Adventures around Wolverhamptonwith PlusBus
Creative, diverse, and a city since 2000, Wolverhampton is ready to surprise visitors today. Wool, coal, steel, engineering have all powered Wolverhampton through the centuries. The railways arrived in 1837, the Art Gallery opened in 1884 and the theatre ten years later. Sprawling between the Birmingham conurbation and the Shropshire and Staffordshire countryside, the city's network of buses could carry you to a half-timbered manor house with a world-class art collection or a ‘Capability’-Brown-landscaped park surrounded by woods, fields and wetlands. Add PlusBus when you buy a train ticket for unlimited bus and tram travel all day across a wide area. And a railcard will make it cheaper still. At Wightwick Manor, you’ll even get a free hot drink for arriving by bus! Here are just a few of the adventures you could have.
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1. Pop art, porcelain and putting greens
If you don’t have a PlusBus ticket when you arrive in Wolverhampton by rail, simply show your train ticket and buy one at the ticket office. The PlusBus pass is valid across the whole West Midlands area, from Wolverhampton to Coventry. To start with, though, don’t miss the city’s art gallery. It’s a short walk from the railway station with a bus stop outside for further adventures.
- Wolverhampton Art Gallery showcases an interesting art collection and some of the beautiful things made in the city over the centuries.The gallery has impressive collections of Pop Art from the 1960s onwards, including works like Andy Warhol’s soup can and portraits of Mick Jagger or Muhammad Ali.
- When you’re ready to continue your Wolverhampton art tour by bus, you can head to the Edwardian Bantock House Museum, which is also free to visit. Here, you’ll find ornate oak-panelled rooms with Arts and Crafts-style furniture. There are toys and dolls to look at as well as as Wolverhampton crafts like steel jewellery and enamel, porcelain, ivory and objects decorated by japanning to produce a lacquered picture.
- How do I get to Bantock House by bus? Hop on bus 3 or bus 4, which both leave regularly from outside the Art Gallery (Stop BB) every 20 minutes. After less than 10 minutes’ ride, get off on Merridale Road or on Bantock Avenue near the museum.
- Bantock House is surrounded by 43 acres of lovely grounds that include a Dutch garden, rose garden, courtyard café and play areas. There’s even a Pitch and Putt in the park next door that visitors can use for a small fee. Bus 4 leaves from outside the gates. Alternatively, stroll 15 minutes along Merridale Road to pick up bus 9 and visit Wightwick (pronounced WIT-ick) Manor. Scroll down for more…
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2. Wightwick Manor and Gardens
Half-timbered Wightwick Manor is another hidden gem in the Wolverhampton suburbs. And if you show your PlusBus pass, you can get a voucher for a free hot drink. Cared for by the National Trust, it has really beautiful interiors, Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Victorian ceramics by William De Morgan and original furnishings by William Morris’ design company. The Mander family, who made their fortune from the art of japanning, gave the house to the National Trust in 1937 and continued to add to its collections.
- A striking portrait of Jane Morris is among the highlights of an incredible art collection. There are dozens of pictures by celebrated Pre-Raphaelite artists like Evelyn De Morgan, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and Millais, as well as some brilliant, but less well-known painters like Lizzy Siddal.
- How do I get to Wightwick Manor by bus? Bus 9, heading for Bridgnorth runs roughly hourly (Monday to Saturday) from Wolverhampton bus station (Stand B, five minutes’ from the train station – over the bridge) or from outside the Art Gallery. Get off, about 15 minutes later, at Wightwick Bank and walk a few steps along Bridgnorth Road to find the entrance on your right. More details and a planner on Good Journey’s Wightwick page. Bus 3 also stops a short walk away and passes Bantock House (see 1 above).
- Wightwick Manor is unusual for a National Trust property in being just over a century old. It is an extraordinary example of a house designed according to Edwardian ideas of beauty. It’s full of designs by William Morris and others in the Arts and Crafts movement.
- The Edwardian garden is also a delight with different areas divided by yew hedges, peaceful ponds, blossoming orchards and a woodland play area. According to season, there are daffodils, bluebells, roses, lilies and golden beeches.
- Time for a break? The tea room serves lunches, cakes and breakfast baps. And don’t forget to claim your free pot of tea for arriving car-free! And maybe add a slab of bread pudding with crunchy brown sugar topping.
- The buses leave regularly from close to the manor. If you’re ready for more adventures in the area, you could take a stroll along the nearby Grand Union canal. Wolverhampton is surrounded by great walking country – scroll down for another suggestion.
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3. Himley Hall and Baggeridge Country Park
The PlusBus pass covers a huge area of the West Midlands. Heading south towards Stourbridge, you can visit a lovely area of parkland and countryside with a fascinating history. From Himley Hall, with its new woodland playground, pools, waterfalls, and café, you can climb up through Baggeridge Country Park with its play area, flowering woods, miniature railway and fabulous views.
- How do I get to Himley Hall by bus? Bus 15 from Wolverhampton bus station (five minutes from the train station – over the bridge) stops opposite the Dudley Arms, near Himley House Hotel on the main road. From here, you can simply walk along the pavement of the main road, past the hotel, and turn left into Dudley Road. Keep on, past the church, to reach the gates into Himley Park. Follow the surfaced path over the grass towards Himley Hall.
- Beyond the hall, keeping the stable block on your right, you’ll find paths beside a series of pools. Walk with the water on your left beside three ascending pools so that you climb gently through the woods. In spring, when the woods are full of birdsong, look out for bluebells, primroses, wild garlic and baby waterbirds including fluffy ducklings.
- After the third pool, fork left and follow a clear track up through the woods. This is the Baggeridge Wood Walk, marked in blue on this map, and leads up to some fabulous views towards Wolverhampton and across the Staffordshire and Shropshire countryside to distant hills. Follow the paths right and right again to reach Baggeridge tea room. You can either turn left and head back to Wolverhampton from here or continue through the park back down to Himley (recommended!).
- And how do I get back from Baggeridge Country Park by bus? From the top exit out of Baggeridge Country Park, it’s a ten-minute walk along Gospel End Road to Sedgeley and a bus stop where Northway meets Gospel End Road. From here, buses 27 and 27A to Wolverhampton’s bus station run twice-hourly between them.
- If you’re up for a longer walk, there’s more to see in the parks, and you can walk back down via a variety of routes and then follow the waterside paths back to Himley Hall.
- The 152 areas of varied green space here were once part of the Earl of Dudley’s estate with a park landscaped in the eighteenth century by the celebrated garden designer Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. In 1899 the first shaft of a coal mine was dug here with a seam of coal discovered three years later. The park became one of the world’s most productive collieries, producing as much as 12,000 tons of coal a week and employing thousands of people. Once the colliery was closed, the area could be regenerated to become a much-loved country park.
- Peckish? There are several options for refreshments in the area. As well as the pub and hotel near where you start, there are cafés in both parks. So you can spend all day here before catching the bus back.
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And more...
For more car-free adventures in the area, see our guides to Stourbridge, Birmingham and Coventry.
