Distance: 12.8 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Walk in three counties across a hilly, wooded, red sandstone landscape, largely along canal towpaths, from Kidderminster to Stourbridge.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Stourbridge Glass

Stourbridge is amongst the westernmost towns in the West Midlands, sat at amongst the furthest extremities of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, firmly a part of the Black Country’s green fringe.

The town, historically in northern Worcestershire, is named after the River Stour a tributary of the Severn which bisects it. From Stourbridge Wharf the little Stourbridge Canal runs in a westerly direction following the Stour out towards the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and Stourton not far from Kinver.

Stourbridge is nowadays considered one of the West Midlands more affluent towns, yet while it does not sit upon the Black Country goal seam, its past lies in hot, heavy industry as much as the places to its north and its east.

From the early 1600s Stourbridge became known for making glass, bricks and pottery. The kilns in which all three products were made heated by coal transported from the nearby collieries at places like Himley, Dudley and Halesowen. It was the need to transport in fuel and other raw materials which first brought the canals to Stourbridge in the latter part of the 18th Century.   

Over time the quality and variety of Stourbridge’s glass became renowned. Some small, specialist parts of the industry continue to this day, a small number of cone shaped furnaces continue to define the town’s skyline. Amongst the most prominent of them can be found at the recent refurbished and reopened glass museum. There is a glass biennial centred upon the museum which takes place every other year.

In common with other parts of the West Midlands, leafy suburbs and inner-city areas alike, Stourbridge has punched above its weight in terms of producing heavy metal and hard rock musicians. Famously, Led Zepplin’s Robert Plant (from West Bromwich) went to school there. Homegrown bands from Stourbridge include: The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Diamond Head and Witchfinder General.

Though perhaps the most unusual thing about Stourbridge is its little town centre railway station. Almost uniquely in the UK let alone anywhere else in the Midlands Stourbridge retains a little single track branch line which runs from the Stourbridge Junction main line station, for a little under a mile, to the central Stourbridge Town Station adjacent to the bus station. Since 2009 this unusual line has been worked by a highly peculiar train. A little single car train powered by a flywheel called the Parry People Mover. Capable of carrying up to about forty people no other trains of this type are currently in public service anywhere in the world besides Stourbridge.  

The Walk

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

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This walk from Kidderminster to Stourbridge 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 right.

Follow the path across the northern part of Kidderminster town centre.

Soon you come to a tunnel carrying the waterway beneath Kidderminster’s inner-ring road.

On the far side of the tunnel you come up just in front of St. Mary and All Saints’ Church which stands on top of a low hill.

Here the towpath switches sides from the right to the left bank of the canal. I opted to walk across the lock gate’s running board, but if this does not take your fancy then you can retrace your steps slightly heading back to the ring road bridge, and crossing to the other side here.

Once back on the towpath continue walking straight, crossing the River Stour and passing retail parks and a Royal Mail sorting office enroute to Kidderminster’s outer suburbs.

Presently, just after skirting the edge of a large recreation ground, you come to an estate of modern houses where the towpath curves around sharply to the right. 

The estate has been – not unattractively – clustered around the waterway.

Continuing along the towpath you walk through park land and flood meadows on the edge of Kidderminster.

Passing a lock gate you enter the countryside.

A short distance further on and you reach the village of Wolverley.

Opposite the heart of the village you pass underneath the main road and rise up to the level of a lockgate, passing the first of several tea rooms and kiosks you encounter on the way north.

Beyond Wolverley you walk along a tree lined stretch of canal. Here and there the River Stour is very close by.

Sections of the canal’s route were evidently hacked through the area’s red sandstone hills.

Continuing for several miles through a remote seeming area, albeit with cottages and farms situated here and there along the canal’s sides, approach the large village of Cookley.

On the edge of Cookley you pass an interesting industrial site, which looks like a foundry, or possibly some kind of fabrication or tubing works.

Just after the factory you reach the short Cookley Tunnel which you walk through.

On the far side you follow the towpath as it winds through the outlying parts of Cookley before heading out into countryside, once more.

The next stretch of canal is relatively straight and lacking in bends.

Presently you cross the boundary with Staffordshire, continuing along the waterway.

A little way after passing into Staffordshire, now nearing the large village of Kinver, famous for its dramatic and beautiful edge, now managed by the National Trust, you approach the little village of Whittington.

Here you clamber up either a short steep ramp or some steps onto a road, before continuing along the towpath on the far side.

You continue walking through Whittington and soon enter open country once more.

A little further and you approach Kinver and its smaller twin village of Dunsley. Off to the left you can see the tree covered, red sandstone, edge rising up, and St. Peter’s Church sat at the top of it.

Nearing the centre of Kinver you come to a road bridge with The Vine Pub next to the canal. Walk underneath the road by means of a towpath tunnel.

On the far side continue along the towpath. Soon you come to a gateway (presumably there to control access and stop this wide section of towpath becoming a thoroughfare) leading into a canal boat mooring area. As a pedestrian you are welcome to walk through, so continue straight ahead.

Presently you reach the end of the mooring area, now past Kinver and Dunsley, you approach a wooded section of canal.

Amidst the trees a small tunnel takes you through the thin end of a sandstone ridge.

Continuing along the waterway you approach Stourton where you leave the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal for the Stourbridge Canal running into Stourbridge town centre.

Passing the lock gates on the edge of Stourton next to the white painted Stewponey Wharf building you carry on along the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal a little further.

Presently you reach the place where the Stourbridge Canal converges with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

Here turn right and cross a footbridge onto the Stourbridge Canal towpath.

Then carry on walking straight along the towpath passing a set of locks in the centre of Stourton, where the towpath switches from the right to the left hand side of the waterway.

Continue along the towpath leading out of Stourton.

Soon you are in the countryside between Stourton and Stourbridge.

Continue walking straight along the towpath.

Presently you pass a large meadow running uphill on the far side of the canal, where there is woodland to your left. This is right on the edge of Stourbridge.

Just after the meadow, now in West Midlands county, you start walking through the Stourbridge built up area.

Presently you cross the aqueduct over the River Stour and approach Wordsley Junction where the Stourbridge Canal bisects.

Upon reaching Wordsley Junction turn right crossing a footbridge to carry on along the line of the canal leading into Stourbridge town centre.

Continue along the towpath walking through suburban Stourbridge. You pass beneath several bridges and pass the Ruskin Glass Centre, where Stourbridge’s glass making tradition continues to this day.

Presently you cross a series of bridges, and round a sharp curve leading into Stourbridge Wharf.

Approaching Stourbridge Wharf the towpath ends and you start walking straight across a car park.

Carry on along a short stretch of road running past Stourbridge’s Bonded Warehouse and a couple of pubs.

This leads out onto the side of the busy A491, the lower reaches of Stourbridge High Street.

Here turn right and begin walking towards the town centre.

Soon the road dips down to an underpass. A mirror of the one which you walked through in Kidderminster right at the start of the walk and possibly evidence of Stourbridge’s historic ties to Worcestershire.

Turn left at the entrance to the underpass, then right once in the middle to reach the bottom of Stourbridge town centre and the high street.

Walk uphill passing Stourbridge’s historic Unitarian chapel dating back to the 1780s on your right, and the King Edwards Grammar School (where Robert Plant of Led Zepplin fame went to school) and soon you reach the centre of the town near the terracotta red brick town hall and a big branch of TESCOs.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

From Stourbridge Interchange there are frequent buses to Birmingham, Wolverhampton and destinations through the Black Country, as well as a few services out into rural Staffordshire and Worcestershire. It is also possible to get the unique little Parry People Mover (ten minute frequency on weekdays and Saturdays, fifteen minute frequencies on Sundays) up the little branch;one from the Stourbridge Town Station (immediately adjacent to the Interchange) up to Stourbridge Junction on the main line. From here trains run half hourly to Kidderminster, as well as into Birmingham via the southwestern Black Country, and Jewellery Quarter Station. There are hourly trains to Droitwich and Worcester via Kidderminster, as well as occasional Chiltern Railways services as far as London.