Activities in Walsall

A large Victorian park on the eastern edge of the town centre, Walsall Arboretum is home to a wide range of activities and entertainment including a children’s playground, outdoor pool and splashpad, fitness and running trails, a boating lake and formal gardens home to over 10,000 varieties of trees and shrubs. The 170-acre park also has its own visitor centre with toilets, baby-changing facilities and a café open daily serving up breakfast, lunch, hot drinks and snacks.

Running from March to November, Chasewater Railway is a thrilling four-mile railway round trip dedicated to steam and diesel trains. Housed in a Victorian station, the volunteer-run railway is open at the weekends and Bank Holidays and runs from Brownhills West and Chasewater Heath to Church Street around the scenic Chasewater lake. As well as two cafés including The Sidings Tea Room at the Brownhills West Station, there’s a gift and model shop open year round.

Known as the leather capital of the UK, Walsall has a long tradition of leather goods all neatly summed up at the Walsall Leather Museum a short walk north of the town centre. Free to enter and open from Tuesday to Saturday, the small-but-packed museum has plenty of displays and exhibits, including several leather workers hand-crafting purses and wallets.

Covering everything from 19th-century trams, historic double-decker buses, early versions of the taxicab and ambulances, the Aldridge Transport Museum is a must-visit for historians and petrol-heads. Open from Tuesday to Sunday, the museum is on the eastern edge of Walsall a short drive from our Walsall M6 hotel.

Modern, contemporary and innovative, the New Art Gallery Walsall was opened in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II, costing a cool £21 million. The five-storey building is a work of art on its own: a stark, wood-clad gallery that demands attention in the centre of Walsall. The gallery has a wide range of art by big-name modern masters including Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Turner, Constable and Renoir spanning prints, sketches, drawings, sculptures and paintings. The gallery also boasts a ground floor café and an impressive Art Library home to an array of free-to-borrow books and resources. Free to enter, the gallery is open from Tuesday to Sunday and is located in Gallery Square, a minute’s stroll from our Walsall Town Centre hotel.

A popular park to the north of Walsall, Reedswood Park has everything from a well-equipped play area, skating ramp, basketball, football and cricket pitches and a 1km-long walk that borders the park, taking you alongside woodland and fishing pools.