Grebro two

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Grebro here.

I walked Brownhills to Great Wyrley although the latter should perhaps be Landywood as that is the name of the meeting point station. A mix of road walking, some with no pavement and countryside paths that were a challenge in places. I would suggest some changes and a plot that follows the available route rather than the definitive line.

Heading west along a deserted Coppice Lane on a Bank Holiday I did wonder if the industrial estate at the end would make it busy on working days. Engine Lane is a pleasant green lane walk through old coppice woodland. This was fine until at a choice of footpaths. The plot take the right hand fork, it started okay but got steadily difficult to locate a path. So I headed south and picked up the path along the south edge of the woodland to meet Lime Lane.

Heading north there is a roadside pavement. I regretted taking the footpath to the canal as the link from path to towpath is a steep bank, a slip could have had me in the canal. Again I suggest staying on the road because the link to the new bridge is not good.

It was perhaps my bad luck. The footpath through the site of Wyrley Grove Colliery is signed and a stile by the open gates into the now haulage yard gave confidence but being a Bank Holiday all the trucks were parked up and I failed to locate the path where it left the yard. (I gave up and walked along Grove Road to the opposite end of the path then approached it from that end.)

Finding the exit point, hidden behind a parked lorry it was an easier matter to cross another track, pass around the side of high security gates and follow the signed path into scrubland. (The sign on the gate reads "Please keep this gate closed at all times". So why not just have a fence?) The route here along Norton Canes FP 11 is not as shown on OS or the online map supplied by Staffordshire County Council. However a path is signed the 'Timberland Trail' and some work has been carried out to make a path available. Much of this path is also recorded as an unclassified road, hence the hedges bounding the overgrown route.

The track improves when it serves stables and houses. The house at Hall Farm shows severe signs of movement due to mining subsidence and a public pillar box offers confirmation we are on highway despite the walk around security gate preventing public vehicle access.

Things now improve with a pleasant walk along a farm track, Norton Canes FP23, Essington FP23 and finally Great Wyrley FP12. A section of road with no footway but a narrow verge this could be avoided by re-routing onto the adjacent lane used by the Forest of Mercia Trail.

The final section is along pavements to the rather desolate but urban Landywood rail station. It's not a fail but it's not an easy route, hence just two stars.

Direct, reasonably safe, but then at the same time seems like quite a long 7km! I started this walk from Brownhills and the start along Coppice Lane is a good one. You get a vague idea of how busy this place might have been 100 years ago with the remains of buildings and a railway bridge. But the walk is peaceful along the pavementless lane with only the occasional car that you can walk off the road to avoid. There is a small engineering works in the next street, Engine Lane and at the end you enter some woods. Following the footpath is a slight challenge because there are different options. The boggy paths are clearly used but not constantly. I saw no one when I crossed Wyrley Common. Crossing Lime Lane is easy and you join the not very well maintained Wulfrun Way. There is a bit of a scramble down to the canal which you follow for a while before going back on to Lime Lane to cross the bridge. Finding the footpath can be a challenge and there is even an entrance marked behind a security gate (you have to walk round it). From there the route is reasonably easy to follow via tracks, crossing a field and then walking along Jones Lane which is open and has a wide enough verge to step on to. In no time you are in residential Great Wyrley and get to the meeting place at Landywood Station. In summary, the route is direct, reasonably safe, quite offroad and has some nice sections. It's biggest failing is how easy it is to follow. I managed to follow it but felt an element of luck which you shouldn't. I think there must be a better route that, and this might sound strange, uses the lanes more as they would be easier to follow. Definitely room for improvement. 3 stars.

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