The Welsh Road, also known as the Welshman's Road or the Bullock Road, was a drover's road running through the English Midlands

English Midlands

The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

, used for transporting cattle from North Wales

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

 to the markets of South East England

South East England

South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...

.

Drovers and their herds would follow the line of Watling Street

Watling Street

Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...

 from Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

 and over Cannock Chase

Cannock Chase

Cannock Chase is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Chase gives its name to the Cannock Chase local government district....

 to Brownhills

Brownhills

Brownhills is a town in the West Midlands, England. Located on the edge of Cannock Chase near the large artificial lake Chasewater, it is north-east of Walsall and a similar distance south-west of Lichfield. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the Aldridge-Brownhills...

, from where the Welsh Road ran through Stonnall

Stonnall

Stonnall is a village in Staffordshire, England, close to Shenstone and Aldridge. It is divided into Upper Stonnall and Lower Stonnall, Upper Stonnall being the bulk of the modern village, and Lower Stonnall the more rural farms and cottages to the east of Wallheath Lane...

, Castle Bromwich

Castle Bromwich

Castle Bromwich is a suburb situated within the northern part of the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of West Midlands. It is bordered by the rest of the borough to the south east, North Warwickshire to the east and north east; also Shard End to the south west, Castle Vale,...

, Stonebridge

Stonebridge

-Places:*Stonebridge, Essex, a hamlet in Essex, United Kingdom*Stonebridge, London, an area in northwest London, United Kingdom*Stonebridge, Norfolk, a village in Norfolk, United Kingdom...

, Kenilworth

Kenilworth

Kenilworth is a town in central Warwickshire, England. In 2001 the town had a population of 22,582 . It is situated south of Coventry, north of Warwick and northwest of London....

, Cubbington

Cubbington

Cubbington is a village and civil parish with a population of 4,034 adjoining the north-eastern outskirts of Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. Welsh Road, running through the village crossroads, may have been an old sheep drovers' route connecting London and Wales...

, Offchurch

Offchurch

Offchurch is a village and civil parish on the River Leam, east of Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.-History:There is a possibility that it was home to Offa, who was King of Mercia from 757 to 796. King Offa had a church built in the village...

, Southam

Southam

Southam is a small market town in the Stratford-on-Avon district of Warwickshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a population of 6,509 in the town.The nearest sizeable town to Southam is Leamington Spa, located roughly 7 miles to the west...

, Priors Hardwick

Priors Hardwick

Priors Hardwick is a village and civil parish in the Stratford district of Warwickshire, England. The name derives from the fact that it was originally a manor belonging to the Priors of Coventry.- History :...

, Culworth

Culworth

Culworth is a village and civil parish about north of Brackley in South Northamptonshire, England. Culworth is also about northeast of the north Oxfordshire town of Banbury....

, Sulgrave

Sulgrave

Sulgrave is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, England, about north of Brackley.-Parish church:The Church of England parish Church of St James the Less is part of the benefice of Culworth with Sulgrave and Thorpe Mandeville and Chipping Warden with Edgcote and Moreton Pinkney.By...

, Syresham

Syresham

Syresham is a village and civil parish in the English district of South Northamptonshire. It is near Brackley town and close to Silverstone Circuit. It is surrounded by villages and hamlets such as Biddlesden, Whitfield, Northamptonshire, Helmdon, Silverstone and Wappenham, and the border with...

, Biddlesden

Biddlesden

Biddlesden is a village and civil parish in Aylesbury Vale district in north-west Buckinghamshire, England on the boundary with Northamptonshire. It is about east-north-east of Brackley, Northamptonshire and north-west of Buckingham. The River Great Ouse forms part of the western boundary of the...

, and Buckingham

Buckingham

Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...

.

The age of the route is not known. The parish records of Helmdon

Helmdon

Helmdon is a village and civil parish in the district of South Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, England. The parish covers an area of about and includes the village of Helmdon and the hamlets of Astwell and Falcutt.-Geography:...

 record money being given in 1687 "to a poor Welshman who fell sick on his journey driving beasts to London", but many lengths of the road coincide with parish or manorial boundaries, suggesting that it probably formed an ancient trackway

Ancient trackway

Ancient trackway can refer to any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity. Such paths existed from the earliest prehistoric times and in every inhabited part of the globe...

 dating to the pre-Roman era.

The northern section of the route from Brownhills

Brownhills

Brownhills is a town in the West Midlands, England. Located on the edge of Cannock Chase near the large artificial lake Chasewater, it is north-east of Walsall and a similar distance south-west of Lichfield. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the Aldridge-Brownhills...

 to Stonebridge

Stonebridge

-Places:*Stonebridge, Essex, a hamlet in Essex, United Kingdom*Stonebridge, London, an area in northwest London, United Kingdom*Stonebridge, Norfolk, a village in Norfolk, United Kingdom...

 was made a turnpike

Turnpike trust

Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...

 by the Broughton, Chester and Stonebridge Turnpike Trust in 1759, becoming better known as the Chester Road. This part of the route is now broadly followed by the A452. South of Kenilworth the route remained unturnpiked and is now largely followed by minor roads and footpaths, often still referred to as the "Welsh Road".