Distance: 6.7 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

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

Walk from Wood End near Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire to Dorridge in West Midlands county, via the Umberslade estate.

The Story

Route Notes

Getting Back

Umberslade Landscape

Arrayed near the Midlands Watershed where it runs north towards the Meriden Gap lies the remains of the Umberslade Estate between Tanworth-in-Arden and Hockley Heath.

The story of this part of the Midlands over the last two centuries is told through the estate’s topography. A manor house has existed on the site of the hall since the 12th Century. The bulk of the current building was constructed between 1695 and 1700. Horace Walpole, an 18th Century Whig politician, and the author of the “first gothic novel” The Castle of Otranto visited in 1751 and disliked the place describing it as “odious”. Walpole’s host the 1st Baron Archer, a fellow politico, constructed the Umberslade Obelisk on the brow of a low ridge slightly north of the hall in 1749. It is now a highly prominent landmark on the M40 which runs just beneath it. 

In 1826 the house passed out of the aristocracy to Edward Bolton King who was then one of Warwickshire’s MPs. At the time the house was partially derelict so he had it refurbished. He also funded the restoration of the nearby Umberslade Chapel in 1834 in red brick, which today still stands, but in a semi ruinous condition next to a bridleway on a farm adjacent to the obelisk.

Just north of the farm where the old chapel lies, below the village of Hockley Heath, lies Umberslade Baptist Church. This large church constructed from limestone in a mid-Victorian gothic style opened in 1877. It was partially paid for by the Umberslade estate when George Frederick Muntz owned it. He was a Baptist convert, unusual amongst the Victorian squirearchy. Today it is derelict only opened occasionally for special occasions, pretty much the only non-conformist chapel of its size, age and scale left in the Midlands. It was, carefully maintained still by the Historic Chapels Trust. The building was from its closure in 1999 until the trust was wound down in 2026 cared for by the Historic Chapels Trust. With extensively conservation undertaken in the 2000s and work recently performed to maintain its wooden former Sunday school. In terms of its size and appearance it is reminiscent of Todmorden Unitarian Church in the West Yorkshire part of the South Pennines which was also cared for by the Historic Chapels Trust and is now managed by its own charity.    

During the 20th Century Umberslade Hall passed out of domestic use and the estate was broken up. The hall was used for corporate offices for a time, with BSA Motorcycles – Triumph Motorcycles leasing it in 1967 to house their joint R&D department at a time when the two economically struggling firms, both based in the West Midlands, were looking to merge.

Today Umberslade Hall has been divided up into private flats. Its grounds are private and inaccessible, though a footpath runs just to the south. What was the long grand avenue approaching the hall from Tanworth-in-Arden is a bridleway and can be walked down. To the right, if approaching from Tanworth, there are views towards the southernmost reaches of Warwickshire and the northern part of the Cotswolds escarpment, rising out of the flat River Avon plain.  

Route Notes

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 Wood End near Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire to Dorridge in West Midlands county, via the Umberslade estate, starts from Wood End Railway Station.

Exit the station onto the main road through Wood End and turn left walking past the Warwickshire Lad pub.

Just past the pub on the right hand side of the road turn right down a driveway and along a footpath running downhill through woodland.

Soon you emerge onto a meadow and turn right, to a place where you cross the railway line. Tanworth-in-Arden stands on a low hill above you.

Turn left and walk uphill through a series of meadows until you reach the side of the road on the edge of Tanworth-in-Arden.

Here cross the road and turn left walking down the lone straight driveway heading towards Umberslade Hall.

Soon the tarmac section of the driveway ends and you ascend through woodland to reach expansive parkland, with views south towards the Cotswolds, as you approach the hall.

On reaching a road opposite the gateway leading into the grounds of Umberslade Hall turn right, then left down a footpath running along the hall’s perimeter.

Cross a stile and walk across a series of meadows to reach a bridge which carries the M40 over the footpath.

Having walked beneath the motorway, turn right up a short, steep, path up to the top of the hill where the Umberslade Obelisk stands high above the motorway.

Just past the Obelisk turn left and cross a country lane picking up a bridleway, past a farmyard, walking past the ruinous old red brick Umberslade Chapel which is surrounded by a graveyard.

Beyond the farm you pick up a path running straight across a series of fields to approach the large, impressive, now derelict and until recently cared for by the Historic Chapels Trust, Umberslade Baptist Church which lies near the southern edge of Hockley Heath.

Enter the churchyard surrounding the chapel and walk around the building to reach a tree lined walkway which leads to the edge of Hockley Heath.

Once on the edge of Hockley Heath, turn right and walk along the edge of the village, past Umberslade Baptist Church’s modern successor, to reach the main road.

Here turn left and walk through the centre of Hockley Heath crossing the canal which runs through the middle of the village. 

Past the second pub in the village centre, cross the road and head right down a residential road.

On the edge of Hockley Heath you leave the road and head straight ahead through a gate and along a footpath past a newly built housing estate.

Continue along the footpath past the estate crossing a series of meadows and through some knotted woodland until you reach the side of a road.

Upon reaching the road walk straight ahead, before crossing over to pick up a track running between fields on the far side.

Soon you reach a stile which you cross to enter a paddock, before heading to the far side, and clambering over a further stile.

Once on the far side you turn left, picking up a well worn path to the left until you reach a lane on the edge of Dorridge.

Walking across the lane you pick up a wide, well maintained footpath on the far side nearing Dorridge Park.

Once in Dorridge Park turn left walking, broadly alongside a stream, to reach the far side of the park which is lined by small recently constructed housing estates.

Here you reach a main road where you turn right and head towards Dorridge village centre, which you reach walking beneath the railway line.

Turn right here to reach Dorridge Railway Station and the adjacent bus stops.

This is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

At the time of writing in April 2026 Dorridge is served by frequent train services north west towards Birmingham and the Black Country via Solihull, and south east towards Warwick, Leamington and Banbury and onwards down to London Marylebone. There are also hourly trains to Stratford-upon-Avon. The village is served by buses which are roughly every fifteen minutes on weekdays and Saturdays clockwise and anticlockwise to Solihull town centre (half hourly until late afternoon on Sundays) and hourly until around 18:00 on weekdays and Saturdays to Coventry.