Walks you can reach from Tame Bridge Parkway by train

Remarkable survivals (Pelsall and Pelsall North Common). Greenway paths, common land, woodland and field edges. Former mining country with industrial heritage; route follows McClean Way greenway on former South Staffordshire Railway.

Time: 4h–8h

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk. Barbed wire fencing; complicated road sections with M6 Toll crossing.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Canal towpath (Worcester and Birmingham Canal). Kings Norton was site of a 1642 English Civil War battle.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal.

Time: 2h30–5h

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Canal towpath, urban paths and suburban streets. Walk along the Worcester-Birmingham Canal from city centre to Cadbury's model village.

Waterway: four fifths along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal.

Time: 2h–4h

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Cannock Chase with rugged sandstone plateaus, steep dells, forest tracks, heathland and residential areas. Cannock Chase is UK's smallest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty established 1958 as green lung for coal mining communities; Littleton Colliery closed December 1993.

Time: 3h–5h30

Warnings: Golf players on course; care of cars on quieter roads.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Canal towpaths throughout — rough track, grassy banks, tarmac sections — passing under multiple road and rail and motorway bridges. Follows the Ridgacre Branch Canal, joins the Walsall Canal, and finishes at the canal basin beside the New Art Gallery in Walsall town centre.

Waterway: almost all along the Walsall Canal.

Time: 3h30–6h30

Warnings: One dismantled footbridge requires a small detour via lockgate or road-bridge gap.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Largely paved paths, pavements and canal towpaths through residential streets, industrial estates, a nature reserve and a former-railway path. Route follows a section of the Monarch’s Way long-distance footpath. Well-served public transport returns to the start.

Time: 2h30–5h

Warnings: A quarter urban. Footpath across wasteland between Walsall and Wolverhampton is ill-kempt with fly-tipping; gap-in-fence section near the mound is tricky to navigate.

Walk details: Walk Midlands (tips, photos and local insights).

Recommended: A level, well-surfaced canal towpath walk with no locks, easily wheeled and with a residential section at the Coseley end and pavement along a main road in central Wolverhampton. Can be a little overgrown in places in summer. Follows the Birmingham Canal towpath. Lots of waterfowl along the canal, including herons, mallards, swans, moorhens and coots. No facilities until the Wolverhampton end. Trains and buses at both ends.

Waterway: nine tenths along the Birmingham New Main Line Canal.

Time: 2h–3h30

Warnings: A quarter urban.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: A place of quiet delight, and in autumn, a painter's palette spilled across the woodland floor; The Chase... is a place of enchantment. A tried-and-tested off-road walk through woodland nature parks, alongside a railway and brooks, over the open heath and forest of Cannock Chase, with brief, benign urban sections. Gentle climbs; no stiles, only gates and steps and bridges. A worn verge provides safe passage near Hazelmoor Farm. Crosses Cannock Chase, noted for its deer. Uses well-used local paths not marked on OS maps (look for Stookie's Alley and other unmarked turnings). A detour via Canrug-2 reaches the visitor centre.

Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.

Time: 3h–6h

Lunch: A choice of refreshment, a pub chain and a large supermarket in Hednesford mid-route, plus a detour to the Chase visitor centre.

Warnings: A sign on the Chase reports cattle as summer visitors.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: Mostly good surfaces with a mix of recorded and unrecorded but well-surfaced tracks, crossing Cannock Chase access land and plus field paths at Bednall. Stiles and some flooding where the metalled path follows the Rising Brook; all road crossings are safe though not all have pedestrian control. A road-free alternative that misses the inn at Slitting Mill; follows the Heart of England Way to Springslade Lodge; a short detour reaches the Visitor Centre.

Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.

Time: 5h–9h30

2 lunch spots: cannock-chase — the Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, or the Springslade Lodge

Warnings: Stiles and possible cattle on the field paths at Bednall; the path alongside the Rising Brook can be flooded; a short challenging section through the access land.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 4h30–9h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 4h30–9h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A thoroughly relaxing, safe and direct route, the bulk along canal towpath (three canals and two junctions) with linking pavement, alleyway and park walks. The towpath is narrow and unsurfaced beyond The Droveway; mostly surfaced and in good condition elsewhere. Some steps and avoidable with a short detour. Follows the Birmingham, Staffs & Worcs and Shropshire Union canals, passing interesting bridges, locks and boatyards at Autherley and Aldersley junctions. A pleasant detour through Wheel Field Park. Two shops in Bilbrook.

Waterway: two thirds along the Birmingham New Main Line Canal.

Time: 2h30–5h

Lunch: Two shops in Bilbrook mid-route.

Walk details: Slow Ways.