Distance: 5.9 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Mostly countryside walk from Frankley via the Waseley Hills and St. Kenlem’s Church near the Clent Hills which is the source of the River Stour into Halesowen.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
St Kenelm’s River Head
Invariably the precise original source of rivers is contested. Water tends to find its own way through the landscape. However, the source of the River Stour just south west of the West Midlands conurbation, known as the Worcestershire Stour (Stour being a common name for a river in England), is generally agreed to be on the slopes of the Clent Hills.
Rising at Clent the River Stour initially flows north east into Halesowen in the far south of the Black Country, before turning sharply west, to flow through the southwestern suburbs of the conurbation, before turning south and through the countryside down towards the River Severn. Eventually after around twenty five meandering, at Stourport-on-Severn, having traversed Cradley Heath, Stourbridge, Kinver and Kidderminster, amongst other smaller places, the river arrives at the Severn, where the waters continue their southwesterly progress towards the Bristol Channel where they join the Atlantic Ocean.
The official source of the Stour just below the Clent Hills is St. Kenelm’s Well. This is situated in a wooded dell just behind Romsley’s small, but much patched over the centuries, parish church of St. Kenelm. Legend, first recorded during the 12th Century, has it that the spring behind the church is connected to the short life of St. Kenelm.
Kenelm, so the legend goes, was an early Ninth Century boy king of Mercia, who acceded to the throne upon the death of his father Coenwulf in around the year 820. He had two adult sisters Quendryda and Burgenhilda , yet ascended the throne despite his youth, because in line with German inheritance practices he had priority in the order of succession.
Purportedly Quendryda resented this and believed that she would be better fitted to rule Mercia and its satrap kingdoms elsewhere in England. Quendryda twisted the ear of her lover Askobert who was Kenelm’s legal guardian and tutor, and bade him to murder the boy when the opportunity arose. Upon the boy’s death the way would be clear for her to rule Merica with Askobert as her consort.
An opportunity presented itself when Askobert took Kenelm hunting in the woodlands which covered northern Worcestershire, right in the heart of Mercian territory. The night before Askobert intended to put his murder plan into action Kenelm had a dream where he climbed to the top of a tall tree covered with ribbons and lanterns. At the top of the tree he could see all four corners of his kingdom. Three of the corners bowed down to him, however, the fourth approached the tree upon which he stood and began chopping at it until it fell. As the tree was toppled by the treasonous corner Kenelm transformed into a white bird which flew away to safety. Upon waking Kenelm relayed this dream to his nanny, who began to weep because she was a wise woman who recognised that this dream indicated that Kenelm would soon die.
The next day as planned Askobert took Kenelm out hunting. The boy king soon tired and lay down beneath a tree to rest. While he did so Askobert began digging a grave for him, but before the murder could be carried out, Kenelm awoke and admonished him for planning the murder. In doing so Kenelm stuck a stick into the ground and bade it to blossom, which it did, growing in time into a mighty ash tree, which later became known as St. Kenelm’s Ash.
Despite this occurrence Askobert did carry out his murder of the boy, later that day, as they descended from Clent approaching what is now the edge of the West Midlands conurbation. When Kenelem was ahead of him Askobert drew his sword and cleaved the boy’s head clean off his shoulders, burying the body where it fell. However, what Quendryda and Askobert did not bank on was divine intervention, as no sooner was Kenlem beheaded, than as prophesied in the previous night’s dream, his spirit turned into a dove and flew to Rome carrying a scroll relating what had happened to the Pope.
Upon receiving the message the Pope was concerned about the young king’s fate so he wrote to the Archbishop of Cantubury asking him to investigate. In the time it took for word to get from Italy and a team of clerical investigators to travel from Kent to Worcestershire, as the two conspiratorial lovers had hoped, Quendryda and Askobert had been installed as the rulers of Merica. The myth does not dwell on why nobody appears to have questioned Kenelm’s whereabouts, and how and why he had apparently died, when Askobert returned from hunting without him.
When they neared the Clent Hills the clerics sent to investigate Kenelm’s disappearance by the Archbishop of Canterbury upon the Pope’s orders were told by villagers of a spot in a wooded dell where a cow which never ate or drank, yet always returned with a full udder liked to frequent. The investigators thought that given its magical properties this spot was worth checking out so they made for, discovering as they approached that it was picked out by a shaft of light shooting out of the ground up into the sky.
On reaching the shaft of light the priestly investigators began to dig. Soon unearthing Kenelem’s beheaded corpse. As they lifted the body out of its shallow grave a mighty surge of water flowed forth from the hole and would not cease. This gave rise to the River Stour, supposedly so named because one meaning of stour in Old English is “surge”.
The boy king’s body retrieved the party and set out south to travel right across Worcestershire to Winchcombe in the northern Cotswolds which was then serving as the Mercian capital. Along the way, when fording the Avon at Pyriford, they had to fight off a party of rival clerics from Worcester Cathedral who wished to claim the miraculous corpse for themselves.
Still pursued by agents of Worcester Cathedral, the group carrying Kenelm’s corpse back to Winchcombe came within sight of the town. Here they briefly rested before descending into the settlement, planting their staffs in the ground, which caused more streams to burst forth. These waters refreshed the party enabling them to hurry down the hill away from the officials of Worcester Cathedral who were in hot pursuit. The spot where this occured also features a natural spring known to this day ast St. Kenlem’s Well.
As they approached down the hillside in another miraculous sign the bells of Winchcombe Abbey began tolling by themselves. This roused the townspeople who were still being ruled over by Quendryda and Askobert. Perhaps some of them had suspicions about the boy king’s murder because they went to Quendryda, who was reading the bible, to press her as to why the bells were ringing of their own accord. Questioned as to her brother’s disappearance, and the small coffin which the approaching party of priests bore amongst them Quendryda swore “if it be the slain body of my brother may my eyes fall out upon this book”. No sooner had she committed this oath than her eyes dropped out of her head and the false queen was blinded. Quendryda and Askobert were arrested upon the arrival of Kenelm’s body at Winchcombe Abbey. The two traitors were swiftly executed and their bodies flung into a ditch.
Kenelm’s body was buried in Winchcombe Abbey with all the honours due to a saint and a king, and for centuries, up until the reformation in the mid-Sixteenth Century, both Kenelm’s tomb and the supposed site where his murdered body was concealed were popular pilgrimage sites. The most devout pilgrims invested in the cult of Saint Kenlm would retrace the footsteps of those who bore his body from the Clent Hills to Winchcombe Abbey, walking the fifty miles or so, south eastwards across Worcestershire from the county’s northern hills and across the River Avon to the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. In recent years enthusiasts have created a long distance walk along modern rights of way mirroring the route that was taken in the Middle Ages. It should take an experienced walker three or four days to complete. An interesting Midlands addition to the growing body of modern pilgrimage routes which are currently having their moment in the sun.
As is often the case with medieval saints legends, from what sources do survive from Mercia in the early Ninth Century, there is no evidence to support any aspects of the Kenelm myth at all. The entire story appears to have been invented at some point in the three hundred or so years between when it is purported to have happened in the early 820s and the Twelfth Century when it was first written down. Coenwulf, Kenelm and Quendryda were all real people. Coenwulf was a longstanding King of Merica who died in around the year 820 and Kenelm and Quendryda were his children. Kenelm vanishes from the historical record at around the same time as his father and is also generally assumed to have died in around 820. He would have been in his mid-thirties by 820 and there is no evidence that he was ever crowned king, so it is entirely possible that he predeceased his father or that they died at around the same time, possibly in the same incident, be that from disease, an accident, in conflict or through foul means. It is thought that Coenwulf was engaged in conflict with the Welsh at the time of his death. Either way Coenwulf’s brother Ceolwulf was the person who inherited the Mercian throne upon his passing.
At this time Quendryda was the Abbess of the Minster at Thanet in Kent and held numerous other religious properties, many of which had been granted her by her father, including Winchcomb Abbey. It is known that upon Coenwulf’s death Quendryda entered into a protracted legal dispute with Wulfred, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, over the control of Thanet Minster and Reculver, another religious establishment in Kent. She eventually lost these cases and vanished from the historical record. At around the same time it is known that there was unease and tumult throughout Mercia’s lands. After Coenwulf, Mercia ceased to be the dominant kingdom in the southern half of England, with Wessex gaining primacy amongst English kingdoms in the lands below the Trent. Perhaps a blending over time of memories of this time of relative dislocation and disorder, whatever happened to Kenelm to mean he never acceded the throne, married with Quendryda’s legal disputes with the Archbishop Canterbury, served to form the eventual basis of the legend of St. Kenelm.
Thanks and acknowledgement for assistance and encouragement in the development of this walk is owed to Andy Howlett, artist, filmmaker and Co-Founder of the Walkspace Collective with whom I developed an initial version of this walk as a public event for the 2024 Terminalia Festival on the 23rd February 2024. A detailed account of this public iteration of the walk can be found here. Thanks is also due to the members of the Walkspace Collective and the general public who attended versions of the walk and contributed to its development.
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 from Frankley to Halesowen, via St. Kenelm’s Church and the source of the River Stour, begins from Boleyn Road, just after the new Waseley Hills Cemetery and Crematorium, near the end of the very frequent 63 bus route down the A38 Bristol Road from central Birmingham. The stop on Boleyn Road is also frequently called at by the 202 towards Halesowen.
Upon alighting at Boleyn Road turn left and walk back up towards Gannow Green Lane which runs out of Birmingham towards Romsley.
When you reach the corner where Boleyn Road turns into Gannow Green Lane on the far side of the road you see a gateway immediately to the right after a set of traffic lights.
Cross over the road and walk through this gateway into Waseley Hills Country Park. In doing so you cross between Birmingham in West Midlands county and Worcestershire.
Follow the path to the right as it runs uphill into the heart of the country park.
The path zigzags steadily uphill towards the heart of the country park.
To your left rises the short, but commanding ridge that lies at the heart of the Waseley Hills Country Park. Alongside the Lickey Hills to the south, Frankley Beeches and the Rowley Range to the north, it comprises part of the watershed between the River Trent and River Severn, which is one the key topographical dividing features of the Midlands. The River Rea which flows north across Birmingham to the Tame, rises at the base of the ridge.
Presently you approach a junction on the path. To the left runs a path to the source of the River Rea and the top of the ridge. To the right a wide track leads a short distance towards the Waseley Hills car park.
Turn right and walk towards the car park.
Once in the car park, mindful to take care of moving cars, walk straight across it, past the building where the Windmill Cafe is situated on your left as are the country park’s toilets.
On the far side of the car park begin walking down the access road which leads back down onto Gannow Green Lane. There is a handy cut though across grass and down a few steps, which enables you to avoid most of the access road.
Walk a short distance along pavement towards the bridge across the M5 motorway.
Just before reaching the bridge taking care to avoid the sometimes heavy, fast moving traffic that comes around the sharp bends on the lane, cross over to the other side.
Upon reaching the far side of the road walk straight across the bridge over the motorway.
On the other side of the bridge there is a lane running off to the right. Turn right down this lane.
After walking a short distance down the lane there is a waymarked stile leading off into a field, off a layby to your left.
Climb over the stile into the field.
Most of the rest of the walk until you reach Haleswoen is off road, along footpaths. Take care while walking especially after rain as the ground can be wet, very muddy in places, and quite slippery. Indeed the ground is so porous that it is a small wonder that numerous rivers originate in this area.
Keeping close to the hedgerow, begin walking down the field.There are great views across Halesowen into the southwestern Black Country as far as Rowley Regis and Turner’s Hill (West Midland county’s tallest peak) at the end of the Rowley Range. Partway down the hill you pass through a gap into another field.
Continue downhill approaching a thick old hedge near the bottom of the slope.
Before you reach it off to your left, on the far side of the field amidst another hedgerow you will see a wooden footpath waymark and a path through the bushes.
Turn left and walk towards this waymark pointing into the hedgerow.
Upon reaching the hedgerow follow the path into it. Pass through a gate set within the hedgerow and out into a field.
Once out into the field walk straight ahead, approaching a gate at the far side leading out onto a track.
The track leads towards a small fishing lake. Once you are stood on it turn left and head down a flight of steps in front of you and to the right of the track, which leads towards a gate out onto a field.
Head through the footgate in front of you, then turn right and head diagonally uphill towards another gate out onto a track visible in the right hand corner of the field.
On reaching the gate head through it and follow the track a short distance.
Soon you come to a further footgate to the left which leads back into a field.
Out into the field head to the right making for a footgate through a hedgerow in front of you.
Walk through this footgate and head uphill towards the edge of the village of Romsley which is located high up on a little plateau.
On the edge of the village you reach a gate which leads out onto the car park of the Swallow’s Nest pub.
Head straight across the car park of the Swallows Nest towards the main road.
Cross over the road then head left, walking a very short distance uphill towards the mouth of Poplar Lane.
Turn right onto Poplar Lane, which is a suburban type street lined with mostly late Twentieth Century era houses, and walk down it past the point where its name changes to Dark Lane.
On the left hand side of the road there is a footpath waymark pointing off into a hedgerow.
Cross over the road and follow the waymark through the hedgerow out into a field.
Follow the path uphill climbing quite steeply. There are great views back across Romsley towards both Birmingham and the Black Country.
Presently you reach a fence with a gate to your right. Turn right and head through a gate.
Follow the path on the other side straight ahead as it runs downhill.
Presently on the edge of a thicket the path forks. Here take the right hand fork, initially heading back to the village, walking into a tangle of bushes.
Continue on the path through the bushes until it comes out into a meadow.
Follow the path across a meadow. There is a scattering of houses up ahead and great views across Worcestershire to the Abberley and Malvern Hills, on clear days, to your left.
At the far side of the field in the right hand corner the path runs through a hedgerow into another meadow.
Cross this meadow until you come to a gate, amidst thick bushes at the far side, also in the right hand corner.
Head across the small, final meadow on the far side of the hedge, approaching a lane.
Walk through a gate out onto the side of the lane.
Once in the lane turn left and cross the road. There is a stile leading onto a well worn footpath across fields in front of you.
Cross over this stile and begin walking along the path.
You follow it walking straight, following the line of hedges and fences, along the top of a ridge, approaching the Clent Hills, with superb views out across the south western Black Country and further, likely as far as Cannock Chase in clear weather to your right.
Presently you reach the far side of the fields. Here there is a stile which you cross, walking down a short snicket onto a road, at a point where a couple of sprawling houses are clustered.
Upon reaching the road turn left and walk a very short distance until you come to a t-junction.
Here you turn right, and head into woodland, walking steadily uphill along the road, skirting the edge of the National Trust’s Clent Hills estate.
Soon on your right there is a footpath sign pointing across a wooden plank bridge over a narrow ditch, down a steep set of wooden steps into a field. The ground can be very boggy below the steps, so it makes sense to take care stepping down.
Once in the field follow the path downhill. Heading slight to the left. Taking in the superb views of the urban West Midlands and the Rowley Hills in front of you.
At the bottom of the field you come to a gate which leads out onto a lane.
Start walking downhill heading towards the mouth of a t-junction.
Upon reaching the t-junction turn left and head along a lane, past a house with impressive brickwork marking out the building’s initial construction in 1868 and its extension in 1988. Ahead of you the highly decorated, but weathered tower of St. Kenlem’s Church rises up.
Soon you come to the impressive lychgate leading into St. Kenelm’s churchyard. It has a wooden carving on the slain boy king saint holding up his staff.
Head through the lychgate and down a sloping path approaching the church. It has always been open on the occasions that I have walked the route, so it is possible to have a look inside. There are often jars of jam for sale inside the church’s porch for a pound.
Upon reaching the front of the church turn right. Follow the path as it continues down hill past the end of the church where the altar sits.
Here to the right there is a gate leading into the steep dell where St. Kenelm’s Well marks the official source of the River Stour.
Follow the path into the dell. There is a somewhat overgrown well made from red sandstone which the purported headwaters of the Stour clearly flow into, and some carved wooden posts next to a crumbling boardwalk which are apparently the remains of a public art project from the mid-1990s. Modern pilgrims looking to be healed tie brightly coloured ribbons onto the trees around the well.
Having visited the source of the Stour, supposedly where St. Kenelm’s murdered corpse was deposited, to reach Halesowen and the end of the walk continue walking straight ahead down the path.
Follow the path out of the dell and across a meadow, hugging close to the side of the stream which develops as the Stour gathers force.
Having passed through a series of gates and crossed two more meadows the path heads towards a footgate at the entrance of Uffmoor Wood.
Follow the path, which can be very muddy, especially just after it rains through the trees.
Presently at the northern edge of the woods you come out onto a track. Behind you across the fields there is a great view up towards the Clent Hills.
Upon reaching the track turn left and walk a short distance, before following a footpath waymark between two fences onto a driveway. Here there is a makeshift footpath waymark pointing to the right towards a stile which leads down a snicket past a fence towards open fields.
Once in the field head up a bank and follow the footpath at the top straight ahead along the side of a hedgerow.
This leads to a metal gate which leads out into another, narrower field, with Uffmoor Farm off to your right. Cross this field making for an ancient looking hedgerow in front of you.
The ancient hedgerow marks the boundary between Worcestershire and West Midlands. Quite possibly it is an ancient boundary marker, perhaps between two farms or parishes. However, it is easy to imagine the surveyors in the 1970s who drew the modern county boundaries choosing it because it looked like an ancient border.
Having passed through the hedge, now in West Midlands with the suburbs of Halesowen right in front of you, walk downhill across the meadow.
At the bottom there is a stile leading into a patch of woodland with a little wooden bridge across a stream on the far side. This stream is another headwater of the River Stour, which rises slightly north west of St. Kenlem’s Well at a farm called – suggestively – Spring Farm.
On the far side of the stream follow the path to some steps up a bank.
Upon climbing the steps you are stood beside the busy A456 dual carriageway. Here, turn left and walk a little way towards a roundabout.
Just before the roundabout cross to your right, then walk to the left along a pavement heading towards a branch of the Harvester pub chain.
Walk past the Harvester entering suburban Halesowen.
Keep walking straight ahead along the road heading for the town centre. Many of the roads have names like Spring Lane which appear to allude to the headwaters of the Stour.
Continue walking straight ahead for quite some way approaching the centre of Halesowen.
You pass the Rose and Crown pub, a branch of TESCO Express and a little micropub called the Crafty Pint.
Then approach a bend in the road where it curves to the left, just past the Hare and Hounds pub and St. Margaret of Antioch Church.
Soon after the road curves you pass a branch of the Co-op and then begin descending downhill into the centre of Halesowen.
Part way down near a branch of Lidl you have to cross to the left hand side of the road because the pavement on the right ends.
Passed the Lidl and a large estate of 1970s era council built flats and houses you approach the western edge of Halesowen town centre.
Upon reaching Halesowen’s inner-ring road either carry on straight ahead for the Cornbow Shopping Centre which is home to a branch of ASDA or head right for the high street.
Cross over the road and head left to reach the bus station.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
Halesowen lacks a railway station but is well served by buses. The 9 runs between Birmingham and Stourbridge, and X10 between Birmingham and Solihull. Both are very frequent throughout the day, even on Sundays. There are also frequent buses to Dudley and other Black Country towns. This includes services to places like Old Hill, Cradley and Rowley Regis which have stations on the Birmingham to Droitwich Spa via Kidderminster line. The occasional 202 bus (at the time of writing in spring 2024) goes from Halesowen back to Frankley.