A pootle around Birmingham.

After the last cyclenation board meeting, held at the excellent FOE Warehouse building in Digbeth, Birmingham (a short hop from New St station, and even closer to Moor St) I thought I’d go for a ride around Birmingham. I’ve found in the past that a great way to get to know a place is to try to find the National Cycle Network without a map, as this can often be somewhat obscure!

I’ve come into Birmingham on NCN5 before, so I’ve got a vague idea where it went, and thought if I headed south I’d be able to pick it up and follow the route back up through the City Centre. So I soon found myself on the Ring Road – not a particularly nice place to cycle although I found that the drivers were pretty considerate – but failed to pick it up, so found myself having a bit of a tour around Balsall Heath, Sparkbrook & Moseley. I have to say I found cycling conditions around this part of Brum pretty poor. There was a lot of traffic, a distinct lack of cycling infrastructure such as ASLs, no signage for cyclists & no cyclists! A noticeable feature was poorly installed speed cushions, with practically every one featuring a pothole just where you would want to cycle. Peering down side roads I thought I might spot the odd 20mph zone, but none were to be seen. OK, it was raining a bit, but it was the first day without snow on the ground, so I thought the occasional Brummie might have ventured out.

However, perhaps my mood was affected by the light but persistent spots of rain that had been falling ever since I left the Warehouse. Having taken what looked like a good bet I found myself pointing at the city centre yet again, so I checked the map, turned around and headed for Edgbaston as this looked like another good bet. Climbed up through  Moseley and back down, avoiding small hooded kids who think it’s a good idea to walk out in the road and go ‘boo’ at cyclists, and found myself at the entrance to Cannon Hill Park.

This I recognised as part of Route 5, and in one of those twists of fate, as soon as I turned into the park it stopped raining, the sun came out, and the world seemed like a  nice place again, Ignoring my original plan I took the Rea Valley path south to Bourneville, enjoying the sunshine and dodging the odd pedestrian and dog. Coming out near a derelict factory site (and how sad it is to see so many derelict sites in Brum) I turned around and headed back towards the Centre. All went well until I reached the centre, passing a spot where I could have picked up the NCN first time round, but the signage that would have enabled that wasn’t there, and going through the centre the route was not very clear. Although there were some adventurous shared space sections, when you get to the Central Library things become somewhat confusing.

I had an inkling that I needed to be on the canal, so heading for Brindley Place was the right thing to do, The route follows the canal towpath, nice and straight for a mile or so, until branching out, one route heading for Wolverhampton, and, eventually, the Welsh Borders (must check with Wolves on Wheels how that’s getting on) while route 5 veers to the north. The junction point is readily identifiable, being next to Smethwick Galton Bridge station, with two lines intersecting, and a Thomas Telford bridge spanning the valley, apparently the longest single span bridge when it was built  - a remarkable place. So I climbed out of the canal cutting and found myself crossing the bridge which is now part  of the cycle route, and taking some slightly dodgy paths around a large motorway junction  found myself back on some residential streets before doubling back and getting into Sandwell Country Park. Although by now it was getting dark this did seem like a very pleasant place to cycle, and with decent surfaces underneath and a good light on my Brompton I felt confident to proceed. I did get slightly lost gong through the park, but as this took me past Sandwell Priory and subsequently on a long fast downhill on a minor road I felt this was par for the course. The route negotiates the M6/M5 junction successfully and coming out on the outskirts of Walsall I decided to head for the nearest train station. This turned out to be Tame Bridge Parkway (interesting how many rivers are called Tame, there being one in Manchester of course and I believe there is one in London with a similar name - then there are rivers called Teme, Team & Tamar. Another popular name for rivers is Afon, this being of course the Welsh name for river). A ticket back to New St turned out to be a mere £2 - a very fair price I thought - and I had time to find a decent pub and buy a kebab (sadly I didn't have time for a Balti) before heading home. 

So this was an interesting day's cycling in Birmingham, but I was left wondering, why is the on-road cycling in the city so crap, while the Sustrans routes are memorable and pretty decent? Perhaps someone from Birmingham Push Bikes could explain?


(Please note that in this blog post I am not intending to criticise (or praise) anyone unduly, just reporting honestly what I found)