Recently the National Trust announced a consultation into plans they have to create a new Eight Hills Regional Park in northern Worcestershire.
The proposed Regional Park will encompass the Clent Hills, Waseley Hills and the Lickey Hills. It Extends from just south of Halesowen in the west, to as far as Hollywood and Wythall in the east, with its southernmost point being just north of Bromsgrove.
They are an ambitious set of plans, the kind of proposal which in decades gone past consortia of local authorities would embark upon like the Lea Valley Regional Park in north London extending into Hertfordshire.
Much of the land it will encompass is already part of existing country parks, or in the case of the Clent Hills, under the management of the National Trust. However, it will also contain large amounts of land which while it forms part of Birmingham and the wider West Midland conurbation’s greenbelt is not currently parkland.
The north Worcestershire upland that will comprise the park is a significant and distinctive landscape right at the heart of the Midlands region. For this reason, and the fact that the Eight Hills Regional Park area is easily accessed by public transport, there are plenty of Walk Midlands walks in the area.
Including a walk right along the Lickey Hills ridge, taking in the craggy, steeply wooded landscape that is quintessential to the proposed regional park and taking in spectacular views across Worcestershire and the West Midlands alike.
There are also walks with a historical flavour to the ruins of the fascinating Dowery Dell Viaduct which one carried a long vanished railway between Halesowen and Longbridge (which the National Trust hope to reinstate as a multi-use path for walkers and cyclists. Dodford, just outside the southern boundary of the proposed Eight Hills Regional Park, is another historically significant location subject to a circular Walk Midlands route. Dodford is the most “successful” of the Chartist settlements established by the National Land Company in the late 1840s, set in beautiful rolling north Worcestershire countryside. All while just north of the proposed Eight Hills Regional Park area is the site of Halesowen Abbey, as well as the lost route of the southern section of the Dudley No. 2 Canal, including the incredible, deeply flawed, Lapal Tunnel, lost for decades since it closed in 1917.
Another set of walks right in the west of the area are a series of towpath strolls where canals were cut in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries linking the then nascent West Midlands conurbation on the other side of the north Worcestershire hills to the south. This includes Whitlock’s End to Digbeth which showcases the striking ongoing connections and similarities between today’s north Worcestershire, and former areas of the county which now comprise Birmingham’s southern suburbs like Billesley, Hall Green and Moseley. There is also Bromsgrove to King’s Norton and the shorter Alvechurch to King’s Norton which go up and over the Wast Hills to avoid the epic over 1.5 mile long Wast Hills Tunnel on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
And comprising not just the geographical and the historic, but the mythic too, just to the west of the Clent Hills between Hagley and Stourbridge is Wychbury Hill. An enigmatic place, dotted with historic site and monuments and spectacular views across the Black Country and Worcestershire alike.
The National Trust is currently running a survey to gauge public interest, and what potential visitors to the Eight Hills Regional park would like to see from the project. They are also consulting with landowners and Bromsgrove District Council who are the lowest tier of local government in the area of the proposed park.
They state that their objectives are:
Access
*Creation of new public access paths and tracks to connect communities with the landscape.
*Improved public transport links to visitor places, clearer signage and safer cycle routes.
*Facilities and infrastructure to meet the needs of the communities that live and work in and around 8 Hills.
*Explore the potential to create a new or extended country park with visitor facilities and activities.
Nature
*Habitat creation and enhancing and linking up priority habitat fragments.
*Enhance canal and river corridors for people and nature through restoration, habitat creation and improved access.
*Providing funding to help farmers manage the land to maximise nature and clean water, and fight climate change.
Development
*Create a plan to ensure any new building developments benefit nature and people’s access to greenspace.
Historic landscape
*Enable people to access and connect with the heritage in their landscape.
And that the opportunities offered by the project are as follows:
*Creation of an 8 Hills Trail which traverses the width of the area.
*A new Country Park.
*Creation of new entrance gateways from settlement edges into the park area.
*A number of new heritage trails, linking together existing historical features.
*A new pedestrian and cycle route along the Halesowen railway.
*A seasonal shuttle bus service between existing settlements and key visitor sites in the regional park.
*Creation of a network of quiet lanes on existing country roads in the area which prioritise use for pedestrians and cyclists and improve their safety.
*Enhanced visitor facilities at Forhill Picnic Site and Berry Mound Fort.
*Creation of a new route for pedestrians and cyclists along the approximate route of the Wasthill Tunnel where there is no existing tow path.
If realised, then the Eight Hills Regional Park project could revitalise and open up an under appreciated landscape, albeit one which is already much used and enjoyed by residents of the West Midlands and north Worcestershire alike.
The distinctive hilly landscape of north Worcestershire where the River Severn and the River Trent’s watershed lies is in many ways overlooked. This is despite its geographical and cultural significance as the boundary between the northern and southern Midlands, and the differing cultures and histories of the two parts of the region. The National Trust’s proposals as well as aiding nature recovery and providing local residents with an enhanced and expanded green amenity on their doorstep appear a welcome contribution to changing this. Look forward to seeing how it develops.