Dudold two

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 75.00% of reviewers

Walked from Dudley to Oldbury. This is a good route, though the pavement walking out of Dudley is a little tedious. The best part is the canal walk - I am pleased to report that the towpath has been resurfaced to a width of over a metre since the earlier reviews, apart from some very short sections under road bridges. My reason for not going to 4 stars was mostly the amount of pavement walking, and now that the canal path has been widened, it looks possible that the west end of DUDOLD 1 could be combined with the east end of this one to make a more satisfying route.

The route out of Dudley is a little bit confusing, and a short section of the right hand pavement of Castle Hill is currently closed due to tram works (I walked along the edge of the road but wouldn't recommend that in the other direction. We soon reach the impressive footbridge over Duncan Edwards way, which has fine views, then follow residential streets to reach New Birmingham Road, which we cross using pelican crossings, then continue down Tividale Lane, which eventually takes us to the canal.

As I mentioned in the introduction, recent resurfacing means that the canalside path is excellent, and it takes us most of the way into Oldbury. We leave the canal at the Rounds Green Road bridge (a ramped path on the far side leads up to a zebra crossing, then use a pelican crossing to get into the Sainsburys car park, where there is a choice of routes out to the meeting point at the bus stops on Halesowen Street.

Apologies for the blurry photos - I managed to smudge the glass over the main lens on the phone somewhere near Dudley. This was my fifth and last route of a long day starting in Kinver, and all five are now snailed.

Starting by looping north out of the bus station and touching the main A459 route, rather than continuing along the main road, it turns off and follows quieter back roads towards Tividale. It crosses Duncan Edwards Way via a spectacular pedestrian bridge into Kates Hill. Dudley is quite high up to start with and you can see right over to Cannock Chase from the bridge which is rather nice. The next section through Kates Hill follows the pavements of a predominantly residential area before coming out at a crossing of the A4123. The next section is along the busy Tividale Road but the pavement is wide and there are options for stops and shops along the way. The penultimate section joins a branch of the Birmingham Canal, the towpath of which can be quite narrow in sections. The canal itself, on a Saturday afternoon was quite well used and although our fellow canal users seemed reserved, it wasn't unfriendly. The last section involved walking past the large Sainsburys where pedestrians seem an afterthought, to the meeting point at the bus stops in Halesowen Street in Oldbury. Trying to plot a Slow Way on this route is a particular challenge, as so much of the area is designed for cars rather than people, but it felt this struck a reasonable balance. It didn't score highly in the "enjoyable" category so maybe there's a better version out there, but until there is, I'd happily walk this one again.

Sadly I don't think it's possible to create an enjoyable and beautiful route between Dudley and Oldbury town centres. While this route keeps you away from the traffic on two 40mph roads, it takes you through areas which wouldn't feel particularly safe to women walking alone or even together. This includes stretch of canal which isn't well used, so although peaceful, in places it involves anyone who does want to pass you having to brush pretty much against you on the narrow muddy towpath. I wouldn't have felt safe on my own, so was grateful to be in the company of 3 other Slow Ways route reviewers while walking this route.

This is a functional rather than enjoyable walk. I walked it with David and Lorna below and can really appreciate both of their differing comments. The route works and is as they both describe it. I would walk it again but not for pleasure, merely as a means of getting from A to B in an area where I can't imagine there are significantly better alternatives.

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