The slow train from Smethwick
Keen to escape rural mud after a wet winter, we caught the train into Birmingham for an urban wander and, for one of us, an unscheduled swim.
It’s no picture-perfect Cotswold stroll, but the towpath between University Station and Smethwick Galton Bridge had the appeal of being surfaced and flat. Perfect for four ageing doggy paws and for the stamina of a four-year-old human.
I was happy too, because I love exploring edgelands and neglected corners of cities: they reveal so much about what a place is really like today, and what it was like in the past. Canals offer the perfect walking route to cross this landscape because they form a kind of living archaeological trench along which you can walk through an area’s industrial history.