Distance: 6.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

This primarily rural walk from Wythall in north Worcestershire to Longbridge in south Birmingham goes via the Wast Hills and the source of the River Cole between the hamlets of Forhill and Red Hill.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

East Birmingham’s River

When we think of the rivers of Birmingham, typically the Rea, rising just south of Frankley in the Waseley Hills, and flowing down the middle of the city, through Digbeth, to its confluence beneath the Bromford Viaduct with the River Tame, is the one which usually comes to the fore.

However, there is another river, slightly more easterly, the Cole, which also flows north across Birmingham from almost right on the Severn – Trent Midlands watershed. Rising in the Wast Hills, which are less hills in the conventional sense, more a dramatically steep escarpment running from the relative flat of the Worcestershire plain up to the Birmingham plateau. The River Cole, like the River Rea runs down from the undulating ridge which marks the divide between water that flows southwest into the River Severn and north east into the River Trent. 

After crossing into Birmingham from Worcestershire the Cole flows through the city’s green south eastern suburbs via Billesley, Hall Green and Sparkhill, to near Tyseley where it runs beneath the Grand Union Canal before continuing north through the city’s suburbs, out into Warwickshire where it converges with the River Blythe.   

For much of its course the river provides a green lung for the city, with a broad cycle path running beside it. A bucolic slice, harking back to the area’s pre industrialisation rural past, consisting of leafy walkways, country parks, nature reserves and even little fords and stepping stone crossings.

This said, as with the story of Birmingham’s other rivers the Rea and the Tame, the lines between rural and what we would now consider urban were historically rather blurrier than today. Sarehole Mill, on the Cole between Hall Green and King’s Heath in south Birmingham, is the only surviving mill out of what once would have been dozens, on any of Birmingham’s rivers. Today it is cared for by Birmingham Museums Trust and presented as a Nineteenth Century flour mill. Local Lord of the Rings fans claim it as the inspiration for the Old Mill in the Lord of the Rings books. The stretch of the Cole between Hall Green and Tyseley is a country park called Shire Country Park in honour of JRR Tolkien – who grew up in Hall Green – prior to its full incorporation into Birmingham in the years immediately before the First World War.

However, rather more interestingly Sarehole Mill was not always a flour mill. Instead like all the little mills which used to line the rivers of Birmingham Sarehole Mill was leased to all manner of craft and industrial users. Notably Matthew Boulton in the years prior to setting up his earth shattering Handsworth steam engine factory with James Watt leased Sarehole Mill in the 1750s to roll metal. An example of how deep the area’s metal working past runs.

At around twenty five miles in length from its source at Wast Hills to its convergence with the River Blythe, just outside Birmingham’s northwestern boundaries at Coleshill in Warwickshire, the River Cole is a similar length to the River Stour which runs south from the Waseley Hills to the River Severn. This makes it fairly quintessential of the little rivers that flow around and across the Birmingham plateau. 

Coleshill, named after the river, where it converges with the Blythe which runs northwards across the Meriden Gap, is believed to be the place where the first skirmish of the English Civil War took place. The musket ball pockmarked walls of the local fortified manor house were unearthed a few years back by archeologists working for HS2 Ltd.

In this way from the development of the West Midlands as a metalworking centre from the Middle Ages onwards, through its place at the eye of the tumult of the Civil Wars in the 1640s and 1650s, to the spread of Birmingham in the 19th and 20th Centuries that made the Cole a suburban waterway, the river can tell the story of the development of the region.

The Walk

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

I use the Ordnance Survey app to plan walks. Get your copy today.

This walk from Wythall to Longbridge via the Wast Hills where the River Cole rises right on the Severn – Trent watershed begins from Wythall Railway Station which is on the railway line between Birmingham Moor Street and Stratford-upon-Avon.

Upon alighting the train at Wythall Station exit the station, and if having arrived from the direction of Birmingham turn right over a road bridge.

On the far side of the bridge there is a junction with a corner newsagents on it. Take the left hand fork here and begin walking through suburban Wythall.

Walk straight along the road for quite some distance.

Presently on your right just after an estate of recently built houses you come to Gorsey Lane.

Turn right down Gorsey Lane – initially along a footpath running parallel with the street.

And keep walking, as this narrower road runs along the edge of Wythall.

Eventually you come out beside a busy main road. Here slightly to the right on the far side there runs a quiet lane through woodland.

Taking care, cross the road and head to the left along this lane.

Upon leaving the woodland and passing a short row of houses the road curves around sharply to the right.

Here on the left you come to a bridge across the busy A435 which links Birmingham to Redditch.

Cross the bridge and continue past a couple of large houses on the far side of the bridge.

Look out on your right for an open gateway leading up a track towards a gate, just after passing one of the houses. Turn right here and walk up the driveway passing through a metal gate a little way up.

Continue walking straight ahead through a stableyard area.

At the top of the stable area you reach a scrap of woodland. Here there is a gate to the left which you pass through. Before heading through a footgate on your left.

Once through the gate carry on straight ahead along the path walking down towards a busy main road.

On reaching the road, taking care, cross over the road and then turn right walking along the wide grass verge.

Continue along the road passing by the driveways for houses, farms and other premises for some distance.

Presently on your left you come to a footpath waymark pointing through a gate into a field. This is waymarked for the North Worcestershire Path and The Footman Way, the latter a recently created route remembering a long serving member of Wythall Parish Council.

Enter the field and walk diagonally across it (there was a large pile of manure in the middle of the field when I walked the route in May 2024 and I had to walk around it).

On the far side of the field you reach a gate. Walk through it and continue walking straight ahead through a series of horse paddocks.

Soon you reach the bottom of the series of paddocks and step through a gate out onto a narrow path between two wooden fences.

Here you turn left working your way past a broad tree which stands in the middle of the path.

At the bottom of the path you reach a track. Here turn slightly to the right and walk through a footgate on the far side.

Once through the gate walk straight ahead following the path down the side of the field next to a hedgerow.

Nearing the bottom of the field you reach a scrap of mature woodland next to a golf course.

Here to the right on the edge of the trees you find a metal gate.

Walk through the gate, crossing a little wooden bridge, then follow the path straight ahead through the woodland.

On your right there stands a farmhouse, which unusually is moated, pointing to the site’s past as one of the numerous moated manor houses which once stood in the south western Midland counties.

Soon you reach the edge of the woodland and a gate. Walk through the gate and turn right following a path around the edge of a field.

The field is not very wide and soon you reach another gate which you pass through.

Beyond the gate the path runs to the right heading in the direction of some outbuildings next door to the moated farmhouse.    

Opposite the outbuildings there is a footgate slightly to your left. Walk through it and carry on across a wooden plank bridge.

Beyond the wooden footbridge the follow a clearly defined path through some scrubby grass along the side of a field.

Soon the path enters a field and you walk straight ahead 

It is quite a large field, at the top you walk through a large gap in the hedgerow into an adjoining field opposite some woodland.

The path leads straight across the field on the far side of the hedgerow leading into some woodland.

Having crossed the field you enter the woodland and follow the path a short distance down onto a lane.

Upon reaching the lane turn right and walk uphill. Take care as you do so, as the lane can be surprisingly busy.

Approaching the place where the lane joins the busy Redhill Road, you see a footpath waymark pointing off the lane to some steps. Turn left and climb the steps.

At the top of the steps head down a bank into a picnic area.

Walk across the picnic area, then through a car park, heading to the right, approaching a gate which leads out onto a lane opposite the Peacock Inn in the hamlet of Forhill.

Once through the gate, cross over the road and head straight down the lane on the far side of the junction where the Peacock Inn stands.

There is a communications mast to your left amidst some trees. Carry on straight down the lane past a car park for the pub opposite where the communications mast stands.

Just after the car park you come to a tarmacked track running off to the right.

Turn right and walk down the lane. You are now walking high up, around two hundred metres above sea level, along the north Worcestershire ridge which divides the Severn and the Trent watersheds.

Presently, approaching a farmyard you reach a footpath waymark pointing through a hedgerow off to the right.

Once in the field on the far side of the hedge turn left and walk across the field making for a trio of trees.

Just past the trees you come to a footgate which you pass through. Walk straight across the field on the far side, passing through a gate into another field partway across.

Here you reach a stile which you cross, carry on across the field beyond the wooden fence.

Besides an old tree you come upon a stile which leads to a footpath bounded by two wooden fences.

At the bottom of the footpath you cross a stile which leads out onto the grass verge beside the busy Redhill Road.

Once on the verge turn left and begin walking along the verge beside the road.

Very soon off to the right you come upon Goodrest Road. If – taking care – you cross Redhill Road and walk a little way down Goodrest Road then you soon come to a footpath waymark on your right. Enter the field waymarked by the footpath. Here in the corner of the field to your right you reach the point where the River Cole rises and begins its meandering progress into and across the eastern suburbs of Brimingham, to Coleshill in Warwickshire where its converges with the River Blythe and continues its northward progress via the Tame to the Trent and on to the North Sea.

Having seen the source of the River Cole head back to Redhill Road, turn right and carry on west towards Longbridge.

You continue walking along the Redhill Road for quite some distance.

Eventually you come to a footpath waymark pointing left down a snicket beside a large house.

At the bottom of the snicket you follow the path through some woodland, past an old quarry now flooded.

Soon the path curves around sharply to the right and comes out onto a green lane running beside a field.

Upon reaching this path turn left and begin walking along the path. To your right there is a great view out across Birmingham’s southwestern most suburbs.

Carry on walking until you reach the end of the track and rejoin the North Worcestershire Path.

If you look behind you here there is a superb view down across the Birmingham plateau towards the towers and other tall buildings in the city centre. There are also great views to your left out into rural north Worcestershire.

When you are ready to continue along your way, turn right and follow the path, now tarmacked, through woodland.

Presently you reach a stile leading out into a meadow.

Walk straight across the meadow approaching a lane which runs up from by the Wast Hill Tunnel which carries the Worcester and Birmingham Canal beneath the north Worcestershire ridge.

Upon reaching the lane turn right and walk a short distance up the road past a bungalow. The bungalow had a very aggressive Alsatian cross running around the garden on the day that I walked the route, but it seemed to be quite well secured inside the garden.

Just beyond the far fence of the bungalow’s garden there is a stile leading onto a footpath.

Cross this stile and then head up the path on the far side.

The footpath, part of the North Worcestershire Path, is well trodden and quite muddy. It runs along the fence beside the University of Birmingham Observatory and Hayes Playing Fields.

Carry on along the path for quite some distance.

Presently you come out on the edge of a grassy meadow, looking out across the southwestern most corner of Birmingham, sloping downhill. Begin walking downhill to the left across the meadow.

In the far corner of the meadow there is a gap in the hedgerow leading into a meadow beyond.

Cross this meadow too, and head for a path on the far side.

Walk down this path and through a gate out onto a verge beside the busy A441 which runs from Birmingham out to the M42 at Hopwood.

Taking care, walk across the A441. On the far side turn left, walk along the pavement for some distance.

Soon you reach a junction. Here turn right, and then head to the left, walking down the B4096 known here as Longbridge Lane, which runs along the edge of Birmingham into Longbridge.

Continue along the B4096. Initially the road runs straight along the edge of the city through a residential area.

Presently, you cross a busy junction and carry on straight through the residential area on the far slide.  

Then, on the edge of Turves Green, you cross a busy junction where the modernist Anglican St. John the Baptist Church Longbridge stands.

Continue heading down into Longbridge on the far side.

Soon you reach Longbridge town centre, which is really an out of town retail park. Longbridge Station on the Birmingham Cross City Line is on your right.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Longbridge is currently (as of May 2024) served by four trains an hour running north and south along the Cross City Line. The four northbound trains head across south Birmingham to New Street and beyond towards Sutton Coldfield and Lichfield. Two of the southbound trains are destined for Redditch the other two for Bromsgrove. Longbridge is also well served by buses including the 45 and 47 which run into the city centre via Kings Norton and Stirchley, and the 61 and 63 which run into the city centre down the Bristol Road via Northfield and Selly Oak.