We are pleased to bring you a packed programme of summer walking with a difference. ‘Walk and talk’ offers you six town based guided walks with a local expert speaker. The walks will be at a pace to suit everyone. However, we advise sensible and appropriate footwear and clothing to be worn as at some times we will be walking on rough and uneven ground. Funded through Sandwell Active Travel Community grant. Please let us know that you are coming, so we can make sure that we have enough sighted guides.
Walk 1. Nature Mindfulness Guided Walk, Monday 11 August 10.30am –12.30pm at West Smethwick Park
Sophie from Wonder in Nature would like to invite you to join a Nature Mindfulness Guided Walk. Walks are led slowly and mindfully, using all of your senses to connect with nature. Practice mindful breathing techniques and gain a deeper connection with the natural environment. Feel relaxed and take away fascinating new insights that you could continue to use to benefit your wellbeing. Sophie welcomes all feedback that can make these walks more accessible to visually impaired people.
Meet outside the West Smethwick Park Pavilion at 10.30am. Please make your own way to the park. The following buses stop nearby: 48, 48A, 54, 80 and 87.
Walk 2. The Monk’s Path, Monday 18 August 11.30am, Sandwell Valley
To get us into the habit (pardon the pun) of walking, we have organised a walk in Sandwell Valley to visit the ruins of the Benedictine Monastery and the site of the former Sandwell Hall. The hall stood in the same place as the priory and some of its older walls were incorporated into the priory’s foundations. We will also visit the nearby Sandy Well from which we get the name Sandwell.
The walk will be led by local historian Frank Caldwell who will tell us some interesting, entertaining and sometimes cheeky stories about the area.
Meet outside Sandwell Valley Visitor Centre at 11.30am or contact the office if you want to accompany us from the Dartmouth Park Pavilion earlier.
The walk is expected to take about an hour and then we will return to the café where you can buy lunch.
Walk 3: Tipton Canal Walk. Monday 1 September, 11.30am
As part of the walk and talk sessions taking place over the next few weeks, we have organised two canal side rambles with links to local history and our industrial heritage. Local historian and author Keith Hodgkins will guide these two walks. Each walk should take an hour to complete and will take in historical sites in this ever-changing landscape.
We will be walking in the steps of those who have gone before us and with one foot in the past and the other in the future we will be exploring sections of the canal network in both Tipton and Great Bridge.
The Tipton Walk will follow the main line and contour canal and some parts of the lost canal which linked up Tipton with the Walsall network.
We will meet at the famous Fountain public house on Owen Street (42 bus from West Bromwich) at 11.30am and return to the pub for lunch at about 12.30 (ham or cheese and onion cobs are available at £1.50). Let Nigel know if you want one as best if they are pre ordered.
Walk 4: Great Bridge Canal Walk, Monday 8 September, 11.30am
The second canal walk is on Monday 8 September. We will meet at the bus stop next to the new marketplace in Great Bridge (bus 74 from West Bromwich) at 11.30am. Discover a hidden side of Great Bridge and its industrial heritage. The walk ends at the Rising Sun public house, where cheese and onion or ham salad cobs are available at £3 each – again best to pre order with Nigel.
Walk 5: Poets and places, Wednesbury, Monday 15 September, 11.30am
A walk and talk with Brendan Hawthorne – local performer, author, musician and poet – to learn about some of the interesting former industrial sites within Wednesbury. These will include St Bartholomew’s Church, places linked to the little known about pottery industry, former steel works, and local artworks.
The walk will culminate at an outdoor amphitheatre where Brendan will perform some of his poems and talk to us about other interesting places and facts about the town.
Following the performance, we return to the town centre and to the Bellwether Pub where you can buy your lunch.
Meet at the town square near the bus station at 11.30am.
Walk 6: Blackheath Walk
Details of this walk to be confirmed.
Walk regularly with SVI
Dartmouth Park walks every Thursday from 12 noon
Come and stroll with us on our regular walk around Dartmouth Park and the Sandwell Valley every Thursday lunchtime. We will meet at the main gates of Dartmouth Park near the War Memorial at 12 noon. Following a leisurely stroll, we will finish at a local hostelry for refreshments at 1.30pm to 2.30pm. Please tell us you are coming on any of the above walks in advance so that we can make sure we have enough sighted guides to help us get around safely.
