Distance: 5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Short walk between the Black Country towns of Coseley and Wednesbury primarily along the Bradley Arm Canal, an inland waterway which is partially preserved, partially subject to ongoing restoration efforts.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Heart of the Black Country

With parts of its course lying in or adjacent to all four of the region’s modern local authorities the Bradley Arm Canal has as good a claim as anything to be situated at the heart of the Black Country.

Historically the area around Bradley and Wednesbury was criss-crossed with industrial workshops which served the coal mines, foundries and metal works in the area. Some factories remain along the side of the Bradley Canal Arm and in the area to this day, but coal mining ceased generations ago.

Today the quiet and bucolic Bradley Arm Canal cuts through the furthest southern reaches of outer Wolverhampton, close to the council boundaries with Sandwell and Dudley to the south. This makes it inarguably close to the heart of the Black Country. Today whilst the canal remains navigable, its winding banks are primarily a place for nature, a means for pedestrians to walk between Coseley, Bilston, Bradley and other adjoining residential areas, and a green lung for those living near its line.

Once upon a time the Bradley Arm Canal, then known as the Wednesbury Oak Loop, continued all the way back to the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line just north of Wednesbury. Much of its course beyond Bradley towards Wednesbury was filled in after the canal formally shut in 1954. The Glebefields Estate, now part in Sandwell, part in Wolverhampton was constructed on and around the old canal navigation during the 1960s.

Interestingly, so I have been told, the Bradley Arm Canal was never officially closed, rather the British Waterways Board illegally had it filled in overnight with slum clearance waste from Walsall Corporation’s rebuilding of Darlaston and Moxley. However, by the same virtue it had never actually been formally authorised, instead having been sug without official sanction by local industrialists and mine workers during the late 18th Century.

This said there is a project – well supported locally – to link up some of the numerous abandoned canals in the area, to create a new inland waterway between the Birmingham Canal Navigation Main Line and the Walsall Canal. The new route will use the existing Bradley Arm Canal, as well as the partially overgrown Bradley Branch Canal which stretches from the Walsall Canal. The mile or so in the middle will be created by reopening existing disused canal navigation, long overgrown, snaking through the area. These efforts are supported by the Bradley Canal Restoration Society. Which is a registered charity and a member of the national Heritage Trust Network.

The volunteers have made some decent progress. The northeastern section which still has fittings painted in waterways black and white is actually quite clear. Parts have been largely dug out and it could possibly be navigable, at least for a hundred metres or so. However, I have it on good authority that the eastern reaches of the Bradley Arm Canal was last traversed by a boat in the 1980s. Who knows, maybe this will soon change?

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 Coseley to Wednesbury following the course of the Bradley Arm Canal begins at Coseley Railway Station.

From Coseley Railway Station on the Bimingham to Wolverhampton line, turn left and walk up a short flight of steps onto Haveacre Lane.

Once on the road turn right.

This leads through a residential area.

Presently on the left hand side of the road next to a bungalow there is a snicket.

Turn left and walk down this snicket.

At the bottom of the snicket you come out onto a cul-de-sac.

Here turn right and head down another snicket.

This leads out onto a promontory of sorts just above the cut of the Birmingham Canal Navigation Main Line.

Head down onto the towpath.

Then turn right and start heading north along the towpath.

After a short distance you come to a concrete road bridge. This is the boundary between the Borough of Dudley and the City of Wolverhampton.

On the other side of the bridge keep walking.

Soon you reach another bridge, this one is older and made of bricks.

On the far side of the bridge you soon come to another steep hunchback bridge over another canal which is merging into the Birmingham Canal Navigation Main Line.

This canal is the Bradley Arm Canal. When constructed as a contour canal in the 1770s the Bradley Arm Canal was a loop on the Birmingham Canal Navigation Main Line. Later in the 1830s, to a plan developed by Thomas Telford, the canal was straightened and widened. This shaved 7 miles off the distance between Wolverhampton and Birmingham making the canal able to carry a far higher volume of goods quickly. This process left numerous “loops” which were now bypassed by the faster new canal. Typically the loops were maintained for the purpose of servicing industry and other locations like coal mines of which there were many in the area between Coseley and Wednesbury. Since the early 19th Century many of them have been filled in or have become overgrown. However, some remain, of which the Bradley Arm Canal as a green lung, nature reserve, and local walking route, as well as a still navigable waterway, is amongst the most impressive.

Having crossed the bridge across the Bradley Arm Canal, turn right.

This leads onto the towpath of the Bradley Arm Canal.

Keep following the very attractive canal as it winds between a mixture of greenspaces, housing estates (some recent, some older) and industrial units here and there.

Presently You reach a brick section of towpath opposite an estate of 1960s or early 1970s houses.

Here the path curves slightly to the left.

Then it joins another path turn to the right and keep walking straight ahead following the line of the canal.

You keep walking straight along the path which steadily moves away from the canal.

Soon the path runs into some trees.

Then leads out through a gateway onto a suburban road.

Taking care, cross the road. Straight ahead of you there is a snicket between two bungalows. Walk along it approaching a metal bar put in place to stop vehicles proceeding along the snicket.

Past the gate continue along the path coming out onto a grassy field.

There are two clear tracks across the field. I opted to take the one on the left but both lead to where you need to get to.

At the far side of the field follow the path up a short steep bank. The final stretch is along a crumbling tarmac path.

Upon reaching the top head to the left along a tarmac path.

Walk along the tarmac path for some distance.

Soon it leads through a small copse of trees.

Beyond it, continue along the path as it runs along the bottom of an unkempt field approaching Wednesbury Oak.

Presently the path curves around sharply to the left.

Continue along the path as it runs along the middle of the Glebefields estate. It is clear that you are now following the line of a former canal, the path and green space on either side being a remnant of the alignment of the former waterway.

Carry on straight along the path, which still has something of the feel of a flight of locks, despite the old line of the canal no longer being visible for some distance. On the left side of the path lies Wolverhampton, to the right it is Sandwell.

Presently you reach the side of the busy A4098 which you cross.

On the far side the distinctive markings and metalwork of the entrance to a canal towpath are visible. Walk through this gateway and begin walking alongside the preserved, part cleared, partially in water, surviving eastern section of the Bradley Arm Canal.

Soon you approach a bridge carrying the Midland Metro over the former canal.

Beyond the bridge you walk through a verdant wooded section next to the Moorcroft Woods Nature Reserve.

Suddenly you emerge from the trees next to a metal footbridge across the Walsall Canal.

Cross the bridge and head down onto the towpath on the far side of the waterway.

Once over the bridge turn right and begin walking along the towpath towards Wednesbury. To the right you can see the partially cleared mouth of the Bradley Arm Canal as you begin to walk east along the Walsall Canal.

Carry on walking a short distance along the Walsall Canal. You pass through a brick paved area somewhat akin to a wharf.

Beyond that you approach a purple bridge carrying the Midland Metro line.

Just before you reach it there is a gap in the hedge off to your left which leads out onto a road through an industrial estate running up to Wednesbury.

Once on this road turn right and walk along the road heading towards the town centre.

You pass an entrance to the Wednesbury Parkway Metro stop on your right. This offers one place to end the walk, with regular trams south east towards West Bromwich and Birmingham and north towards Bilston and Wolverhampton.

If you continue on towards Wednesbury town centre just after the Metro stop there is a wide brick lined footpath leading down into trees off on your right. Turn right and head down this path.

Presently you reach a place where three paths meet, To your left there is a way through a subway towards the town centre. Head left through this subway.

Beyond the underpass keep on walking straight up a ramp on the far side.

This leads out beside the busy A461. Once beside the road turn left and walk along the pavement.

Continue walking, crossing the mouths of a couple of roads and passing the big branch of Morrison’s and the bus interchange in the centre of Wednesbury on the far side of the road.

Presently you come to a set of traffic lights. Here cross the road and head straight down Union Street into the heart of Wednesbury.

Continue walking into the centre of the town. Ahead of you, you can see the art deco style tower of the old cinema, the subject of the famous “Wednesbury Unreasonableness” case in 1947.

Getting Back

Wednesbury is fairly well served by public transport. There is a frequent service north west towards Wolverhampton and south east towards Birmingham on the Midland Metro. There are also frequent buses towards both cities, and towards neighbouring towns including Walsall, Dudley, Tipton and West Bromwich as well as other destinations across the Black Country.