Fields of gold in the black country

[richardhomer]

My first out and about report,
As the school holidays are coming to a close my wife has this week off work. I work in a school so I have been lucky enough to have the whole six weeks off with the children. Yesterday afternoon the weather looked quite good so we decided to take the girls out for walk over some local fields, These fields are about a 5 min walk away from where we live. As we set out I had not decided too do this report. If I had then there would have been more and better photos.




The history of area that these fields are located are
can be read about here. http://www.cradleylinks.co.uk/oldnall.htm

The history of these fields and others locally goes all the way back to the stone age .

Situated on a high ridge, overlooking the Upper Stour Valley, this site was occupied very early on in the history of humanity. Relatively few Mesolithic sites have been identified in England,but nearly 6000 struck pieces of flint from the Middle Stone Age (between 8000 and 6000 years ago) have been found here. It is likely that this was a summer camp, established by a group of no more than 30 nomadic hunter-gatherers, who followed the seasonal migration of elk, deer and cattle from the lowlands to upland summer pastures.

They were descendants of the Old Stone Age people who lived before the final Ice Age. As they sat under the cover of their temporary hide shelters, or around the camp fire relating their exploits and adventures, they chipped away at flint cores to detach flakes and skilfully turn them into the tools that we can see today. Arrowheads from the later Neolithic and Bronze Ages have also been found here, as well as a pottery shard from the Iron Age.

These fields for part of what is "fox cote farm" info can be found here http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol3/pp201-203



We walked for about three miles.

The area has a vast and very old history .

The footpath crossing the present fields was the original King's Highway through Oldnall, see Picture 2 (left). It skirted a deer park that was enclosed by the Lord of the Manor, Roger de Somery (c1208-1273). A wooded area still remains where the park was situated.

A Lay Subsidy Roll of 1275 shows that John of Holdenhale was one of the wealthiest people living in Cradley at that time, having moveable goods worth at least £5. It also lists Walter and Thomas of Holdenhale. A Halesowen Court Roll mentions Richard of Oldehale, who was fined 12d for his involvement in a fight with Walter Archer.

It could be that the place name derived from the Middle English 'halle' which was an important house or hall.

 

[mick91]

Looks like a nice day out you had there

 

[TinkyPete]

Wychbury hill is another good site close to you which is a site of a hill fort, been a while since i have been up it and then there is kniver and all that way too we are spoilt round stourbridge

 

[Joonsy]

Thankyou for that post RichardHomer. Born in the Black Country myself I know it very well indeed. I read your links, there are a great many things of historical interest in the Black Country and surrounding areas. Barrow Hill (by Russellls Hall Hospital) is actually an old extinct volcano, down the road is Mushroom Green an old traditional chainmakers workshop where they do demonstrations, as TinkyPete says Wychbury Hill is only down the road from where you were walking it’s an iron age hill fort, I have walked the Clent and Kinver areas extensively and know them and the areas beyond very well indeed. The link mentioned a tramway, there was also a tramline between Stourbridge and Kinver and you can still see where it was by the Stewponey area. The nearby River Stour used to be very badly polluted when I was young, however people fish it now so two years ago out of curiosity I fished it with my brother, we caught only one fish a 4 ½ lb brown trout, this is absolutely true I assure you, we could hardly believe it ourselves and we returned the fish back to the river alive. There is also plenty of wildlife to see for those who walk with open eyes. ATB.

Black Locust Tree, pic taken a few months ago on a walk by Hagley Hall near Clent.

 

[richardhomer]

Wychbury hill is another good site close to you which is a site of a hill fort, been a while since i have been up it and then there is kniver and all that way too we are spoilt round stourbridge

I spent a lot of time up over wychbury hill when I had my dog, Before I got married and had children. Its a lovely place and I have always found it to have a magic feel about it too, Something that's hard to explain.

 

[richardhomer]

Thankyou for that post RichardHomer. Born in the Black Country myself I know it very well indeed. I read your links, there are a great many things of historical interest in the Black Country and surrounding areas. Barrow Hill (by Russellls Hall Hospital) is actually an old extinct volcano, down the road is Mushroom Green an old traditional chainmakers workshop where they do demonstrations, as TinkyPete says Wychbury Hill is only down the road from where you were walking it’s an iron age hill fort, I have walked the Clent and Kinver areas extensively and know them and the areas beyond very well indeed. The link mentioned a tramway, there was also a tramline between Stourbridge and Kinver and you can still see where it was by the Stewponey area. The nearby River Stour used to be very badly polluted when I was young, however people fish it now so two years ago out of curiosity I fished it with my brother, we caught only one fish a 4 ½ lb brown trout, this is absolutely true I assure you, we could hardly believe it ourselves and we returned the fish back to the river alive. There is also plenty of wildlife to see for those who walk with open eyes. ATB.

Black Locust Tree, pic taken a few months ago on a walk by Hagley Hall near Clent.

The river stour is now fully alive again. Down in Stourbridge a kingfisher was spotted about two years back. There are a local group in Stourbridge that now keep that part of the river tidy. So in part its thanks to them. But there has been a big thing about cleaning the whole river up over the past two decades. And it is paying off. To think at one time all the mills and foundry's use to dump all there waste in there. There was also a saying down in Kidderminster, That would could always tell what colour the carpet factory's were dying the carpet by what colour the river ran that day.
Another great part of outdoor life that dose get forgot about where I am local is the Stourbridge canal. You can walk all the way from Stourbridge to Kinver along the canal in some of the most lovely surroundings. The canal is very clean and full of fish, There are ducks galore and to top it all off all the added bird song along the way. I sometimes use the canal to get to ashwood Sunday morning carboot. I use my Bike to get there as its a total of about 5 miles there from my house.

There really are some very missed and over looked places local to our little part of the country. But I'm sure its the same for others too. I think we tend to go off and explore wales/snowmen the valley's and the lakes. The utter most top of Scotland. But miss and fail things on our door step.