Route developed by: Ted Spiller
[1] Leaving the Academy, cross Edward Road to head down Jakeman Road. At the end, turn left into Willows Road to then turn right at the roundabout and walk along Edgbaston Road. Cross the road with care, to head toward the entrance of Cannon Hill Park (A) on your left.
[2] Stop at the park gates and look ahead to see the County Cricket Ground (B), on the right. Edgbaston opened in 1886 and the first Test Match played here saw the Australians all out for 36, their lowest ever score. Then turn left through the double gates into Cannon Hill Park (A).
The fields here were given to Birmingham in 1873, by Miss Louisa Ryland, for use as a public park. It is now the largest and best formal park in the city with many original features, and is well used by diverse communities.
[3] Follow the broad tarmac drive ahead past the Lodge (with plaque to Miss Ryland) and through an area with distinctive trees (dozens of varieties from around the world). At the fork keep left past the Garden Teashop (open most days) and continue on past the toy train station on you right, the octagonal bandstand (1880, with cast iron posts) and the C16 Golden Lion Tavern (moved here from Deritend but neglected for decades despite its Listed status).
[4] Keep ahead, then turn first left on an old tarmac path through trees to a junction of footpaths. Turn right, then right again, and follow the footpath downhill through trees and around a right-hand bend to a broad cross-path. This, the Rea Valley Path (C), can be followed southwest through river meadows for six miles to Longbridge. Cross over the Rea Valley Path and walk past the sculpted finger post (National Cycle Route No 5) to a tarmac cross-path.
If time allows the following short detour is worthwhile: Turn left at the cross-path and walk up onto an ornamental humped bridge (separating the fish breeding pool and the main lake). Continue ahead over a cross-path and onto a level bridge across a culvert. The Rea, Birmingham's main river, runs through the city constrained within this concrete channel. Now retrace your steps back across the humped bridge and turn left onto the tarmac path beside the lake.
[5] Walk on, with the lake on your left, past a large boulder (an erratic rock carried here from the Welsh Mountains by ice flows). Near the end of the lake, look across to the Midland Arts Centre on the opposite bank. At the end of the lake continue ahead over a cross-path then turn right onto a tarmac path beside the boating lake. Where the path branches keep left beside the lake, then turn first right through gardens to the memorial. In 'glorious memory' of more than 500 sons of Birmingham who fell in the Boer War (1899-1902). The bronze sculpture, by Albert Toft, features a gun carriage flanked by heroic soldiers and a figure of peace. Turn left at the memorial, left again by the fibrous barked tree (Wellingtonia - the world's largest tree type, and one of the oldest), then right back onto the lakeside path.
[6] At the end of the lake turn left onto a tarmac drive, cross the stream and turn immediately right onto a crazy paving path. Follow the path to a model of the place that supplies Birmingham's drinking water. The ambitious Elan Valley scheme, with its four dams and reservoirs and a 73-mile long aqueduct to Frankley, was completed in 1904. The site was used to test the Dam Buster's bouncing bomb during WWII. Keeping right, continue along the crazy paving beside a pond, beside another pond and on to the tarmac drive. Turn left into the drive and follow it, keeping left, back to the park gates on Edgbaston Road.
[7] Leave the park by the double gates and turn right into Edgbaston Road. On the other side of the roundabout, cross carefully and bear left to continue along Edgbaston Road but then take the turning immediately to your left up Oakfield Road. Walk to the end and turn left into Halam Road, with the Sikh Temple to your right, and follow the road as it bears right up to the junction with Edward Road. Turn left into Edward Road and cross carefully to return to the Academy.