Middleton

This walk of 6.7 miles (10.8 km) was led by Mary Coles on Sunday 12th March, and started from the car park at RSPB Middleton Lakes Nature Reserve (entrance on Bodymoor Heath Rd, Tamworth, B78 2BB. Drive on past the Aston Villa training ground. £3 pay and display charge per car or free to RSPB Members. Note also that you cannot get to the RSPB Car park by driving through Middleton Hall Car Park even though some satnavs suggest otherwise!)

Description: Very flat and mainly on gravel/tarmac paths through sections of the RSPB Middleton Lakes Nature Reserve and Kingsbury Water Park, along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal and through woods. Close to the end, the route passes Middleton Hall where there is a convenient café for post-walk refreshment.

NOTE TO DOG WALKERS: for parts of the route through the RSPB Nature Reserve dogs must be on a short lead. There are other parts of the reserve where dogs are not allowed at the route described here avoids these. 

This walk is from The Green Man in Middleton (Church Lane, Middleton, B78 2AN) and is about 7.5 miles. The route leaves Middleton through some muddy fields, then follows on to Drayton Bassett, along some farmland and then onto the pathways of RSPB Middleton Lakes. Our route does a lap of the lakes (dogs are not allowed on this lap, but there are other routes in RSPB Middleton Lakes on which dogs are welcome. Alternatively, if you have a dog you can just miss Middleton Lakes and continue straight on to the canal). After the lap of the lakes, the route continues along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal for about a mile, and then follows a road past the Bodymoor Heath Training Ground of Aston Villa Football Club and back to the main Birmingham to Tamworth Road. After crossing the road, the route cuts along some country lanes before joining a footpath and returning to Middleton.