LOCAL GREEN SPACES

In the area surrounding the allotment there

are a number of Parks, Barnford Park with a
large productive allotment attached is 1
mile away, and West Smethwick Park is also
a mile away and has a large lake. There are
also quite a few municipal areas around and
many allotments including the Community
allotment which is 2 miles away from the
site.
Thimblemill brook is 2 miles away it is a 1
mile stretch of Land with a natural spring
set between two roads. It is a site of local
interest for nature conservation and has an
abundance of wildlife with nesting
moorhens, woodpeckers, kingfishers and
herons.
Warley woods is 6 acres about 1 mile away
it is set on a small valley which has an
occasional stream at the bottom, it also has
an attached golf course. It can be dated
back to 1066 when it would have consisted
of fields and woodland and was part of the
Warley Hall estate. You can see traces of
medieval ridge and furrow. The park has a
huge amount of wildlife, birds and small
mammals. Its woods contain among other

things Red oak, American oak, sissile oak,

Horse chestnut, sycamore, silver birch,
Larch and Scotts pine.
Sandwell valley is 5 miles from the site it is
on the river Tame and is 1,800 acres. The
RSPB lease 25 acres as a nature reserve,
670 acres is a country park and it also has a
small farm. It has Sots Hole nature reserve
on site also. The earliest evidence of people
found there are some have flint tools from
the Mesolithic period.
Despite of its many green spaces Sandwell
also has a very industrial past and on
balance I think it will be wise to send some
soil for testing.
From studying the local area I can now see
that although Birmingham is on a plateau
as you move through Sandwell towards
Dudley the land does being to undulate
quite noticeably and Oldbury itself where
the allotment is located is in a dip.(when
we first moved to the area 9 years ago we
even had trouble getting phone
reception!)So there are many influences
and micro climates in the surrounding area
to consider. Also for an urban environment
there is actually quite a lot of diversity and

wildlife near to the allotment as well as a

growing number of people who want to
start growing all of which can only be
beneficial.