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36-563: Lickey Hills Country Park is a country park in England. It is 10 miles (16 kilometres) south west of Birmingham and 24 miles (39 kilometres) north east of Worcester . The 524 acres (212 ha) park is situated just south of Rednal and close to Barnt Green . It is half a mile west of Cofton Hackett . It is one of the oldest parks managed by Birmingham City Council . The hills rise to 298 m (978 ft) above sea level at Beacon Hill . The park exists in its current form only through

72-458: A children's play area and paths for disabled visitors, although these are limited by the steep topography within the park. Between the Bilberry , Beacon and Rednal Hills stands The Rose & Crown hotel and public house which serves meals daily including Sunday lunches . The Lickey Hills Country Park was awarded a Green Flag Award for seven consecutive years from 2000. A ranger explained in

108-534: A kilometre north of the monument, on top of Beacon Hill, is the toposcope made in the early twentieth century by the Cadbury family, standing next to the Ordnance Survey triangulation point . A small castellated structure was built to rehouse the toposcope in 1988 to celebrate the centenary of the park. It is 297 metres above sea level and provides the best views, of the city and surrounding counties, that

144-415: A newspaper interview: "The Green Flag Award is a national scheme which started back in 1996 as a means of recognising and rewarding the best green spaces in the country. They look for a certain standard of quality management within the park, cleanliness, use by the community and so on. There are a total of 27 criteria to pass in order to win the award." There are several deer species and badgers living in

180-543: A peppercorn (nominal) rent. Birmingham City Council finally purchased Cofton Hill, Lickey Warren and Pinfield Wood outright in 1920. With the eventual purchase of the Rose Hill Estate from the Cadbury family in 1923, free public access was finally restored to the entire hills. In 1904 Mr and Mrs Barrow Cadbury gave the Lickey Tea Rooms building at the bottom of Rose Hill to the people of Birmingham, as

216-531: A place of rest and refreshment and it remained open until the late 1960s. The building still stands but is in use as the Bilberry Hill Centre , a hostel and sports facility run by Birmingham Clubs for Young People nestling at the base of Bilberry Hill. The hostel can accommodate up to 65 persons. For many Birmingham and Black Country people, the Lickey Hills were a traditional day out. When

252-454: Is not necessarily any public right of access to country parks, and visitors are usually subject to byelaws when they enter the park. Some charge for car parking, some are free. These parks vary tremendously from one to another, and really have only their purpose in common: to provide easy access to the countryside for those living in the towns and suburbs . They do not necessarily have any great nature conservation interest, although often this

288-570: Is the case. In Hong Kong a large part of the territory's countryside is officially designated as country parks. Most of these are reservoir watersheds, serving the dual purpose of providing recreational facilities and contributing to Hong Kong's water supply. Bilberry Hill Bilberry Hill is one of the Lickey Hills in northern Worcestershire , England, 10.3 miles (16.6 kilometres) southwest of Birmingham and 24 miles (39 kilometres) northeast of Worcester . It stands above and to

324-659: The Birmingham Cross-City line from Bromsgrove/Redditch in the south and the City Centre/Lichfield in the north. In 1904, J. R. R. Tolkien , author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , moved to Rednal with his mother who was convalescing after an illness. The hills became a favourite haunt of Tolkien's and are thought to be his inspiration for the mythical Shire, where the hobbits lived in his books. John Henry, Cardinal Newman lived and

360-480: The Longbridge and Cofton Hackett end of Birmingham from Barnt Green and Lickey in rural Worcestershire, are 11 miles south of central Birmingham. The total area of the park is 524 acres (2.12 km). The area is of significant geological interest due to the range and age of the rocks . The stratigraphic sequence, which is the basis for the area's diversity of landscape and habitat , comprises: On

396-703: The Birmingham tram network was extended to the Rednal terminus it would carry the crowds from all over the city to the Lickeys. There are records of crowds as far back as the Rose and Crown on busy Sundays, as families queued for the trams to take them home. The terminus and tram tracks were removed in 1953. The park is situated in the Lickey Hills range, which is part of the Clent and Lickey ridge. The hills, which separate

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432-406: The Cadbury family led by George Cadbury and his wife Dame Elizabeth Cadbury . The society gave the original park to the people of Birmingham in 1888, with further tracts being added progressively until 1933. The park has thus been preserved as a free-entry public open space. The Lickey Hills immediately became popular as a recreation area and attendance numbers exploded between 1924 and 1953 while

468-657: The Lickey Tea Rooms and remained in use as a restaurant until the early 1960s. The hostel can accommodate up to 65 persons. In the winter of 2008, the Centre was under threat of imminent closure over funding issues, and there was an internet campaign to save the facility for future use by young people. It remained in operation until 2019, when the Birmingham Federation of Clubs for Young People went into administration. The Birmingham City Council has owned

504-616: The Lickey's road-widening was taking place in 1925. A flint scraping tool was found in the area near the Earl of Plymouth monument. The artifacts are on display at the Birmingham Museum. The Romans constructed a Roman road over the Lickeys very near to the present Rose Hill gap, before it swung north and followed the route of the present day Bristol Road South. The road would have been used to transport salt and other goods between

540-562: The Roman encampments at Worcester and Metchley, near where Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital now stands. It would have also been used as a military marching route by Roman soldiers. In 1963 a Roman coin was found near Rednal Hill School by a Janet and Stephen Harris. The coin was a dupondius struck during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius who ruled Rome and Britain from 138 to 161 AD. The tiny coin

576-526: The West Midlands and is Green Flag recognised. The first evidence of people settling in the Lickey Hills date back to the Stone Age when a Neolithic hunter lost a flint arrow head on Rednal Hill. The arrow head is leaf-shaped and made of flint and is certainly over 4,000 years old. Additionally a 3,000-year-old flint javelin point was found lying on the surface by an observant Mr W H Laurie when

612-475: The activities and generosity of the early 20th-century philanthropic Birmingham Society for the Preservation of Open Spaces who purchased Rednal Hill and later arranged for Pinfield Wood and Bilberry Hill to be permanently leased on a nominal peppercorn rent. The society included such prominent and public spirited luminaries as T Grosvenor Lee, Ivor Windsor-Clive, 2nd Earl of Plymouth and several elders of

648-650: The area was totally covered with trees. The manor was sold by crown charter in 1682 to the Earl of Plymouth . The Earl lived at nearby Tardebigge and his descendants would own the lands at Longbridge , Rednal , Cofton Hackett and the Lickey Hills for the next 250 years. In 1888 the Birmingham Society for the Preservation of Open Spaces purchased Rednal Hill and handed it to the City in trust. They also arranged for Pinfield Wood and Bilberry Hill to be leased on

684-474: The core facilities and services they should provide it did not empower the designation of sites as country parks, as it was left to local authorities to decide whether to endorse a site calling itself a country park. In England, country parks can be accredited by Natural England , and some also have Green Flag status. The purpose of a country park is to provide a place that has a natural, rural atmosphere for visitors who do not necessarily want to go out into

720-422: The early to mid autumn and are popular with walkers for the free harvest that is later transformed into jams or bilberry and apple pies. There are over 380 different species of flowering plant within the park, including 17 species of fern and 30 species of moss. There are a range of woodland invertebrates including insects such as beetles, centipedes and slugs. Together with flies, bees and butterflies, they provide

756-574: The eventual purchase of the Rose Hill Estate from the Cadbury family in 1923, free public access was finally restored to the entire hills with what would become the Lickey Hills Country Park in 1971. The Bilberry Hill Centre was a hostel and sports facility run by Birmingham Clubs for Young People and nestling at the base of Bilberry Hill. The building was donated to the people of Birmingham by Mr. and Mrs. Barrow Cadbury in 1904 as

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792-473: The general public. There is a short to medium walk from all local public transport stops to the main park visitor centre. Diamond Worcestershire services 182 and 183 start at Lickey Square and terminate in Redditch. Diamond services 145/145A and National Express West Midlands route X20 from Birmingham City Centre also stop nearby. The nearest railway station is Barnt Green , with frequent services on

828-547: The hill, between the pathways. Local people have been cropping the bushes of their fruit each autumn for hundreds of years to make jams, preserves or apple and bilberry pies. In 1888, the Birmingham Society for the Preservation of Open Spaces purchased Rednal Hill and handed it to the City in trust. In 1913, they also arranged for Bilberry Hill and Pinfold Wood to be leased to the city on a nominal peppercorn rent in perpetuity. Birmingham City Council finally purchased Cofton Hill, Lickey Warren and Pinfield Wood outright in 1920. With

864-439: The park provides. The park includes an 18-hole non-membership golf course , the first such municipal facility in the country which was noted as one of the most difficult municipal golf courses in the country in the 1970s by Tony Jacklin . Also included within the park boundary is a bowling green, tennis and putting green as well as a purpose-built wheelchair pathway and viewing platform allowing easy access to panoramic views over

900-416: The park, together with a range of waterfowl on the lake including Canada geese , mallards , coot , moorhen and mute swans . In spring, there are notable displays of bluebells . The forests mainly consist of mature spruce and pine trees although there is also a wide-ranging mosaic of deciduous trees on the lower slopes. Bilberry Hill is named after the extensive bilberry bushes that bear fruit in

936-559: The road from Lickey to Lickey Beacon there is an obelisk folly commemorating Other Archer Windsor, 6th Earl of Plymouth , who created the Worcestershire Yeomanry volunteer regiment of cavalry , which served in the Napoleonic Wars . The obelisk, which is well hidden from the road, is inscribed with the words "To commend to imitation the exemplary private virtues of Other Archer 6th Earl of Plymouth." Just

972-494: The site since, which is currently derelict. In 2022, the Cofton Hackett Parish Council held two public meetings to decide the future of the site. The Lickey Hills area is of significant geological interest due to the range and age of the rocks . The darker quartzite making up Bilberry Hill shows signs of having been deposited as sand at the bottom of a shallow sea. The stratigraphic sequence, which

1008-421: The small cafe near the lake. The damp woodland and the nearby heathland is also home to a variety of reptiles, which include grass snakes , adders and the common lizard . The most evident mammals are the large numbers of grey squirrels throughout the woods and rabbits over the hills, especially during summer evenings. The area is very popular with walkers , families, birdwatchers , other nature lovers and

1044-406: The staple diet for some of the larger wildlife within the park. Ninety bird species have also been recorded within the park. These include robin , chaffinch , blue tit , great tit , sparrowhawk and common woodpigeon , with common redstarts and tree pipits visiting during the summer and fieldfare and redwing during the winter. Nuthatches are frequently seen on the bird feeders outside

1080-574: The support of the former Countryside Commission . In more recent times there has been no specific financial support for country parks directly and fewer have been designated. Most parks are managed by local authorities, although other organisations and private individuals can also run them. The 1968 Countryside Act empowered the Countryside Commission to recognize country parks. Although the Act established country parks and gave guidance on

1116-531: The surrounding countryside. The visitor centre, which first opened in April 1990, contains an exhibition, leaflets and information on nature trails, guided walks and other activities organised by the Ranger Service. It also has a small café and gift shop. There are three car parks, one for the visitor centre, one by the golf club house and another on the top of Beacon Hill. Also next to the visitor centre are

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1152-475: The tram service connected with the terminus at Rednal . As early as 1919 as many as 20,000 visitors were recorded on a single August Bank Holiday Monday. The current Country Park status was established with the support of the Countryside Commission in 1971 and today the park still hosts over 500,000 visitors a year. It is considered to be one of the most picturesque public spaces of its type in

1188-600: The west of the village of Cofton Hackett , and is part of the Lickey Hills Country Park . The three hilltops comprising The Lickeys —Bilberry Hill, Rednal Hill and Cofton Hill —form the northern extremity of the Lickey Ridge, a formation of hard quartzite . Views over Birmingham and the surrounding countryside can be seen from the top of these hills. The hill is named after the tracts of Bilberry ( Vaccinium myrtillus ) bushes that cover

1224-754: The wider countryside. Visitors can enjoy a public open space with an informal atmosphere, as opposed to a formal park as might be found in an urban area. For this reason country parks are usually found close to or on the edge of built-up areas, and rarely in the wider countryside. A country park usually has some more formal facilities, such as a car park, toilets, maybe a cafe or kiosk, paths and trails, and some information for visitors. Some have much more, with museums, visitor centres, educational facilities, historic buildings, farms, boating, fishing, and other attractions. Many larger country parks organise entertainment for visitors, and are venues for firework displays, shows and fairs and other large, outdoor events. There

1260-592: Was buried in the area. The author Jonathan Coe was born in Lickey in 1961. Country park In the United Kingdom, the term country park has a specific meaning. There are around 250 designated country parks in England and Wales attracting some 57 million visitors a year, and another 40 or so in Scotland. Most country parks were designated in the 1970s, under the Countryside Act 1968 , with

1296-518: Was struck from brass and would have been worth about the price of a loaf of bread. In Norman times the Lickeys formed part of the royal manor of Bromsgrove and were set aside as a royal hunting forest . As well as stocking the area with deer, the Normans deliberately introduced rabbits to the area that were kept in large enclosures, or ' warrens ' hence the road and place names. The word 'forest' means 'place of deer' and did not necessarily mean that

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