A Walk in the Park: Calthorpe Park and Olton Park

Oct 9 2009 by Graham Young, Birmingham Mail

IT’S a rite of passage that every child goes through sooner or later... learning to ride a bicycle without stabilisers.

But one of the big questions is where do you go?

There are industrial sites at weekends.

Or multiplex cinemas usually have empty car parks every morning.

But nowhere is as much fun as a local, grassy park.

Unfortunately, many are quite self-contained.

Which means wasting time getting from your car to the pathways.

Our eldest daughter, Holly, learned in Cannon Hill Park, while son Louie was in Aston Park when he suddenly found the freedom of life on two wheels.

For the purposes of this column, I decided to think about recommending a couple of the parks I’ve been to over the years which would fit the bill perfectly.

First up, Calthorpe Park in Balsall Heath.

Here you can leave your car in Speedwell Road right next to the pathways.

And it’s comparatively quiet compared to nearby Cannon Hill Park.

This means your child won’t feel like there’s a big audience watching.

In retrospect, our late afternoon visit after a busy day perhaps wasn’t the best time to choose for our youngest daughter.

Now aged six, Madison had perhaps been on enough adventures that day already.

But she was very excited watching me use the spanner to take the stabilisers off. So I let her try.

And I knew this would be a point of no return for both of us. Once off, always off!

I took it in turns with my wife to undertake the backbreaking work of guiding her along while she gained more confidence.

Despite falling off several times, she was always prepared to pick herself up, ready to go again – which is the real, underlying point of the whole exercise.

In the end, it became clear that she wasn’t quite ready.

No matter. Because it was equally obvious that the next time we tried she would definitely crack it.

And so it turned out.

This time we went to Olton Park, Olton.

Once again, you can park right next to the paths and grassland and get cracking straight away.

Neatly bisected by Hatchford Brook, this is a long, flat park... and I reckon any child seeing the freedom ahead would be doubly-determined to find the magic within.

After just five minutes of trying, Madison was off under her own steam in one of those life-defining moments that neither she, nor we, will ever forget.

She was naturally a little unsure at first, given her sudden realisation that learning how to start and stop under your own steam are extra skills you then need to acquire almost as quickly as not falling off.

But, within minutes, she had ticked every box.

A smile of self-satisfaction that was as wide as the Nile delta said it all: “I can ride my bike!”

* Visitor Info

Calthorpe Park is off Pershore Road, Balsall Heath and Olton Park is off Brackleys Way, Olton. This park also features a playground as a reward for success!