River Rea, Mill Lane

Another local blog post, which nicely follows on from my last post. The River Rea flows through Birmingham, from the Waseley Hills to M6 J6. Yes, the famed Spaghetti Junction! Here, it joins the River Tame and eventually flows into the North Sea.

This post focuses on quite a short section of the Rea in Northfield, from the Lion Bridge to the junction of Quarry Lane and Mill Lane. There are two paths to walk; one is tarmacked and is a continuation of the Daffodil Walk. The other is muddy and very overgrown, but more fun! I walked the ‘cleaner’ path, but diverted to the mud path to get photos. They both start in approximately the same place, and end near each other too. You can either cycle down Mill Lane, or along the path through the woodland.

I didn’t know until a short while ago that there was actually a mill on this river, and I also didn’t know that there are some remains of it left, although they are buried by the plants here. This notice board needs a clean but you may be able to work out some of what it says. The quote in the middle is from a poem called Ode To A Secret River. The notice board is off the tarmacked track - I came upon a fork in the road and turned right. This path was slightly muddier, and has some steps. It is down these steps that the notice board can be found, and the end of the route is in sight.

This is another really nice walk in the ‘burbs. It doesn’t really take you anywhere important, but it makes a change from the standard footpath walk. It is a good place to escape from the bustle of life. It was so peaceful down by the river, I could've stayed there for a while.

There are a lot more photos on the Flickr site, I took quite a few! Some are blurry because I was taking them on my phone as I was walking.

This route is close to public transport links and there is no parking available. It is also near a residential area – please respect this. Also, please remember to take your rubbish with you – there are only one or two bins. This is a wildlife corridor, and there is a river running through it. If you have kids, be mindful of this. Also, the banks can be very slippy after rainfall. When I walked this route, the river was in flood, and although not deep it was going quite fast. The end of this walk is a busy traffic junction with 4-way signals, and no crossing. Please take care crossing here!!

You can get here by train, on the cross-city line to Northfield – this screengrab from Google Earth shows two ways to get here, depending on which platform you alight at.

You can also get the bus. The 27 from Kings Heath/Maypole stops on Abbeydale Road (where the 'Google' is on the pic) near Coleys Lane. Walk down Coleys towards the bridge. Follow the white line under the bridge, the entrance to this walk route is on the left. Take care when crossing here. You can also walk this route as a continuation of the Daffodil Park walk, which is what I did.

L x

Pics were taken by me, June 7th. Feel free to nick 'em. More pics here.