Distance: just under 4 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Walk along the River Severn in the far north of Worcestershire from the 18th Century inland port of Bewdley to Upper Arley an attractive riverside village famed for its heritage railway station.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Heritage Railway Town

Pretty much all of the towns, villages and cities in the Midlands have been shaped over the last couple of hundred years by their relationship to the railway network.

Upper Arley, a small village beside the River Severn in the far north of Worcestershire, however, has over the last half century been shaped by its relationship with a heritage railway.

Arely is one of the larger, and amongst the most picturesque railway stations on the Severn Valley Railway. The line is the UK’s sixth longest heritage standard gauge heritage railway, running sixteen miles from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth, following the course of the River Severn for much of the way.

When arriving by heritage train or on foot from the direction of Bewdley the approach to Arley is heralded by the graceful span of the famous Victoria Bridge. 

It is reminiscent in some ways of The Iron Bridge 20 miles to the north. Which perhaps should not be surprising  as having been cast and constructed by the same firm it is in essence the older bridge’s great grandchild.

Opened in early 1862, heritage railway services have run across the bridge since 1974 and it underwent a major programme refurbishment in 2004. Purportedly upon reopening the ribbon on the bridge was cut by a woman from the local area called Victoria Bridge. 

The Victoria Bridge was likely saved from demolition during the 1960s by the fact that following the closure of the Severn Valley line in 1963 a limited service of coal trains continued on the line from Alveley Colliery in south Shropshire until 1969 when the mine closed. Shortly after the Severn Valley Railway took over operating the line, the Victoria Bridge featured in the filming of the 1978 adaptation of The Thirty-Nine Steps. 

Arley Station has also been popular with film and TV makers as a location for filming scenes set on sleepy rural stations in the early to mid-20th Century. Second World War reenactors also favour the location, something which the Severn Valley Railway traes upon.

Partly due to its attractive location beside the Severn, and partly due to the popularity of the heritage railway, Arley is a popular tourist destination. This is reflected in the village’s café and pub neither of which would likely exist without visitors.

Since 1972 the Severn has been crossed by a footbridge at Upper Arley which replaced the ferry which had existed for centuries prior to that and which had provided one of the reasons for the village coming into being. 

There is also an arboretum at the local big house, dating back to 1800 making it amongst the oldest in the country, which is now open to the public. It contains over 300 individual species of tree as well as a 65 metre long Laburnum Arch, apparently the longest in Britain.

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.

To commence this walk from Bewdley to Upper Arley take a bus from Kidderminster where there is a mainline railway station to Bewdley High Street. There are several routes to choose from, as well as less frequent buses which serve the town from as far afield as Ludlow.

Once at Bewdley High Street walk towards the bridge across the River Severn. This stands on Bewdley incredibly well preserved Georgian riverfront, which dates back to the town’s heyday as a major inland river port. Nowadays it is a popular daytripping destination.

Just before you reach the road bridge across the Severn turn left onto the promenade beside the river.

Once on it, turn left again and walk along the line of cafes, bars and restaurants fronting out onto the riverside walkway.

At the far end of the promenade round a bush.

On the other side, you approach a car park then follow a path to the right.

Then head through a park where the path curves to the right keeping close, but still some way from the River Severn.

Keep walking steadily as you head past the outskirts of Bewdley. Here houses on both sides of the Severn give way to weekend and holiday parks of static vans. This stretch of the Severn truly lives up to the Midland’s form for making every conceivable body of water into a kind of seaside.

After some way you come to a metal gate with farmland on the other side. This marks the edge of Bewdley and the start of the more rural section of the walk.

On the far side you walk through open land quite close to the Severn heading in the direction of the remains of a distinctly gothic looking, still stately former railway bridge across the water, evidently abandoned for many decades, its decking long gone.

Known as the Dowles Bridge it opened in 1864 and for just over 100 years until closure in 1965 carried traffic on the Wyre Forest branch line as far as Cleobury Mortimer and Tenbury Wells.

Passing the ruined bridge the edge of the Wyre Forest is visible to your left across a long narrow field.

Soon you come to a metal gate where you take a slight right turn to continue along the river side path.

Continue along the path for some distance as it winds through pretty sparsely populated, wooded countryside.

Presently on the edge of the little village of Hawkbatch you take a slight right turn and pass beneath an impressive stone and metal bridge carrying a pipeline across the valley.

Beyond the pipeline bridge you continue a short way, nearing Severn Trent’s Trimpley Reservoir which stands on the far side of the river.

You take a slight right turning at a sharp bend near the corner of the reservoir to follow the path down a slight slope nearer the river.

Carrying on the path twists to the left following the line of the river bank.

Here you head up a slight bank towards thick woodland.

Then pass through a gateway.

On the other side of the gate you walk through a wooded section for some distance. Here and there you can see the bank of the reservoir on the far bank of the Severn and its massive inflows and outlets.

Presently you come to a wooden bridge and a gate, leaving the woodland, steadily moving north of the Wyre Forest.

Out of the trees you walk near the river bank, soon you catch a glimpse of the Severn Valley Railway’s famous Victoria Bridge.

After passing through a river side thicket, you approach the Victoria Bridge along well marked paths beside fields.

Upon reaching the bridge there is a pathway slightly to the left which leads to a tunnel.

On the other side of the bridge follow the path through a tree lined hollow to a large open meadow.

Here you are nearing the River Severn side village of Upper Arley.

Cross the meadow and follow the path slightly to the right through a gateway in a thicket.

On the far side there is another meadow, which you also cross.

This leads to a smaller field adjacent to a car park, both for Upper Arley and the Severn Valley Railway Station which stands to its west beside the Harbour Inn pub.

Having crossed the car park field you come to a public road.

Here if you turn left and walk a short way uphill you come to the Arley Severn Valley Railway Station. To reach the village itself head to the right walking towards the river.

To cross the river there is a trestle pedestrian bridge spanning the waters.

This was erected in 1972 replacing the ferry which had plied the waters here for centuries beforehand.

Despite having stood for half a century the footbridge has a vaguely makeshift, military campaign air to it. Something which alongside the heritage railway has made the village attractive to 1940s reenactors as a venue for their hobby.

On the far side of the bridge turn left and walk up a ramp onto the main road along the village waterfront.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Upper Arley has a fairly good bus service on weekdays (at the time of writing in August 2022). The village has a roughly hourly, or two hourly service to both Kidderminster and Bridgnorth from early morning until early evening. The service is reduced on Saturdays and does not run on Sundays. Bridgnorth has bus connections to Wolverhampton, Shrewsbury, Telford and western Shropshire. Kidderminster has good connections to all parts of north and central Worcestershire by bus and train, as well as to all parts of the West Midlands conurbation, and onward connections from there.