Distance: 7.2 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Walk from Oldbury, following the Midlands Watershed Ridge (the most visible expression of the divide between the Severn and Trent catchment areas) through the Black Country and Woodgate Valley to the Kit’s Well the only river flowing into the Severn rising inside Birmingham.
The Story
Route Notes
Getting Back
The Severn in Birmingham
Kit’s Well stands at the western most point of Birmingham, beyond Bartley Green’s 20th Century housing estates, mere metres from the M5. It is the naturally occurring spring from which a small stream bubbles up and flows west through a little culvert beneath the M5 to join the nascent River Stour flowing from St. Kenlem’s Well on the western flank of the Clent Hills towards Halesowen. The Kitswell estate was constructed on the site of a large imposing farmhouse which was named after the well, and stands just to the south
There is remarkably little information about the site, and its history, though it is speculated that like other springs and wells in and around the Midlands it was an important local place of pilgrimage and worship. There are numerous examples across the region including the springs in the Malvern Hills at the other end of Worcestershire from where Kit’s Well lies, and perhaps more famously, the wells celebrated through annual well dressing ceremonies in Peak District villages like Tissington, Hartington and Biddulph Moor, site of the source of the River Trent.
Kit’s Well is located on high ground near the crest of the Midlands Watershed Ridge, the high prominent divide between the River Trent and River Severn catchment areas which runs through around West Midlands county. These days it is situated in Birmingham, following a rationalisation of Worcestershire’s county boundary with the West Midlands in 1995, which clearly drew the administrative divide between the two areas along the line of the M5 motorway. But historically, Kit’s Well was in Worcestershire, aligning it with all of the special and sacred springs in the county.
An interesting side effect of 1995’s minor adjustment of the county boundary which placed Kit’s Well inside Birmingham, is that now a tiny slither of Birmingham, including a few scattered outlying housing estates, now lie in the catchment area of the River Severn rather than the River Trent. While the Kit’s Well, whose waters flow into the River Stour, and then into the Severn at Stourport, is far from the most easterly (the River Avon, for instance, rises at Naseby in Northamptonshire) tributary of the River Severn, it is the only one to rise inside the boundary of Birmingham.
Route Notes
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the gpx. 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 Oldbury to Kit’s Well hugging close to the crest of the Midlands Watershed Ridge begins from the bus stop on the A4123 Wolverhampton Road near Newbury Lane and Rounds Green Methodist Church.
Upon alighting the bus turn left and walk down Newsbury Lane walking towards the towerblocks on the Lion Farm estate and the base of Turner’s Hill at the southern end of the Rowley Hills, which is the highest summit in West Midlands county.
On reaching Portway the road which descends from the summit of the Rowley Hills and walk straight across. A little further on just past a parade of shops, turn left onto Hanover Road.
Walk along Hanover Road which steadily ascends in parallel with the Midlands Watershed Ridge.
Presently at the top of the ridge you arrive at Rowley Regis’ red brick parish church.
Cross the road here, where there are impressive views out towards the north Worcestershire hills, and down to Blackheath, Rowley Regis’ town centre.
On the far side of the road cross a car park approaching a muddy cut through which leads out onto an enigmatically named road called “Ross”.
Once on Ross turn right, and follow the road initially uphill to the crest of the hill, and then down towards Blackheath.
Before you reach the northern edge of the town centre turn left into Britannia Park and follow the path in front of you straight across it.
On the far side of the park you reach a main road where you turn right walking straight down hill towards Blackheath past the Rowley Regis branch of the Son’s of Rest and the Robert Peel pub.
Upon reaching Blackheath walk straight ahead along the road through the middle of the town centre.
Having crossed Blackheath continue straight ahead along the road past the Windmill End pub, named after a Victorian colliery which stood beside the Dudley No. 2 Canal in the shadow of the Rowley HIlls, and past a large red brick church.
Soon you reach Shell Corner, a smaller town centre inside Dudley Borough. In the middle of Shell Corner turn right, and pick up a busy road lined with houses which steadily runs uphill towards a major road junction high up above Halesowen.
At this junction turn left and walk past a parade of shops towards a grand old ODEON cinema from the 1930s which is now run by the REEL chain. Beyond the cinema you cross the M5 motorway and enter the south west Birmingham suburb of Quinton.
Once in Quinton turn right and follow the little road running parallel with the M5 down into a residential area.
Turn left down a road lined with large houses and cross a pedestrian footbridge over the busy A456.
On the far side of the A456 turn right and walk along a wide road lined with large detached houses until you come to a side road where you turn right again, and walk down a road lined with a mixture of 1960s maisonettes and 1930s semi detached houses.
Continue along the road heading steadily downhill past the Highfields Farm Recreation Ground and Six Dwellings Academy.
Presently you reach a 1970s vintage estate and turn right, walking past a substantial glacial erratic boulder on top of a concrete plinth.
A little further and you reach the northern edge of Woodgate Valley Country Park. Enter the park through a gate and turn left heading into trees where you pick up a wide path which runs through woodland.
Upon reaching the side of the Bourn Brook turn left and cross the stream via a bridge.
On the far side head uphill following a wide tarmac path across some paddocks.
At the top of the hill you reach a visitor centre and car park where you turn right to reach a road.
When you reach the road turn right and walk towards a roundabout beside a petrol station. Cross the roundabout and head down Lye Lane walking towards the M5 past an estate of 1970s vintage local authority built houses.
Before you reach the bridge across the motorway turn left and follow a road which runs across the estate. On the far side of the estate you walk straight across a small patch of grass and join the main road again.
Back on the road turn right and walk along the western flank of Bartley Green, walking past a small shopping centre, and past a major junction where a small towerblock stands.
Past the towerblock you continue along the road a little way before descending slightly.
Presently you leave the residential area and on your right you come to the place where Kit’s Well lies just inside a scrap of woodland.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
The X22 bus from Kitswell to Birmingham city centre via Quinton, Birmingham’s university hospital, University Railway Station and Edgbaston departs frequently from a stop back towards where the towerblock stands. There are other buses including the 23 and 24 which run into Birmingham via Harbourne and Edgbaston, as well as the 18 which also departs from Bartley Green and runs across south Birmingham via Northfield and Cotteridge. All of these buses intersect with the 11 Outer Circle bus and also the Cross City Railway Line. These buses are all frequent every day of the week, but less frequent on Sundays and Bank Holidays.