Rushall Canal Walk

3 miles (4.9 km)

This walk or cycle takes you along the Rushall Canal in Walsall. You can start the walk from the car park near Hayhead Wood which is a short distance to the east of the canal.
Follow the towpath south for about 3 miles, passing the Calderfields Golf Club and Walsall Golf Club before meeting up with the Tame Valley Canal near the M6 and Grove Vale.... Continuing south would bring you to the lovely Sandwell Valley Country Park if you felt like extending your walk.
Walk Report October 20th 2026 By Andrew Collins:
We parked near Hayhead Wood, a short distance from the Rushall Canal, and made our way down to the towpath to begin the walk south. I was pleasantly surprised by how green and peaceful this stretch felt, considering how close it is to the built-up areas of Walsall and the motorway network. The canal runs through leafy sections and open patches of countryside, with trees often leaning over the water and plenty of places to pause and watch the ducks and moorhens. I enjoyed the contrast between the quiet waterway and the busy roads that are never too far away.
The Rushall Canal has an interesting history. It opened in 1847, linking the older Daw End Branch of the Wyrley and Essington Canal with the Tame Valley Canal. The new connection helped move coal from the Cannock coalfields towards Birmingham’s expanding industries, and it also supplied water to the Tame Valley Canal, which carried large numbers of boats. Walking along the towpath today, it is easy to forget how important these narrow waterways were to the Black Country’s industrial growth. I found myself looking more closely at the bridges and canal structures, imagining the working boats that once travelled this route loaded with coal and other goods.
One of the distinctive features of the Rushall Canal is its flight of locks. The canal rises through nine locks over its roughly three-mile length, so boaters would have had a considerable amount of work to do when travelling between the two junctions. Along our section, the towpath offered a relaxed, level walk, although the canal itself has a very different character from the older contour canals nearby. I liked the way the straight stretches opened up views along the water, while the trees created shady, almost tunnel-like sections in places.
As we continued south, we passed the grounds of Calderfields Golf Club and then Walsall Golf Club. The greenery around the fairways blends into the canal corridor, making this a surprisingly leafy walk on the edge of town. I was pleased to see a grey heron standing patiently at the water’s edge, and there were smaller birds moving among the branches along the bank. The towpath is a good place to take things slowly, watch for wildlife and enjoy the simple pleasure of following the water without needing to navigate complicated paths or steep hills.
Eventually, the canal brought us towards the Tame Valley Canal near Grove Vale and the M6. The motorway makes its presence felt here, a reminder that the route runs through an urban landscape, but the meeting of the two canals is also an interesting point to reach. The Tame Valley Canal was opened in 1844 and was engineered with a more direct course, including deep cuttings and high embankments. It was part of the same effort to improve connections across the Birmingham Canal Navigations network as industry expanded and waterways competed with the railways.
This is an easy, straightforward towpath walk, ideal for a gentle outing or a short cycle ride. The industrial history gives the route extra interest, while the trees, canal wildlife and quieter green stretches make it feel far removed from the traffic nearby. If you have more energy, continuing along the Tame Valley Canal towards Sandwell Valley Country Park offers the chance to extend the day with more open space and nature. I found the Rushall Canal a good reminder that some of the Black Country’s most interesting industrial heritage can be explored at walking pace, right alongside its pockets of green countryside.