Distance: 6.3 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Varied walking route from Kidderminster Railway Station to Bewdley the historic River Severn side town in north Worcestershire famed for its grand 18th Century buildings.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
“The Finest Georgian Town in the Midlands”?
Bewdley is one of those towns, especially common in the western Midlands it seems, which while evidently prosperous today, bears the signs of having once held great significance.
Dramatically situated in a shallow gorge on the River Severn, in the far north of Worcestershire, only four or five miles south of the county boundary with Shropshire, yet also close to Kidderminster and the southwestern flank of the Black Country. Approaching central Bewdley along the River Severn Path or from the east is striking.
Before you fronting right on to the River Severn stands a long row of tall Georgian houses. Amongst the most impressive ranges of such buildings in the English Midlands. Behind them, rising prominently, are numerous civic buildings of a similar vintage. Not least St. Anne’s, Bewdley’s parish church, which is a mishmash of eras and styles, with a tall rectangular tower, perched in the middle of a traffic island right in the heart of the town.
Bewdley’s heyday was the 18th Century. During that century the town was a key node in the trade network running from the Severn estuary, up via Gloucester and Worcester, as far as the nascent settlements of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire and beyond. Like Upton-upon-Severn in the south of the county, towns on tributaries of the Severn like Ross-on-Wye and Stratford-upon-Avon, Bewdley thrived on this trade. Carried out by vessels like the Severn trow suited to the river’s characteristics.
So great was the clamour for access to the River Severn as a means of carrying goods to and fro that Stourport-on-Severn, an almost entirely new town, grew up just south of Bewdley as a riverport at the bottom of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.
Not that this dented Bewdley’s relative importance. In 1841 the town and its surrounding borough lands had a population of 7,500. Not all that far off the roughly 10,000 people who live there today.
This said, in time the local industries: be that mining, quarrying, timber, iron founding or the construction of boats for trading on the River Severn went into abeyance and largely vanished. Industrial and commercial activity, spurred by the development of railways and later the road network, became more concentrated in large centres, leaving places like Bewdley relatively becalmed. Since the line north from Kidderminster to Shrewsbury closed in the early 1960s the only trains to call at Bewdley have been the heritage locomotives on the Severn Valley Railway.
Which means that today, like many other similar towns along the River Severn like Stourport, Upton and the villages of the Ironbridge Gorge, Bewdley, as well as being a residential dormitory, attracts tourists by the steam train load. Like its near neighbour Stourport-on-Severn, Bewdley has been beloved for day trips by generations of Black Country dwellers, as well as those from Birmingham. Though as it’s far from occasional mentions in nation publication’s travel sections attests, its appeal stretches far beyond the West Midlands conurbation.
Bewdley’s vibe is less seaside or funfair than Stourport, more old fashioned. As well as the heritage railway there is a branch of Dudley confectionery legends, and cash payment stalwarts, Teddy Gray’s, simultaneously enhancing the Black Country connections, old fashioned vibes and sense of being beside the sea, all at once. Though this said, a little bit like many seaside towns these days, there are actually a few quite smart coffee shops and bakeries in Bewdley these days. So the town cannot be accused of being completely behind the times.
The Walk
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
This walk was created using Ordnance Survey Explorer. To subscribe and also get Ordnance Survey Maps on your phone, click the banner above.
This walk from Kidderminster to Bewdley begins from Kidderminster Railway Station.
Upon reaching Kidderminster leave the station via the exits next to the booking office.
Once on the car park in front of the booking office, turn left and walk across the car park past the front of Kidderminster Town Station, the southern end of the Severn Valley heritage railway until you reach the side of a main road running down into Kidderminster.
When you reach the main road turn left and walk down the hill.
Presently you come to a major roundabout which you need to cross. There are subways situated around the edge of the roundabout. Walk down one of these and through the underpass tunnel into the grassy area at the centre of the roundabout.
Upon reaching the centre of the roundabout turn right and head up a subway tunnel on the far side.
Here you reach Kidderminster town centre. Walk straight ahead then turn left down a road, then right until you reach the corner beside Kidderminster Town Hall. In front of the Town Hall stands a statue of Rowland Hill Kidderminster’s most famous son, the inventor of the Penny Black stamp.
Here turn left and walk past Kidderminster’s bus station towards the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. The canal runs north up around the Black Country and through Wolverhampton towards the Trent and Mersey. South it runs for around five miles down towards the River Severn at Stourport.
On reaching the canal through a gap between two units you come out onto the towpath. Upon reaching it, turn left.
Follow the canal for several miles heading towards the outskirts of Kidderminster.
Along the way you pass underneath the huge spectacular Falling Sands Viaduct which carries the Severn Valley Railway. It was restored in 2020 meaning that it should stand and remain in use for years to come.
Continue along the canal underneath the viaduct approaching the edge of Kidderminster.
Presently you approach an old red brick bridge. Here turn to the right exiting the towpath.
Once off the towpath turn right and cross the bridge. Keep on walking up the lane beyond the bridge walking a short distance towards the busy A451 road.
Upon reaching the side of the road turn left approaching the entrance to a household waste recycling centre.
Just before you reach the entrance to the household waste recycling centre turn left and cross the road. Taking care to mind the traffic as it is a busy road with fast moving traffic. Upon reaching the central reservation in the centre of the A451 there is a flight of steps (waymarked for the Geopark Way) running up a short bank in the middle of the central reservation.
At the top cross the other lane of the A451 road heading for a footpath waymark up a track slightly to the left.
Passing the footpath waymark and a wooden fence head up a track.
At the top of the track head to the right making for a thick stand of trees and a small pond next to a metal sign beside the water.
Upon reaching the stand of trees you find a waymark for the Geopark Way on a wooden post.
On reaching the waymark turn left walking past the little pond.
Head up a slight bank following the path. Having climbed the bank, keep walking straight ahead, towards a car park in the distance.
When you reach the car park, walk straight ahead across it.
Soon you reach a road, upon reaching the road turn right and walk straight ahead up a hill. The area you are passing through comprises the Burlish Park area.
Take care to walk on the grass verge as far as possible because the road is quite busy with cars moving quickly up and down the road.
At the top of the hill follow the road through woodland.
Presently on your right at a bend in the road you come to the entrance to the Burlish Top Woods Nature Reserve on your right.
At the entrance, straight ahead past a metal gate, there is a wide pathway running around the edge of the nature reserve.
Keep walking straight ahead until you reach a junction on the path with a waymarking sign. Here turn left, following the waymark signposted for Bewdley.
Continue on following the path downhill through the trees.
Soon the path turns into a deep holloway worn by centuries of travellers into the region’s distinctive red sandstone.
Presently you come out onto a narrow road with an old red sandstone bridge above you.
Here turn left, walking underneath the red sandstone bridge, heading straight down the paved lane.
After some distance you reach a main road. Here, turn right and cross the road using a set of traffic lights straight in front of you.
On the far side, turn right and walk along a pavement.
Soon you reach a junction. Here turn left and walk down a driveway shaded with trees, past a short terrace of houses.
Having passed the houses continue along the track, then turn left, walking towards a detached house behind the terrace. Before reaching the detached house turn right down a footpath.
Walk a short distance down the footpath until you reach the side of the River Severn.
Upon reaching the river bank turn right approaching the outskirts of Bewdley.
Continue along the path heading for the centre for Bewdley. Usually you can follow the path all of the way into Bewdley. However, at the moment and likely until partway through 2025, the final stretch of path is closed due to flood prevention work which the Environment Agency is doing. For this reason it is necessary to turn right walking up a clu-de-sac through a housing estate until you meet a main road into central Bewdley. Here turn left and follow the road into Bewdley.
On reaching the road follow it straight, heading to the right along the front beside the River Severn.
Ahead of you there is the grand old stone bridge designed by Thomas Telford across the River Severn at Bewdley, and the centre of the old turn.
Keep walking straight ahead until you reach the bridge then turn left crossing the river into the centre of the old town.
Here on the far side is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
Bewdley (at the time of writing in November 2023) was well served by buses. Or at least it is on weekdays and Saturdays, in true Worcestershire fashion, Sunday services as scanty to nonexistent. At the time of writing several buses wound their way from the centre of Bewdley to Kidderminster, giving it a frequent service throughout the day into the evening. Stourport also gets a frequent service, with less frequent services running north to Bridgnorth, west to Celobury Mortimer and south to Worcester. Kidderminster and Worcester both have frequently served stations, with quick services to Birmingham and elsewhere in the West Midlands conurbation, as well as towards the south. It is worth noting that from October 2023 buses in Bewdley were expected to be disrupted for at least 18 months due to Environment Agency flood protection and mitigation works. This means that most buses are departing from further up the hill towards the top of the town rather than from the stops in the town centre near the River Severn. Bus journey times are also currently slightly longer due to the disruption.