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Commonwealth Games baton relay route revealed for West Midlands

Birmingham 2022 Artist Laura Nyahuye holding the baton she designedBirmingham 2022
The baton will arrive in the West Midlands on 18 July and criss-cross the region over 10 days

The Queen's Baton Relay will travel by coracle, barge and on a steam engine around the West Midlands ahead of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

The full route around the UK has been revealed as the baton reaches the region on 18 July.

Other highlights in the West Midlands include a journey on the canal and arriving by helicopter in Shrewsbury.

The tour will end at Birmingham's Aston Hall on the day of the opening ceremony, 28 July.

The baton enters the West Midlands from England's north west region and begins with a visit to the Kidsgrove Pump Track, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on 18 July.

Getty Images Woman in a coracle on River SevernGetty Images
The baton will be taken by coracle along the River Severn

The route will see it criss-cross the area over the next 10 days:

  • Monday 18 July -  Keele, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Kidsgrove, Stoke-on-Trent and Shrewsbury
  • Tuesday 19 July - Ironbridge, Telford, Newport, Lilleshall, Stafford, Stone, Rudyard and Leek
  • Wednesday 20 July - Uttoxeter, Burton upon Trent, Lichfield, Burntwood, Chasewater and Tamworth
  • Thursday 21 July - Bodymoor Heath, Atherstone, Market Bosworth, Nuneaton, Bedworth, Rugby and Coventry
  • Friday 22 July - Kenilworth, Whitnash, Warwick, Gaydon, Stratford-upon-Avon, Broadway, Pershore, Upton-upon-Severn, Malvern and Worcester
  • Saturday 23 July - Redditch, Bromsgrove, Kidderminster, Bridgnorth, Codsall, Rugeley, Hednesford, Cannock and Walsall
  • Sunday 24 July - Wolverhampton, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Dudley Brierley Hill
  • Monday 25 July - Oldbury, Wednesbury, Tipton, Cradley Heath, Rowley Regis, Blackheath, Bearwood, Smethwick and West Bromwich
  • Tuesday 26 July - Castle Bromwich, Fordbridge, Chelmsley Wood, Marston Green, Hampton in Arden, Meriden, Berkswell, Balsall Common, Knowle, Dorridge, Cheswick Green, Hockley Heath, Dickens Heath, Shirley and Solihull
  • Wednesday 27 & Thursday 28 July - Birmingham (full route through the host city to be announced)

One of the highlights of the baton's tour will be on 23 July when it boards Severn Valley Railway's newly repainted purple steam locomotive in Kidderminster and travels to Bridgnorth.

By then, it will already have travelled by coracle on the River Severn on 19 July and on a wakeboard on the reservoir at Chasewater, Staffordshire, on 20 July.

Severn Valley Railway How the train will look when purpleSevern Valley Railway
Severn Valley Railway will host the baton at one stage on their newly repainted purple steam locomotive
Staffordshire County Council Wake-boarding on ChasewaterStaffordshire County Council
The baton will be taken on a wakeboard at Chasewater, Staffordshire

The baton will also be taken via other modes of transport including the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway on 23 July, abseiling from Galton Bridge, Smethwick, on 25 July and boarding a boat on the Grand Union Canal on 26 July.

Hundreds of baton-bearers, picked for their inspirational stories and backgrounds, will carry it on its tour around the West Midlands.

Dave Heeley, known as Blind Dave, will be among them when the baton reaches Sandwell.

Having recently completed an 800-mile (1,287km) charity cycle ride from Colditz Castle to West Bromwich, Mr Heeley said carrying the baton would be "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity".

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