Distance: 5.7 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

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

Walk along the tallest part of the Midlands Watershed Ridge, the Waseley Hills and the north western end of the Lickey Hills, to Longbridge via the site of the Worcestershire part of the old Austin Rover factory.

The Story

Route Notes

Getting Back

The Peak of the Ridge

Dividing the southernmost part of Birmingham, and the western part of Rubery which is contiguous with Birmingham but still in Worcestershire, the most dramatic section of the Midlands Watershed Ridge, is in the Waseley and Lickey Hills. Windmill Hill in the heart of the Waseley’s rises 287 metres above sea level and Beacon Hill at the northern end of the Lickey’s rises 298 metres above sea level forming the most dramatic part of the range of hills. The views from their summits are spectacular, with all of Worcestershire visible to the south and west, as far as the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and the totality of the Birmingham plateau stretching into the distance to the north and east.

These hills have long been a green lung for the city of Birmingham, purchased by outwardly progressively local industrialists like the Cadbury’s and formed into an early greenbelt during the 1900s, predating national legislation by around 40 years. This was beneficial for Birmingham and the wider West Midlands given the way in which the conurbation sprawls across the landscape. Almost uniquely amongst English county tops, Turner’s Hill and the other Rowley Hills, the highest peaks in West Midlands county and also a constituent of the Midlands Watershed Ridge, is highly urbanised with tracts of housing running almost to the top.

However, industry in the form of the Austin Rover car factory, which was constructed at Longbridge, then in the rapidly urbanising north Worcestershire countryside in 1904, not one of Birmingham’s most southerly suburbs, did jut up against the Watershed Ridge. Indeed the factory site which up until Rover’s closure in 2005 ran across the county boundary with part of the site, primarily constructed during the two World Wars, partially by prisoner of war labour, lay in Worcestershire. The watershed cuts through the middle of it, descending from the Lickey Hills through the middle of Cofton Park.

The Watershed Ridge then continues running due east, now around 200 metres above sea level, along the bottom of Birmingham. Typically a gentle rise on the northern side bounding the city running into the Trent catchment area, a steep slope to the south running down into the Severn basin.

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 Frankley along the tallest part of the Midlands Watershed Ridge, the Waseley Hills and the north western end of the Lickey Hills, to Longbridge via the site of the Worcestershire part of the old Austin Rover factory. Begins from near the end of the very frequent 63 bus route down the A38 Bristol Road from central Birmingham. The stop on Boleyn Road is also frequently called at by the 202 towards Halesowen.     

Upon alighting at Boleyn Road turn left and walk back up towards Gannow Green Lane which runs out of Birmingham towards Romsley.

When you reach the corner where Boleyn Road turns into Gannow Green Lane on the far side of the road you see a gateway immediately to the right after a set of traffic lights.

Cross over the road and walk through this gateway into Waseley Hills Country Park. In doing so you cross between Birmingham in West Midlands county and Worcestershire.

Follow the path to the right as it runs uphill into the heart of the country park.

The path zigzags steadily uphill towards the heart of the country park.

To your left rises the short, but commanding ridge that lies at the heart of the Waseley Hills Country Park. Alongside the Lickey Hills to the south, Frankley Beeches and the Rowley Range to the north, it comprises part of the watershed between the River Trent and River Severn, which is one the key topographical dividing features of the Midlands. The River Rea which flows north across Birmingham to the Tame, rises at the base of the ridge.

Presently you approach a junction on the path. To the left runs a path to the source of the River Rea and the top of the ridge. To the right a wide track leads a short distance towards the Waseley Hills car park.

Turn right and walk towards the car park.

Once in the car park, mindful to take care of moving cars, walk straight across it, past the building where the Windmill Cafe is situated on your left as are the country park’s toilets.

Here turn left and head towards the steep northern flank of Windmill Hill, the Waseley Hill’s 287 metre high summit.

Enter the field sloping initially gently then steeply up towards the summit.

There is a gate at the top of the slope which you walk through to reach the toposcope on the summit. There are spectacular views from here north across the Black Country and Birmingham as well as towards the Shropshire Hills, and to the south west across the Worcestershire plain towards Abberley, Malvern and Bredon Hill on the northwesternmost flank of the Cotswolds. 

From the summit of Windmill Hill walk straight ahead following the footpaths south along the Waseley Hill’s section of the Midlands Watershed Ridge.

The ridge gently undulates, and here and there you pass through snippets of woodland.

Presently you reach the end of the Waseley Hills and descend through the steep southerly slope into the narrow pass where the A38 descends the Birmingham Plateau to the Worcestershire Plain below.

On reaching the car park at this end of the hills follow the access road out of the hills into the westernmost part of Rubery.

Turn left on exiting the access road, and then turn right across the bridge over the A38.

Having crossed the road there is a wide, well worn bridleway way off to the right, steeply ascending the northern end of the Lickey Hills.

Start ascending this bridleway, and follow it as it runs around the edges of grassy, overgrown meadows, and up through woodland to reach Beacon Hill.

Cross the lane partway up the hill and pick up a narrow but well trodden footpath running to the right up the hill.

Nearing the summit of the hill you turn onto the lane, then turn left walking to the summit of the hill, turning left onto the long straight Monument Lane which runs along the crest of the ridge. Take care when you do so, as cars can travel fast around the sharp bends on the roads.

A little way down Monument Lane the trees thin out and you come to the Beacon Hill car park. Turn left here and cross the car park to reach the grassy land at the summit of the hill.

Cross this grass heading towards the folly-like turretted viewing platform at Beacon Hill’s highest point standing 298 metres above sea level.

From the summit descend the steep northern slope of the hill following a waymarked footpath down through woodland.

Soon you reach the Lickey Hills Golf Course in a deep valley in the middle of the hills. Taking care to watch out for people playing golf and where they are sending their balls, follow the footpath waymarks straight across the course.

On the far side of the course you reach a bridleway where you turn right walking through woodland to reach the road running north into Birmingham from the top of the Lickey Range.

Upon reaching this road turn right and walk downhill towards the roundabout between Rednal on the southern edge of Birmingham and the Worcestershire village of Cofton Hackett.

Walk around the roundabout and continue straight along the road on the far side heading past the pub and along the residential road beside Cofton Park.

Soon you reach the new estates constructed where the Worcestershire segment of the Longbridge Austin Rover factory once stood.

Here turn right and walk along a road towards some craggy sandstone outcrops, which stand above the cutting where the railway south west from Birmingham runs.

Cross this line and ascend into Birmingham and up onto where the Midlands Watershed Ridge comprises the steep southern slope of the Birmingham Plateau.

Continue along the road nearing the southern edge of West Heath, but before you reach it turn left along a suburban road lined with 1930s vintage semis.

Carry on straight along this road until you reach the towerblocks stood on the far side of the road which marks the northern edge of Longbridge’s new town centre built on the site of the old car factory.

Turn left here and walk towards Longbridge Railway Station and the Bristol Road beyond where there are buses.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Longbridge has frequent train services (4 an hour as of April 2026 when this walk was written) north on the Cross City Line towards central Birmingham and beyond to Sutton Coldfield and Litchfield. There are also two southern services each hour to both Redditch and Bromsgrove via Barnet Green. The Sunday service is slightly less frequent than the weekday one. Longbridge is also served by the 45 and 47 bus services to the city centre via Kings Norton and Stirchley, and the 61 and 63 to the city centre via Northfield and Selly Oak. These are very frequent services everyday of the week. There are also other services like the 27 and 49 which are less frequent, roughly once or twice an hour which run diagonally across the the conurbation to various destinations rather than south to north.