Distance: 3.9 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Walk from central Wolverhampton, passing through Wolverhampton’s northeastern suburbs, up and over Bushbury Hill with its views into Shropshire to near the city’s northern boundary with Staffordshire.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Bushbury Hill

Standing 184 metres above sea level, Bushbury Hill, a little ridge in the far north of Wolverhampton, is not the tallest hill in West Midlands county (that honour falls the nearly 100 metre taller Turner’s Hill far to the south west in Rowley Regis), though it does vie with Park Hill in the far south of the district for the title of highest hill within the City of Wolverhampton Council area’s tight boundaries. Making it the most prominent hill for miles around it, meaning that it has commanding views across Wolverhampton to its south and due west towards the Shropshire Hills.

Bushbury Hill takes the form of a short ridge. Its ridgeback top is traversed by a bridleway beginning beside the school on the , which veers sharply down its eastern slope, to avoid Wolverhampton’s main municipal cemetery which is situated on its peaceful wooded northern slope.  

At the bottom of the hill lies the Bushbury estate, once a rural village on the road north from Wolverhampton, it was steadily incorporated into the city during the 20th Century as companies like Goodyear built factories there. After the Second World War, first with prefabs, then with permanent houses, later augmented by private developers, the area began to become a true suburb of the city.

Prior to its demolition in 2008 the Goodyear Factory chimney, which despite standing 60 metres tall was remarkably stubby looking, and in the brand’s distinctive blue and yellow, was the primary local landmark. Now the green pastoral hillside stands out giving the estate, swollen by new houses on former factory sites, a bucolic air despite central Wolverhampton lying a mere two miles to the south. 

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 to Bushbury Hill on Wolverhampton’s eastern fringe just inside West Midlands county’s boundary with Staffordshire, begins at Wolverhampton Railway Station.

Upon leaving Wolverhampton Railway Station by its main exit onto the forecourt walk straight ahead towards the white suspension bridge leading into the city centre.

Just prior to reaching the bridge there is a footpath off to the left waymarked for the canal.

Turn left here, then right, to reach a pavement next to the busy St. David’s ring road around the centre of the city.

Once on the pavement turn right, walking beneath the bridge from the station across the road into central Wolverhampton.

Keep walking straight along the pavement on the other side of the bridge. Next to you on the right runs the Birmingham Canal Navigation Main Line. Which you soon will join.

Presently you come to a junction with traffic lights which you cross.

Here there is a small canal wharf surrounded by parkland. Turn right after crossing the road, then left onto the canal towpath.

Once on the canal towpath, keep heading right walking straight ahead.

The first phase of the walk is through a primarily industrial area on the edge of Wolverhampton city centre.

Then past the tall chimney of the city’s incinerator.

Just beyond the incinerator, you come to a bridge across the canal. Here at the bridge turn right coming off the canal and enter Fowler’s Park.

Follow a wide tarmac path running along to the right again, along the wooded edge of the park.

Keep walking straight for quite some distance passing through a wooded area and heading down a dip past a large pool.

Beyond the pool keep on walking straight ahead along the path passing along the side of a playing field.

At the top of the playing field there is a metal gate leading out onto a railway line with factory buildings on the other side.

Checking if it is safe to do so, pass through the gate and cross the tracks heading through a corresponding gate on the far side.

Having passed through the gate, the path runs sharply to the right, before leading you to walk straight ahead along a wide snicket leading past the factory to a main road.

Upon reaching the road cross over and heading to the left down a broad tree lined road called Park Lane which runs along the edge of the Falling Park and Low Hill estates.

Continue walking for some distance straight ahead until you come to the mouth of a road called Second Avenue running off to the left.

Keep on walking straight up Second Avenue, walking through a series of wide crescents, lined with interwar era council built homes.

Presently after quite some distance you come out onto an even larger crescent with a little park type area in the centre fringed with shops. Here, turn right and walk around the crescent.

After crossing one road and continuing along past a scrap of railing off waste ground you reach Leacroft Avenue running off to the right back into a residential area.

Carry on walking along Leacroft Avenue for quite some distance, presently starting to walk up a hill.

Soon you come out at a road where the country park centred upon Bushbury Hill begins.

Cross over the road here and walk straight ahead passing through a metal gate.

Carry on uphill along a bridleway.

After some distance you come out at the top of Bushbury Hill which stands 184 metres above sea level with great views across the northern Black Country and out into the Staffordshire and Shropshire countryside beyond.

Continue straight ahead on bridleway along the ridge at the top of Bushbury Hill.

Presently, on the edge of the cemetery which stands on the slopes to the north of Bushbury Hill the bridleway runs sharply to the right.

Turn right and follow the bridleway downhill.

Soon at the bottom of the slope you come out on the edge of a housing estate right on the northern edge of Wolverhampton.

Here walk straight ahead along a grass verge on the edge of the housing estate. Soon off to the left there is a path which runs for a little way behind a hedgerow. Follow this path for a short distance until you reach the side of a busy main road.

Upon reaching the main road turn left and walk along a pavement crossing the entrances to the cemetery and passing through woodland.

Presently ahead of you on the right hand side of the road just in front of a roundabout there stands an old farm now partially converted to a cafe.

Just before you reach it there is a place where you can cross the road onto a pavement on the far side. Having crossed the road turn left and keep on walking past the old farm building towards the roundabout.

Beyond the farmhouse you reach a roundabout, which you straight around and continue along the far side of, along Northycote Lane until you reach a pair of bus stops.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing in December 2024 the nearest bus route back into Wolverhampton, was the hourly until early evening 65 bus into Wolverhampton via Wednesfield. Stops for this service can be found on Northycote Lane beyond the roundabout where this walk ends. From Wednesfield buses can be caught to destinations in Walsall, Wolverhampton and elsewhere in the Black Country region. From Wolverhampton there are buses across the Black Country and beyond as well as trams south towards Birmingham city centre and trains to destinations across West Midlands county and beyond.