Category: Upcoming Events

Inspired by the long running ‘Walking the Stirchley Skull‘, the Shrewsbury Skull has been devised by members of Walkspace’s Shropshire contingent as a spooky walk within the historic setting of Shrewsbury Town Centre.

The Shrewsbury Skull was created by Paul Wakelam and Andrew Howe by superimposing a skull image on a map of the town centre, within the course of the River Severn, and then walking the outline in the real world on Halloween night last year. This year they’re ready for company.

The walk will take place on Friday 31st October at 7:30pm and will start and finish outside St Chad’s Church, a 13 minute walk from the train station. The walk is free to attend and open to both locals and those from further afield. Costumes are entirely optional but if you wish to bring a skull-themed object or mask you are very welcome to do so.

Please book your place by emailing: walkspace.uk@gmail.com

This is a circular walk of approximately 2 and a quarter miles, mostly over pavement, with some moderately steep inclines and one set of steep steps. Toilets are available in pubs along the route. The walk will last around 90 minutes with the option of retiring to one of Shrewsbury’s many fine pubs for a de-spook.

Please note, the original Stirchley Skull walk will NOT be taking place this year. We are officially passing the torch. If you wish to organise your own skull walk with friends, you can do so wherever you live by following these instructions.

PLEASE NOTE: This walk starts at 10am NOT 11am as previously advertised. This is to avoid the hottest hours of what will be a very hot day. RESPECT THE SUN! If you wish to attend you MUST email: walkspace.uk@gmail.com

Three years ago we led a pilgrimage to Spaghetti Junction to celebrate its 50th birthday. We explored some of the ways the famous motorway interchange could be considered a sacred site, a “confluence of confluences” and a gateway to the underworld. Great as it was, this walk barely scratched the surface and so we’re making a return visit for this year’s Summer Solstice. We hope you’ll join us to honour the Great God Interchange.

In recent years the artist and writer Jen Dixon has joined the ranks of Walkspace and her work reveals new layers of sacred significance to the site now known as Spaghetti Junction. Her INTERCHANGE field guide posits the site at Gravelly Hill as not merely a motorway junction, but a place of “physical and spiritual interchange over hundreds, if not thousands, of years.”

Jen will be joined by Andy Howlett to help untangle the watercourses, crossings, caverns and megaliths that come together to form this utterly unique environment. Discover the Hawthorn Brook. Cross the ancient ford. Enter the Dwarf Holes. Honour the Holy Oak. Draw back the thin veil between worlds and leave your offering.

The pilgrimage will begin at 10am in Chamberlain Square, central Birmingham on Saturday 21st June. Meet Andy and Jen beside the fountain. From here we will make our way down to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal which we shall follow all the way to Spaghetti Junction along the towpath – a distance of about 3.5 miles. After observances round and about the Interchange, we’ll aim for a picnic lunch at around 12:30-1pm beside Aston Reservoir.

To book please email: walkspace.uk@gmail.com

Bring a packed lunch, plenty of water, sun cream and wear sturdy shoes. The terrain is mostly pavement and towpath with some uneven and sloping sections, cobbles and narrow tunnels. Buses 65, 66, 67 and 68 all take you back to Birmingham and can be caught on Lichfield Road. Aston Station is also a 10-15 minute walk from the walk’s finishing point. For your evening festivities we heartily recommend Acid Solstice in Digbeth.

PLEASE NOTE THIS WALK HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO 15TH DECEMBER. IT WILL NO LONGER GO AHEAD ON THE 8TH.

Dudley might not be the first place people associate with hiking and outdoor adventure. It is predominantly an urban area best known for its zoo, museum and out-of-town shopping centre, but there is a wilder, rockier side to the borough too. Dudley’s geography is overwhelmingly shaped by a dramatic hill range spanning over 6 miles from Sedgley Beacon in the north to Rowley Regis in the south.

Reaching heights of over 250 meters above sea level, this rocky ridge contains an abundance of green space amongst the commercial, cultural and residential districts. It’s an extremely rich and biodiverse landscape that does indeed lend itself to the type of outdoor adventuring more associated with national parks and mountain ranges.

For this public walk, artists Daniella Turbin and Andy Howlett will be demonstrating creative ways of exploring the southern half of the Rowley/Dudley hill range. They’ll be drawing on Daniella’s experience as a long-distance walker and rock climber, and they’ll be taking inspiration from the adventures of Dudley-born mountaineer and peace campaigner Bert Bissell, AKA “God’s Mountaineer”. Please note: no mountaineering experience required! Just a good pair of walking boots.

The artists will draw on their creative practices to explore how the remarkable geology of the hills determines so much about the landscape including what sort of plants can grow, how the land is used, what animal species can make their homes here, and even which directions the local rivers flow. They’ll demonstrate the intrigue to be found in the urbanised areas as well as the green spaces and they’ll explore some unexpected connections to other locations such as Ben Nevis, the Humber Bridge and Ancient Rome.

Join Andy and Daniella at 10am on Sunday 15th December (postponed from the 8th) at the Wolverhampton Road entrance to Bury Hill Park in Oldbury, B69 2BJ. The walk is about 5.5 miles long, finishing up at the market place on Dudley High Street at around 3:30pm. The walk is free to attend but booking is essential.

The terrain includes roads, pavements, rocky footpaths, grassy areas, stiles, steps and considerable inclines. Please dress accordingly for a winter walk and be prepared for some muddy sections. Bring a packed lunch as we’ll be stopping for a break at Bumble Hole nature reserve. Toilet facilities can be found at The Lakeside pub/restaurant near the start of the walk (if you ask nicely), at Bumble Hole visitor centre at the half way point, and in various establishments in Dudley town centre at the end.

This event is commissioned by Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust as part of their project Dudley’s Path to Nature Recovery.

Coventry is a place of striking architectural contrasts where different historical periods collide. This is well known in the city centre where medieval timber framed buildings rub shoulders with Brutalist monoliths, but it’s also true in some of the less visited areas outside of the ring road. The area surrounding Charterhouse just southeast of the city centre is a case in point: a landscape of monuments both ancient and modern where layers of history pile up and overlap.

Charterhouse itself is a recently restored 14th Century monastery and just over the road is a Victorian “garden cemetery” and arboretum built on the site of a former quarry. In stark contrast to these is the hyper-modern Technology Park with its pristine lawns and the colossal waste disposal centre with its belching chimney. Residential estates occupy the sites of former car factories and a Victorian viaduct stands ignored in the woodland.

The landscape tells the story of a rapidly expanding city with ever evolving land requirements. Snaking its way through the confusion is the River Sherbourne and an intriguing network of woodland pathways and tunnels; portals between the different worlds. It’s rich pickings for urban walkers and it’s in this spirit of curiosity that you are invited to come and experience a different side of Coventry.

Walkspace members Adele Mary Reed and Andy Howlett have devised some creative walking prompts to guide the group’s exploration of this fascinating area. The prompts will draw attention to the changing ambiences and unexpected juxtapositions by focusing on different senses and breaking out of our habitual ways of walking.

Meet at Coventry Train Station’s Visitors Centre at 13:30 on Saturday 28th September. The distance is approximately 3 miles and we’ll finish up at the Anglican Chapel for refreshments in London Road Cemetery at roughly 15:30.This is a ticketed event commissioned by Historic Coventry Trust. Tickets are £10 for adults, £5 for under 18s. Walkspace members get a 50% discount (contact Andy or Adele for discount code). Ticket price includes juice, biscuits and hot drinks at the end.

The terrain will be pavement, lawn and woodland with some uneven paths and moderate inclines. Steps will be avoided. This event is suitable for age 12+. Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Toilets are available in Coventry Station at the start of the walk and the Anglican Chapel at the end.

The West Midlands isn’t very well served for ancient monuments or stone circles. Those wishing to mark the solstices at such sites might have to travel out to the Rollright Stones on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border or Mitchell’s Fold on the far side of Shropshire. But what about those of us in the urban centres unable to make such trips? One option is to make use of the municipal stone circles and megaliths which adorn many of our public parks, such as the stunning Bordesley Henge in Birmingham. This is something we’ve done in the past, but this summer we’re going to try something different.

Suburban Birmingham may not be famed for its neolithic sacred stones, but it does contain an abundance of another type of ancient rock. We are of course referring to the erratic boulders which were deposited here by glacier 450,000 years ago. These lumps of volcanic rock travelled from the mountains of North Wales during a severe ice age and now litter the parks, gardens, churchyards and roadside verges of 21st Century suburbia. (For our previous boulder walks see here and here)

Thanks to the efforts of the Erratics Project, the boulder locations have been plotted on a handy online map. From this we can see that some of the boulders of the western suburbs are arranged in something of a circular formation, albeit spread across many miles. And there we have it. The West Midlands DOES have a stone circle, completely unique and several hundred thousand years older than Stonehenge.

To activate this newly discovered ancient monument we shall walk the entire circuit, anoint each of the 16 stones and read aloud from Alyson Hallett’s “Stone Monologues”. We’re very grateful to the Great Stone Inn in Northfield for granting us access to the historic village pound, home of The Great Stone itself, the first erratic boulder of our walk. The 17th Century village pound was formerly used to hold stray animals but it’s now used for stray boulders and we can’t think of a better place to begin this momentous walk.

At 13 miles this is the longest public walk we’ve ever done so it’s just as well the Solstice happens to fall on the longest day of the year. The walk takes us out to the far western fringes of the city with great views of rural Worcestershire. As well as the historic stones, the route also takes in the Frankley Reservoirs, home of Birmingham’s drinking water; a ruined castle; a holy well; the Severn/Trent watershed; a 12th Century church, and some spectacular views of the M5. We encourage you to bring along a pocket-sized stone of your own for the journey.

Meet outside the Great Stone Inn in Northfield at 10am, Thursday 20th June. We aim to finish back at the Great Stone by 6pm for refreshments and a much needed sit down. Wear your sturdiest walking boots and come prepared for a 13 mile trek through suburbs, country parks and some semi-rural terrain. There will be stiles, steps and some moderate inclines. Bring sunscreen, a packed lunch and PLENTY of drinking water. Please don’t underestimate the challenges of an all-day walk on a summer’s day. Public restrooms are next to non-existent so we recommend walkers of all genders have strong bladders and/or be comfortable finding somewhere to go discretely in the wooded sections.

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Please let us know you’re coming by emailing: walkspace.uk@gmail.com