A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk

Creating a Living Landscape

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust Registered in as Charity and Company Lower Smite Farm, Smite Hill, Hindlip limited by guarantee Charity No. 256618 Worcestershire WR3 8SZ 01905 754919 [email protected] Worcestershire www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk Worcestershire Wildlife Trust relies on the support of its members and on donations and grants. • Knapp and Papermill Nature Reserve • Blackhouse Wood Nature Reserve • Crews Hill Wood Nature Reserve • Ravenshill Wood Nature Reserve Before you set off... Welcome Maps: Ordnance Survey Explorer 204, Landranger 149 & 150 Welcome to our Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk , which Total distance: 8 miles covers almost eight miles of beautiful Worcestershire Location: 6 miles west of Worcester, countryside on the edge of the close to the villages of , and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Terrain: Mainly pasture and woodland, Our walk takes you through a diverse some steep slopes and stiles. Paths can landscape created by complex geology become muddy and slippery during wet and geomorphology, through ancient weather; during the summer some areas woodland, traditional orchard, meadows, can become overgrown with nettles and pasture and farmland. As well as the brambles. Some fields may contain nodding flowers and dancing butterflies, grazing animals. keep a lookout for geological and historical evidence as you walk. Facilities: There is limited parking and Wild garlic at The Knapp and Papermill’s orchard Ancient Silurian rocks outcrop here, toilets at both The Knapp and Papermill limestone and sandstone form the wooded nature reserve and at Ravenshill Wood Beginning at the Knapp and Papermill In May the woodland floor is carpeted with ridges of the Suckley Hills and the rounded nature reserve. There is a community-run nature reserve entrance (SO 75070 52157) wild garlic and there are plenty of wildflowers walk up the path, past the small pond on your hilltops above the nearby Teme Valley. The village store in Alfrick village as well as and butterflies. Later in the year, festoons left and the information centre on your right. of mistletoe adorn the upper branches of Knightsford Gap at Knightwick was formed The Fold Cafe in , The Fox and Go through the garden gate beyond the by glacial meltwater in the last ice age, Hounds public house in and The house and down a steep track to the orchard. the trees and the berries provide food for cutting into hills and causing the River Talbot in Knightwick. mistlethrushes, blackbirds and blackcaps. Teme to change its north-south course to Our first stop is the orchard... Kingfishers breed along the Leigh Brook; there is a viewing screen to your left and flow east. Buses: For the most up to date information you may be able to see them from here. The walk takes you past old houses, visit Worcestershire County Council’s 1. The Orchard (SO 74867 52121) through farmsteads and along old holloways, website www.worcestershire.gov.uk/ As you walk through the orchard, you’ll passing hand-dug quarries and ancient info/20021/buses he reserve, including see a pond on your right; this is a relic of boundaries. the orchard, was donated an old river course, providing a home for to the Trust in 1971 by frogs and newts. Download Brett Westwood Hugh and Shifa Doncaster There is also an audio version of this walk, who, as keen naturalists, narrated by Worcestershire naturalist, author had moved here in 1954. and radio presenter Brett Westwood, There are 88 old fruit trees of two varieties – available to download from the Blackhouse Annie Elizabeth and Bramley. Both are late Wood pages of our website flowering and fruiting so they are well www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk suited to the cooler conditions in this part of the reserve.

Entrance to The Knapp and Papermill nature reserve

2 A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk 3 Pivany Bridge Papermill Cottage Treehouse

When you’re ready, follow the path with Continue along the main track along the Continue along the path through the field, the Leigh Brook to your left, past the 200 bottom of Big Meadow and through another with the wood up on your right, towards a year old weir at the end of the orchard. gate on the far side. gate and a break in the woods. This leads Go through the gate and along the edge of down a steep slope and on to a clearing the field about 150m to another gate leading You will pass through a small, often muddy, beside the Leigh Brook (keep a lookout for into Big Meadow. Just on your left, through coppice with the brook continuing to meander animal prints in the mud). Another wooden the other gate is the old, stone Pivany Bridge. to your left. The path eventually leads upwards, gate marks the end of the reserve. Carry on through another gate into Papermill Meadow. through this and about a quarter of a mile (From here you may be able to see a little further on you will arrive at a metal gate. 2. Pivany Bridge (SO 74897 51775) bridge, steeply below to the left.) Cross the There is a wooded slope behind you. About field, which slopes upwards away to your 50m before the gate look up to your right The name probably derives from right, and walk about 100m to the old Papermill where you may be able to spot a treehouse ‘Epiphany’ because the rent for this area Cottage. To your right, the field is backed by up in the oak trees. was payable on January 6th – Epiphany woodland with a steep bank where bluebells Day. It is a packhorse bridge built to reach can be seen in spring. Big Meadow, which in the 18th and 19th 4. Treehouse (SO 74308 51718) centuries was partly a hopfield. From the 3. Papermill Cottage This private woodland is light and has a bridge you can often see grey wagtails Big Meadow (SO 74378 51388) nice show of spring flowers thanks to the chasing flies over the water and you may coppicing that is carried out by the owners There has been a mill on this site since at be lucky enough to spot a dipper. Green-winged orchid Bluebells and, indeed, on many of our nature reserves. least the mid 17th century although it’s This practice used to be the mainstay of Big Meadow has not been ploughed since believed that the milling finished in the rural life, with hazel providing timbers for the hops were grown and a complex 1850s. Here, rags from the Black Country wattle and daub, fencing and fire lighting, community of 120 species of flowering were used for making a very coarse grade while sweet chestnut and ash provided plants has developed. From late May to of paper. This old, stone cottage is perched larger timbers. The tall oak standards were early July you can see several varieties of on the lip of the brook; it was lived in until used for building. Cutting down trees in orchid here, including the rare green- 1960 and you may be able to spot an old this way revitalises the woodland by winged orchid. cider press and a stone well in the allowing light to reach the woodland abandoned garden. floor - primroses, wood spurge and One of the windows of the bluebells thrive in spring and it is a cottage has been left open good place to see a number of deliberately for rare lesser butterfly species. horseshoe bats to use the cottage as a roost; small Lesser horseshoe numbers of female bats can bat use the building during the Dipper summer to have their young.

4 A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk 5 Now leave the wood and follow the edge of the field round towards some houses with conifer hedging, down a few steps and onto the road. Turn left, go down the road and over the Keep to the right of the trees and pond Mousehole Bridge towards a large field on your left, with the entrance just after the Follow the path between pond left and track. Keep to the right of an old willow and Tundridge Farm. Turn left, then right up the Otter pond in the middle of the field. Go through single track road over the brook and up the two metal gates on the far side to a large, hill past the old houses. The oast houses modern barn, near Lower Tundridge Farm. indicate that hops were once grown in the vicinity. On the way up the steep slope you will pass a pair of white and red poles designating 6. Tundridge (SO 73691 51096) the Roadside Verge Nature Reserve (RVNR). Many of the buildings in this area date from the 17th and 18th centuries and 7. Roadside Verge you’re in a very old, traditional farming (SO 73253 51265) Leaving The Knapp and Papermill Brimstone landscape; the rich agricultural land is sheltered by the Malvern Hills. This is one of about 100 Roadside Verge Now walk through the metal gate and across Nature Reserves (RVNRs) across the the lower side of the field, which rises on The pond in the field is now silting up but, county. With advice from Worcestershire your right to a small row of houses, to a stile as in most old fields, it would once have Wildlife Trust, these have been designated leading into a small wood. The path turns provided water for grazing livestock. by the County Council. Each has its own immediately right up a short, steep bank to a management and cutting schedule to remarkable, large, pollarded lime tree. ensure the conservation of the wonderful assemblage of plant species found at 5. Lime Pollard (SO 74048 51702) each one. Amongst this RVNR you may spot toothwort, a white-flowered The great, warty trunk of this small-leaved parasitic species that lime splits into several smaller trunks and grows on tree above these sprout more, even narrower roots; it was branches. Pollarding involves cutting the once claimed trunk of a tree above the head height of that this was grazing cattle; coppiced timber can then a cure for still be produced without damage. Mousehole Bridge toothache. Small-leaved lime is an indicator of ancient Toothwort woodland, thought to have arrived from Roadside Verge Nature Reserve the continent before Britain split away. It needs hot summers to germinate so young trees are fairly rare here now. However, ‘walking’ limes can be seen in some parts of the country where limbs have fallen from the original tree, rooted, grown and the process repeated over 2-3000 years. Lime provides a hard, white wood which is good for carving. The famous wood carver Grinling Gibbons often worked in lime and Worcestershire is home to some of the best trees in the country. In late July the honey- Lime tree pollard scented flowers are a magnet for bees.

6 A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk 7

Continue walking along the ridge to the next intersection, where a wide track leads off to 11. Quarry (SO 73374 53050) your right. If you’re visiting in summer, look out for the bank of common spotted orchids Up to your left are more indications of the on your right as you walk. ancient nature of the woodland. The roots of a multi-trunked small-leaved lime 10. Ride Intersection intertwine with yew and there are coppiced large-leaved limes, a species extremely (SO 73311 52612) rare in Britain but native here. There are This triangular area, with a path leading wild service trees, a species with brown down the hill to your right, is part of the berries that were once used to make beer. Blackhouse Wood Lesser spotted woodpecker Blackhouse Wood circular walk. It is light It is thought that either the chequered and airy so, again, it’s a good place to appearance of the cut berry or the nature You are between two wooded ridges with a shallow tropical sea). At least six limestone delay your walk in search of plant and of the bark gave rise to the pub name sheep field on your left and Blackhouse kilns remain on a local farm, illustrating insect diversity. You will find a number of ‘Chequers’. Wood on your right. Continue to follow the how powdered lime was produced for calcicole species, such as wood vetch and 150 years ago, it would have been very road steeply up, along the coppiced limes to spreading onto fields to reduce soil acidity. yellow wort, which are specially adapted to your left, then turn right onto a wide track to different – the scale of quarrying would The quarries in Blackhouse Wood are living in the limestone-rich soil. enter the wood (there is a ‘Welcome to have made a stark contrast to the peace Blackhouse Wood’ sign here). Follow the mainly sheltered and inaccessible, helping and quiet of today. And life at the quarry path up to a T junction and turn left. to protect delicate plant species and face was tough - the quarries were worked insects that abound here. by hand with picks and shovels. 8. Blackhouse Wood Carry on up the hill until you reach the first Blackhouse Wood forms part of a chain junction of tracks at a forestry turning circle of woodlands up to the Wyre Forest that (SO 73224 51464) half way along the ridge. includes Ravenshill Wood to the north, Blackhouse Wood is one of the Trust’s Ridge and the Hills. most recent acquisitions, bought in 2015 Wood vetch 9. Turning Circle (SO 73398 51807) This forms a continuous strip of woodland, thanks to a huge public appeal and acting as a corridor for bird, plant and donations from the Heritage Lottery Fund The track leading down the hill to your left Carry on straight ahead, along the ridge and animal species, especially dormice, to and Severn Waste Services through the was once used to carry logs away from the into Crews Hill Wood. Keep going, straight travel through without interruption. Landfill Communities Fund. wood. This area is light but sheltered with over at a crossroads of paths, until you come Building these networks into our a great variety of mainly into a large quarry in a hollow, with tree roots showing on the ridge above you. landscape is vitally important for wildlife. As an ancient woodland it had mainly deciduous tree species, deciduous species but the Forestry Act of in turn providing great 1919 was passed to provide post-war Crews Hill Wood nature reserve potential for a Britain with the increasing amounts of wonderful diversity timber needed for the construction industry. of bird life. You may Large areas of native woodland across even be lucky the UK made way for huge quantities of fast-growing softwood trees but the dry, enough to see a Dormouse limey soil of Blackhouse Wood was not lesser spotted particularly good for these acid-loving woodpecker here. species. Over time we’ll be removing most Another species the Trust is working hard Common centaury of the conifers and replanting Blackhouse to encourage is the dormouse. Dormice Wood with native trees; we’ll leave some are scarce across the whole of the UK but Silver-washed fritillary standing for birds such as goldcrests and are known in this area so the Trust is coal tits. deliberately managing the woodland to Humps, hollows and rocky outcrops are maximise their success. Dormice benefit remnants of hand-carved limestone quarries from the rich woodland structure and use (Worcestershire was once covered by a stripped honeysuckle to line their nests.

10 A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk 11 When you’re ready, turn right out of the wood and walk down the lane, keeping Lulsley Lagoon to your left. Just past the end of the pool on the left is a public footpath and bridleway sign where a gate opens into a field. Take the public footpath across this field and on towards two oak trees in the middle. At the far side you will reach a gate Holloway stop where two hedges meet.

Follow the path until you reach the road. Take care crossing the road but before you 14. Ghost Hedge (SO 74693 54148) Plum trees cross, you might like to admire the view to the right and spreading out below you. Once You are now standing in a modern agricultural landscape surrounded by Go through the gate and, after a short over the road, head straight on, up the track distance, turn right through another small towards Quarry Cottage. Just before the pasture and arable fields. But there are field. When you reach a cattle grid, turn right cottage take the grassy path down through relics of more ancient countryside. onto the track (Green Street). the woods, keep to your right and walk Through the gate to the right is a stand of down an old holloway. Stop when you can wild service trees in the hedgerow, a see the remains of a brick building in a field species associated with ancient woodland. 15. Green Street (SO 74860 54170) on your left. These have not been planted but have This is a very old road with a few Raven Toad crossing probably been ‘assarted’; farmers would traditional dwellings and remnants of many 12. Holloway (SO 73532 53837) have carved out sections of the original old orchards. These would have had a woodland for agriculture, leaving a strip to Ravenshill Wood is species-rich with an Follow the path down through the wood onto mixture of fruits - damsons, apples and almost cathedral-like quality as the light the road. Turn right past the cottage and right form a hedge. This is sometimes called a pears; from the 1850s, fruit growing was filters down through the trees. The Holloway again into Ravenshill Visitor Centre and car park. woodland ghost and is a reminder of a carried out on a much bigger scale. With much bigger wood - a ghost of the you’ve just walked down is the result of the coming of the railways fruit could be ancient landscape. continuous trampling that has worn a 13. Ravenshill Centre picked one day and on sale in towns the groove into the landscape. next, so orchards became larger and more (SO 73999 53950) Ghost hedge specialised. Most people It has been suggested that the name This is a privately owned nature reserve don’t realise that there Ravenshill was based on 18th century with a free visitor centre and toilets. are 2000 varieties of folklore that a Viking encampment here If you’re up for a diversion, you can borrow apple in Britain once had a raven on its standard but it’s wellies here and follow a trail around the including 30 that more likely that it reflects the abundance woodland and past a pool; there is always are known only of ravens once living in the wood. Ravens plenty to see. from Worcestershire. were persecuted, particularly in Victorian Most farms would A natural phenomenon takes place here Noble chafer times, and disappeared completely from make their own cider in February or March; toads hole up in the beetle the area in the 1950s and 60s. Happily, or perry and would use woodland over winter but need to get they have made a spectacular recovery this as part of their workers’ pay. and you will hopefully be able to watch across the lane to Lulsley Lagoon their playful flight in the area. (an artificial pond) in order to breed. Sadly, Worcestershire has lost more than To avoid the many potential road fatalities, Wild service leaf 85% of its orchards since World War Two. Holloway the owners of the woodland have built a In the 1960s, the railway branch lines were fence alongside the road and laid out lost and in the 1970s, the Common containers into which the toads fall as they Agricultural Policy resulted in a flood of migrate to the pond. Every morning these cheap fruit into the country. The old are transferred safely across the road and remaining orchards are still important to the toads emptied onto the side of the wildlife though; beetles such as the pond; between 300 and 600 are rescued in beautiful but rare noble chafer feeds on Wild service fruit this way each year. the decaying wood of fruit trees.

12 A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk 13 Worcestershire’s wildlife Worcestershire Wildlife Trust needs your help! Nature Reserves We care for more than 75 nature reserves across The nature reserves that are cared for by Worcestershire Worcestershire – woods and heaths, pools and marshes Wildlife Trust form part of our vision of a Living Landscape. and meadows of international importance. But without our By working with other landowners, managers and members, this wouldn’t be possible. Our members already communities we aim to restore, recreate and reconnect help us to make a huge difference for wildlife; with your fragmented habitats to achieve a landscape where wildlife help we could achieve even more. can flourish and people can live happier and healthier lives. In return you’ll get: • Information on events, walks and talks in our We are one of 47 Wildlife Trusts, protecting wildlife magazine and e-newsletter across the UK. • The knowledge that you’re playing your part in securing a future for wildlife and wild places near you • An excuse to explore the great outdoors and have fun • The chance to meet like-minded people at your local group at events Visit our website for information about becoming part of something special www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/membership Alfrick church Volunteers help with every aspect of our work from practical conservation The Devil’s Spittleful and Carry on along Green Street then turn right Stay a while and admire the superb views to inspiring the next generation. Blackstone Farm Fields onto Folly Road and into Alfrick village. Go over of your completed walk and also the whole the crossroads to St Mary Magdalene church. length of Worcestershire, north to the Chaddesley Wood Hills and the twin peaks of . 16. Alfrick (SO 74856 52976) Leave the churchyard and turn right along the STOURPORT road. As the road bends to the right, you’ll Upton Warren The church was begun as early as the 12th The Christopher Cadbury see a no through road to your left – follow Wetland Reserve Ipsley Alders Marsh century with additions in the 13th century. this past a farm then go down between the Piper’s Hill Common The ornate timber porch was added in the trees into a holloway, which will lead you DROITWICH 14th century, whilst the transept and north back to the road where you started. vestry were 19th century additions, Turn left here on this road and you will be Wylde Moor designed by the architect Aston Webb back at your car. KEY Monkwood Grafton Wood who also created the front of Buckingham ALL-SEASONS Palace. Charles Dodgson, better known as WILDLIFE WALKS Lower Smite Farm WORCESTER Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Blackhouse LOCAL WILDLIFE Wood The Knapp Adventures in Wonderland, preached here TREASURES and Papermill and visited several times when his brother was the parish curate. DELICATE WILDLIFE GEMS MALVERN There is even a link with the supernatural: Photo credits: PERSHORE the folklorist Jabez Allies, author of ‘The Andy Bartlett, John Burton, Wendy Carter, Tiddesley Ian Clarke, Nicky Clarke, Gert Corfield, Wood Folklore of Worcestershire’, was born Barry Green, Harry Green, Stefan Johansson, nearby. He visited local cottages and Paul Lane, Becky Lashley, Brenda Laver, listened to stories around the hearths, Julia Letts, Mark Peacock, Dave Poutney, Alfrick church window which he then wrote down. A claim was Elliot Smith, Peter Smith, Karen Summers, Bob Tunstall, Pete Walkden, Simon West, BROADWAY made that Alfrick was named after Alfred Rosemary Winnall. the Great of Elves (‘Alfar’ is Danish for Thanks to: Julia Letts (Letts Talk), ‘elves’), and that there were Poake (or Trevor and Annette Smart (Ravenshill Wood Nature TEWKESBURY Puck) - mischievous spirits who would Reserve), Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, and Worcestershire Earth waylay travellers on foggy nights and lead Heritage Trust and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust them into bogs! volunteers who tested the walk.

14 A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk A Worcestershire Woods & Wildlife Walk 15