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Walking a Woodland Path in Dale Coppice

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Walking a Woodland Path in Dale Coppice The Severn Gorge Countryside Trust works to balance the its history, geology and cultural heritage cultural and geology history, its An overview of the Severn Gorge, conservation and enhancement of landscape, wildlife and World Heritage Site Heritage World designated for for designated this this showing the key sites managed public access, and also to reinforce the cultural importance of The Severn Gorge lies within the heart of of heart the within lies Gorge Severn The by the Trust the special areas under its management. All of our landholdings are open to the public to explore and enjoy, and a network of waymarked paths and trails have been established through the woods and meadows of Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, Jackfield, Coalport, Madeley, Barrow and Broseley. in the Severn Gorge Severn the in Walking A woodland path in Dale Coppice Sutton Wood is the Trust’s most easterly parcel of land. Enjoy a stroll with fabulous views on Unlike the Trust’s other woods, this area has been little affected Haywood Pastures by past industrial activity. Sutton Wood is a Wildlife Site, and one of the richest sites in the Gorge for birds such as siskin, redpoll, whitethroat, and garden warbler. It is also home to the scarce white-letter hairstreak butterfly. Severn Gorge Countryside Trust manages Blackpool M6 View looking east Location of LEEDS HULL most of the woodland, grassland and other Severn Gorge M62 MANCHESTER LIVERPOOL towards Coalport Holyhead SHEFFIELD countryside within the Ironbridge Gorge SEVERN VALLEY WAY M1 A5 A55 Chester and Sutton Wood Crewe World Heritage Site, around 260 hectares Wrexham Stoke-on-Trent Nottingham (700 acres) in all. The dramatic landscape A5 A53 M6 Derby Getting involved A458 Shrewsbury TelfordM54 M6 Toll Leicester of the Gorge is also a noted Conservation SEVERN GORGE Wovlerhampton A44 A442 BIRMINGHAM The Severn Gorge Aberystwyth Kidderminster Coventry A14 M42 A49 Northampton Area and includes a number of sites of Llandrindod Wells Haywood and Pastures Worcester CAMBRIDGE Countryside Trust’s M5 Hereford M50 M40 national nature conservation importance. is a complex of woodland and M11 M1 volunteering project has been Cheltenham A1(M) grassland above Coalport. The Abergavenny OXFORD M25 developed to involve local people area has a south-facing aspect, Swansea M4 Walking the Gorge Newport Reading LONDON in the woodlands and other countryside and walks across the open CARDIFF BRISTOL M4 M5 You are welcome to explore the historic landscape of the Severn Gorge along Coalport Bridge M3 M25 grassland can be glorious in the of the Ironbridge Gorge, but visitors are the network of paths and trails that thread their way through the Trust’s sunshine. Most of this site was also welcome to take part. landholdings. While many of these follow public footpaths and bridleways, originally farmland, partially many are new paths that have been established and waymarked by the Trust. planted as woodland by Telford The project offers opportunities for people to volunteer Development Corporation as year-round and to get involved in all aspects of the Trust’s work, recently as 30-40 years ago. In We have a continuous programme of upgrading the paths the 18C and 19C it was owned including tree planting, hedgelaying and repairing gates and steps. As and if you encounter any difficulties while walking on our by the industrialist Darby family, well as tools, equipment and transport, the Trust offers free training land, then please let us know by phoning the office on where hundreds of horses were Preenshead is the only including NVQs. All the activities are free, so join us for a different day 01952 433 880. A number of routes are fully described in reared for use in industrial area of land actually owned out, have fun, learn new skills and contribute to the management of enterprises in the Gorge at the a series of high-quality books and leaflets, which are by the Trust, the others being this very special area. Contact us for a free programme or download it time. managed on a 999 year lease. available from the tourist information centre, Museums SILKIN WAY from our website www.severngorge.org.uk or the Trust Office, at a small cost or which are free to This wood was purchased in 1997. Records show there Coalport China Museum download from our website. has been woodland here for Geology and landscape SGCT Publications Hay Inclined hundreds of years, clues to Shropshire has perhaps the richest geology of any county in Britain, Plane Tar Tunnel Memorial Bridge which are wild garlic, wood Coalport was very much (FOOTBRIDGE) and the Ironbridge Gorge is no exception. While it is better known the inpiration of the ironmaster anemones, bluebell and the rare wood barley, all species as the ‘Birthplace of Industry’, this would not have happened here William Reynolds and the key SEVERN VALLEY WAY to its development lay in the associated with old woodland. without a quirk of nature that exposed all of the necessary rocks and canal/river interchange which The area is also home to a minerals in one, accessible place. Wesley Rooms Annexe, he instigated in the late 18th relatively high population of Jockey Bank, Ironbridge, century, helping its development breeding bullfinch. as a seat of the china industry. In Telford TF8 7PD Blists Hill Maws Craft Centre At the end of the last Ice Age, weaknesses in the limestone provided an 1792 an astonishing engineering Victorian Town escape route for water trapped beneath an ice sheet. Under very high Tel: 01952 433880 construction was developed Email: [email protected] called the Hay Incline Plane, pressure, the water carved out the steep-sided gorge we see today, and still considered one of Britain’s in the process, exposed limestone, ironstone, sandstone, coal and clay. Website: www. severngorge.org.uk foremost industrial monuments. Jackfield Tile Museum Disclaimer: The presence of a marked route or feature in this This process changed the course of the River Severn forever; previously, REG. CHARITY NO. 1004508 publication does not guarantee the existence or servicability on the ground, or any right of public access it had flowed north, now it flows south to Bristol. Designed by MA Creative www.macreative.co.uk • Illustrated maps © SGCT, by Jeremy Pyke Lydebrook Dingle. Much of the woodland associated with Lydebrook has View looking north – Coalbrookdale View looking east towards been undisturbed for a long time, and has and Jiggers Bank Jackfield and Coalport the feel of the original ‘wildwood’ about it. Lydebrook has difficult access due to its steepness. Coalbrookdale which lies in a beautiful wooded valley is where Abraham Darby I revolutionised Wynnes, Vane Coppice and Jiggers Bank Lloyds Coppice went through a period of intense industrial Coalport Bridge Ropewalk and Wilderness Meadows the smelting of iron using coke from coal in 1709, which means the area can lay claim to being one key seat of the include ancient semi-natural woodland dominated by activity with the focus here on ironstone mining and clay are small but wonderful examples of traditional hay industrial revolution which changed the world. oak as well as areas of more recent planting established extraction. The woodland contains a pond, a rare wetland habitat meadows – an area that has possibly never seen on pasture in the 60s/70s. The history of the site in a woodland setting. This supports a population of great-crested artificial seeding or fertilisers. The soil’s low fertility included phases of woodland management, farming newts, a species of European-wide conservation importance. actually ensures a wide biodiversity, with well over and industry, the evidence of which can be found at a hundred different plant species regularly being A5223 The Old Wynd inclined plane in eastern Vane Coppice. Coalport recorded. Here in summer, in Ropewalk Meadow, Hay Community come ploughman’s spikenard, adders tongue fern A4169 Jiggers Roundabout Coalport China Museum Inclined Plane Orchard and twayblade orchid, all of which are considered Tar Tunnel uncommon in Shropshire. It is also home to an Oilhouse Coppice and Pastures abundance of common spotted orchids, whilst small SILKIN WAY encompasses woodland and flower-rich pasture. It Blists Hill Memorial Bridge Jackfield is a fascinating area heath butterflies thrive in the meadow. (FOOTBRIDGE) also adjoins Rough Park, a landscaped area formerly Victorian Town made up of a series of very ancient of open-cast clay workings. The grassland of Oilhouse Maws Craft Centre neighbourhoods with wonderful names pastures is particularly important in supporting a wide like The Tuckies, Salthouses and The SEVERN VALLEY WAY Sunniside Deer Park is a small, variety of flora, typical of old hay meadows. Sweet- Werps, reflecting its long working past from fishing, pottery, iron making and enclosed area of formal park laid out by the A4169 vernal grass, cowslips and yellow rattle all thrive here. Jackfield Tile Museum clay industries of brick, roof tiling and Darby family in the late-1700s. Much of the decorative tiles. evidence of the park has now gone (including the deer), although a few veteran beech and limes survive, as does a boundary brick wall to the west of the Ropewalk Meadow. Museum of Ladywood has an industrial past Steel Sculpture which has left a legacy of collapsed Loamhole Dingle is of national conservation shafts, spoil heaps, mounds and importance, primarily because it supports specialist tracks. Some of the stone quarried Rosehill House Woodside insects associated with the stream that flows Community Orchard from Ladywood is believed to have Dale House through the ancient woodland. Museum of Iron Darby’s Furnace been used for the abutments on the southern side of the Iron Bridge at the time of its construction in the late- Enginuity Captain’s Coppice was probably traditionally coppiced in 1700s.
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