11th November –
Walsall - Wolverhampton Canal Walk & West Midlands Bits
Today’s trip was a trip towards the West Midlands to walk another section of the vast canal network in that area, with a focus on the route from Walsall towards Wolverhampton, following the Walsall canal & Wyrley and Essington Canals. The day began with the 05:56 service from Grateley (autumn timetable) to Basingstoke with a quiet 159012 & 158887 where it was a cold start with a ground frost. At Basingstoke I sat in the waiting room on platform 4 (because why sit/stand outside in the cold when there is a heated waiting room available?) before the Manchester train with voyagers 220010 & 221128 on this lightly loaded service (at least in coach B of the 221).
These voyagers took me to Banbury, where I stepped back to board an unknown Chiltern service (as allocations weren’t showing on RTT, nor were train lengths). Thankfully it wasn’t a 2-coach special as 168321 & 168002 rolled in to take me to Birmingham Moor Street, with my good friend Jan joining me at Dorridge. We had a fast walk between stations in Birmingham to board 350267 at New Street on a Rugeley train to take us towards Walsall, going the slow way via Soho on a quiet train (although at this time of the day I suspect most flow is inward to the city).
220014 at Banbury
The walk began from Walsall station, as we swung via Boots & Greggs on the main street of Walsall (making use of the O2 App freebie sausage roll) before joining the Walsall Canal at the town basin (near the Premier Inn) with the walk towards Bridgeman Street bridge where the town arm joined the main canal. We turned north to follow the towpath in the Birchills area of the town, climbing the lock flight and crossing an old railway alignment (an old route from Walsall to Wolverhampton via Heath Town). The Walsall canal came to an end at Birchills Junction where it flowed into the Wyrley and Essington Canal.
To save a job for another walking adventure I wanted to do a little double back along the Wyrley and Essington Canal towards an access point at Forest Lane, passing the TX Maxx warehouse and going over the Chase line on a canal aqueduct (getting lucky with a Rugeley bound train not being too long to wait). On reaching the access point, we did a U-turn and headed back towards Birchills Junction (just means when I get round to walking the rest of the Wyrley and Essington Canal towards Brownhills I can go direct to this point from Walsall station).
350257 just about to go under the Wyrley and Essington Canal
Anyhow back to the Wyrley and Essington Canal, as we continued along the towpath (which was quite changeable in terms of surface quality from the smooth to the mud) as we headed in the direction of Bloxwich. Following the many curves of this canal via a couple of nature reserves and underneath the M6, carrying on towards Shortheath & Wednesfield. On the outskirts of Wednesfield, things went wrong as we came across a loose black dog (at the time I didn’t think anything of it, thinking it was simply ahead of some people I saw in the background), but it randomly bit Jan on his leg & arm. Eventually someone came looking for the dog (although he claimed it was his mates and smelt strong of drugs), but the damage had been done.
We continued along the canal, flipping sides near Heath Town and the Bentley Bridge Leisure Park, going over a railway (which was in a tunnel), underneath the remains of the old railway route from Walsall & underneath the line used by the Birmingham – Tame Bridge – Wolverhampton – Crewe services which are getting cut back to Stafford from December (something I’m not looking forward to as it means on a Sunday the first LNR service gets into Birmingham nearly 2 hours later). But it means that section of line goes from a regular hourly service to something like 3 trains a day (2 early morning Birmingham – Liverpool & a Shrewsbury – Birmingham service).
Wyrley and Essington Canal in the Wednesfield (Wolverhampton) area
The canal came to an end at Horseley Fields Junction where it met the Main Line of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and we headed south along the BCN before following some roads to reach Phoenix Park and a walk-in NHS centre. After bidding farewell to Jan as he waited to be seen (more a precaution just in case that random dog had any diseases) I headed towards the main road to jump on a route X8 service to Wolverhampton (National Express bus 6762). Traffic was very heavy, and I decided to jump off at the stop before the bus station (knowing that the bus goes a long way round to access the bus station and it’s probably just as quick to walk).
I reached Wolverhampton station just as the kickball finished so a large police presence to prevent the two sets of fans from attempting to fight each other, and onto winner 196105 from Shrewsbury (I dread to think how busy the next London train would have been with the crowd on platform 4). This 196 took me to Birmingham New Street where I headed out of the station to the tram stop, moving towards Town Hall as it was a bit quieter.
196105 at Birmingham New Street
The trams were in a state of semi-collapse with a lot of bunching of services (something like 5 trams arrived within 10 minutes), with 2 of those trams getting spun at Library to head back towards Wolverhampton (not sure if anything got spun at New Street). Only tram of interest for me was tram 27 which I needed for a mile, that was cleared with a run to Brindleyplace, returning on tram 53 to Grand Central New Street (where it got very busy due to the Christmas markets). After swinging via Tesco for some dinner items I headed to the station to board a late running 196106 back towards Wolverhampton (sadly not required but I needed to escape the chaos of the city centre).
At Wolverhampton I had a short fester before dud 196110 rolled in from Shrewsbury, which I turned down due to having a large crowd waiting for it, instead I headed to platform 3 to gamble with a voyager. Thankfully when 220021 rolled in I managed to grab a seat at a table in coach F for the trip back towards Birmingham, where I stayed on board all the way towards Basingstoke to avoid playing Chiltern roulette.
West Midlands Metro Tram 31 at the Town Hall Stop
The voyager did have a good turnover of passengers at Birmingham New Street before emptying out at Coventry before refilling at Leamington Spa & Banbury as it headed towards Basingstoke. Pretty uneventful other than a random delay near Bramley but that didn’t bother me as I reached Basingstoke, swinging via the Tesco Metro, sorry Tesco ‘Express’ in the town centre to grab something for the Sunday before boarding a very busy 159019 to take me to Grateley, followed by a relaxing walk home.
A nice day trip to the West Midlands, a good catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen since March time (other than the crazy dog incident). The canal had some nice views in places (and also places where the views weren’t the nicest, unless you like razor-wire/glass topped walls for old buildings.
12th November – Walking the Southampton & Dorchester Railway + Roman Road
For this Sunday I was in two minds at what I was going to do, even to the morning where it was a toss up between Hamworthy or Havant. Engineering works at Basingstoke meant my usual “wet day” escape route of heading to London was out of the window. In the end I decided to head towards Hamworthy as the forecast was slightly more promising. The day started with a drive to Romsey, before catching 158890 to Southampton Central where things went a bit wrong due to delays on the mainline. Although did give me a chance to witness parallel departures heading towards the tunnel with a pair of voyagers going from P1 and a very late running Winchester bound 444 going from P4.
The train to form the Weymouth service eventfully arrived (444012), departing 18 minutes late, throwing my 20-minute connection at Poole to a bus service in doubt (especially when the bus stop was around 5 minutes away from the railway station). The train was quite quiet as it sped towards Bournemouth, gaining some time but I decided not to worth risking the connection when it arrived at Poole, so I stayed on to Hamworthy, the train losing an extra 5 minutes near the sidings at the country end of Poole station meaning arrival was around 19 minutes late.
444012 departs Hamworthy Station
So, I was onto “plan B” as my original plan was to take the bus towards Wimborne to walk an old roman road back towards Hamworthy. Instead, I headed out of the station to the main road, going underneath an old railway bridge used by the Southampton & Dorchester railway route via Ringwood, gaining access to Upton Country Park. Within the park I followed an unofficial path for a steep climb onto the railway embankment doubling back over the railway bridge towards where the junction used to be (seemingly a dead-end path). I did a U-turn, passing over remains of some sleepers and followed the railway via some woodland to reach Upton, where on spotting a little Co-Op popped in there for some lunch items.
The next section of old railway had been built over in parts, so it was more urban paths before a little detour to reach a footbridge over the A35 into the Upton Heath Country Park, re-joining the railway route a short distance later. This section was very beautiful with the trees and the views of heathland, the path itself was a bit muddy in places but I was expecting it to be muddy. The path reached a bridge which crosses over the old Roman Road where a cycle route (number 25) joins the old railway line path (along with it now being called the “Castleman Trailway”), the path becoming more solid.
Remains of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway route within Upton Heath Country Park
I continued along the walk as it came out of woods and running alongside a busy road (on an embankment) towards the settlement of Broadstones. The former station site is now a leisure centre with no evidence remaining as the path goes away from the route of the old railway line due to modern developments before re-joining the route near a golf course. The next section was also very beautiful with the trees and being peaceful due to not being near any sort of road, instead near Delph Woods (although it was busy with other walkers, joggers & the odd cyclist).
The railway line path came to an end in Oakley on the outskirts of Wimborne (the Castleman Trailway continues to Ringwood, but the next few miles are more rural as the route of the railway has been lost until the West Moors area). I picked up an old road which runs close to the A31 (Wimborne Bypass) (labelled as Willett Road, something I presume got cut off when the bypass opened. Quite scenic with trees as it is slowly returning to nature, although the road surface was a bit ropey in places. This old road went underneath the A31 and eventually returned to being an active road for some farms & houses as I continued to take “Lambsgreen road”, a narrow country-lane which was in a very poor condition with potholes.
Remains of Willett Road in the Wimborne area
I soon picked up a bridleway which took me towards a bridge over the old Somerset & Dorset Joint railway, the section below in private land as I followed a path alongside the cutting to reach the delightfully named hamlet of Happy Bottom. I headed up a hill to reach the start of the old Roman Road via Happy Bottom Nature Reserve and headed in a south direction near Corfe Mullen. The road changed a couple times from being a bridleway to an actual road before heading into the Upton Heath Country Park, going underneath the railway line. Sadly, my gamble with the weather didn’t pay off as it started to rain when I was in this area, thankfully the woodland did help give me shelter but it wasn’t long before I had to put my raincoat on.
The Roman Road path came to a temporary end near the A35/A350 road as I headed via the road (getting a tad wet) and into Upton Country Park, dodging the various puddles in the car park to carry on with the roman road path in this beautiful area (somewhere on my list to revisit). I soon reached the area where I climbed up the embankment and annoyingly looking at Google Maps, I would have just missed a train, or it would have been quite tight. Not wanting to spend an hour at Hamworthy I decided to instead ditch heading back to that station and do an extra section of the walk, this time picking up a path which ran along the side of Holes Bay.
Southampton & Dorchester Railway Line bridge over the Roman Road in the Upton Heath Nature Reserve
This was a highlight for me as the views were wonderful, even if it was a bit atmospheric. I exited Upton Country Park onto a cycle path which carried on round the rim, close to the A350 road. Soon I reached the outskirts of Poole town centre and Poole Quay, close to the station where I decided to call it an end due to my phone battery being down to 10% (all the photographs) and it being time for the next train. The station was busy for 444022 to roll in from Weymouth, I got a decent extra legroom seat in the leading coach (one of the extra standard class seats which got installed when these units got refurbished reducing the size of 1st class) as it ran into the rear of 444008 at Bournemouth.
Always amazes me how many passengers at Bournemouth turn down the empty front unit to try and locate a seat in the rear unit which is busy. Anyhow darkness had fallen as the train carried on towards Southampton calling only at New Milton & Brockenhurst, and I alighted at Southampton Central, popping out of the station to the nearby Co-Op (noticing that since Tesco Express opened some prices have decreased, i.e., the meal deal is now £3.50 rather than £4.50). I grabbed what I wanted before heading back to the station, sitting in the waiting room on platform 4 relaxing until 165132 & 165112 rolled in from Portsmouth to take me to Romsey.
Holes Bay from the Upton Country Park
At Romsey, I headed to my car, changing my boots to a pair of trainers (better for me to drive home in), and drove home on a busy road. An enjoyable day, even if a bit unplanned due to the earlier delays. I would recommend the walk from Hamworthy towards Poole via Holes Bay for anybody who likes views of water. Sadly the long range forecast for this coming weekend looks a bit damp on both days, I live in hope that things might change for the better but it’s time to dust off some wet-weather plans.
Anyhow more photos can be found here: Flickr
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