Galton Valley

What to spot in the Galton Valley

Wildlife: Wildflowers, including common spotted orchid and cowberry, birdlife and water voles.
Opening times: Open all year.
Access/Conditions: Towpath and trails provide access for anglers, walkers and cyclists. The cycleway provides easier gradients and surfaces suitable for wheelchairs.
Facilities: Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre and Nature Trail.
How to get there: Easily accessible by road and train from Smethwick. The A457 runs alongside the Valley.
Parking: Car parks can be found at the rear of Smethwick High Street, Great Arthur Street and Bridge Street.

Only minutes from Birmingham City Centre, Galton Valley is a special place for spotting wildlife and enjoying a wide variety of leisure activities. Formerly farmland and natural heathland, pockets of purple heather and gorse survive today. In spring, early displays of bulbs are the first highlight and bluebells carpet the woodland, while in early summer raspberries grow wild near the remains of a former gatehouse. Sparrow hawks and kestrels patrol the canal banks and pipistrelle bats hunt under Brasshouse Lane Bridge.

The industry of the West Midlands was founded on the coal seams of the Black Country and the Birmingham Canal Navigations provided a cheap and effective means of moving heavy goods. In 1767 James Brindley surveyed the area to link Birmingham with the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. The canal nurtured new industry along its banks and soon new branches and a second canal were added to become the heart of the country’s canal system.