trees.

Cross the road and begin walking up this track.

At the top of the slope keep walking straight ahead until you reach a quiet, narrow road.

Upon coming out beside the road there is another footpath on the far side to the left.

Walk across the road and head along the path on the other side.

Presently you come to a fork in the path beside a bench. Take the right hand arm of the fork and keep walking straight ahead through the woodland.

Keep an eye out on the right for a narrow, but well worn path off through the trees to the right.

After a short distance you come to another path. Here take the left hand arm of the fork.

Continue walking straight along this path for quite some distance.

Eventually you approach a stile out onto open fields.

Having crossed the stile follow the path straight up the hill.

From near the top there are impressive views north and east out across the hilly Worcestershire countryside.

At this point turn left heading for a stile leading back into the woodland.

Once across the stile turn left, then turn right walking along a path through the trees for a short distance.

Soon on the right there is a fairly steep flight of steps up a bank through pine trees.

Partway up, turn left, until you come to another flight of steps through the trees which you also climb.

Upon reaching the top of the steps you are near the brow of the ridge on Cofton Hill, the summit of which is 263 metres above sea level. Here turn left and follow the path along the top of the hill.

Presently you come out into an open area near the top of the hill.

Keep on walking along the path approaching the Lickey Hills Visitor Centre.

Approaching the visitor centre car park turn right walking across some heathland next to the car park.

Upon reaching an access road for the car park cross the road and keep walking straight ahead following a footpath waymark.

Keep walking to the right making for a footpath along the Birmingham side of the Lickey ridge. Upon reaching the path turn left.

Continue walking along the path for quite some distance. There are impressive views out towards central Birmingham to the right and to the left into the middle of the Lickey Hills Country Park.

Presently you begin descending from Bilberry Hill.

Off to the left there is a very steep slope down the hill. Keep on walking straight down this slope. This is the trickiest and hardest to negotiate part of the walk.

Reaching the bottom of the slope you come to a stream which you cross leading out onto the side of the busy road which runs up and over the Lickey Hills linking Cofton Hackett and the outer suburbs of Bromsgrove.

Approaching a roundabout, on the far side of the road there is a footpath running uphill back into the trees. Cross the road and begin walking up this path.

Partway up the hill the path curves around to the left and you keep on climbing.

Keep following the path to the left and up the hill until you come out near the top of the ridge once more.

Once on this wider path turn right and follow the path along the ridge for quite some distance.

Ahead of you, you can see the Clent Hills and Turner’s Hill with its distinctive radio masts at the summit, which lies in western Sandwell, near Dudley town centre, and is the tallest point in West Midlands county.

The path leads you steadily downhill, passing a metal fence on your right which marks the boundary between Worcestershire and West Midlands county meaning that you are now into Birmingham.

Making your way down Rednal Hill towards the south eastern end of Rubery you come to a fork in the path. Here take the left hand arm and carry on down the hill until you reach a residential road.

Upon reaching the road – called Eachway Lane – turn right and walk along the side of the road until you reach a junction.

At the junction turn right and start walking along Leach Green Lane. Follow Leach Green Lane through suburban Rubery for quite some distance.

Presently you come out at the northern end of Rubery high street.

Here, turn right walking past a parade of shops with mid-20th Century vintage next to the flyover which carries the A38.

Partway up the parade of shops on the left there is a gap in the railings through which you can cross to get under the flyover to the side of the road where the 63 bus from Frankley to central Birmingham runs.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Upon reaching the 63 bus stop you can catch the bus north to Birmingham via Longbridge. Longbridge has a railway station with trains north towards Birmingham New Street and south towards Bromsgrove and Redditch, or else you can remain on the bus all the way into central Birmingham or one of the other suburbs on the route. Selly Oak offers connections to the 11 outer circle, while the 8 inner circle runs down Belgrave Middleway. Other bus services can be caught from Rubery Great Park a couple of minutes walk from the bus stop heading right as you cross the road.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vdxhxpxpfcu665nge2g7x/Ellastone-Waterhouses.gpx?rlkey=ejhdx1lg17izy4k24an95sp3b&st=aqeqwye8&dl=0