Bilberry Hill

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Bilberry Hill
Lickey Hills.jpg
A view from Bilberry Hill over Rosehill Road and the Birmingham Municipal Golf Course towards Beacon Hill. Bilberry bushes can be seen in the foreground.
Highest point
Elevation 260 m (850 ft) [1]
Prominence 116 m (381 ft) [2]
Geography
Bilberry Hill
Location Worcestershire, UK
Parent range Lickey Hills

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 the west of the village of Cofton Hackett, and is part of the Lickey Hills Country Park.

Contents

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 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.

History

View from Bilberry Hill looking East over Cofton Hackett village and the reservoirs Lickeys.JPG
View from Bilberry Hill looking East over Cofton Hackett village and the reservoirs

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 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 the Lickey Tea Rooms and remained in use as a restaurant until the early 1960s. The hostel can accommodate up to 65 persons. [3] 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. [4] It remained in operation until 2019, when the Birmingham Federation of Clubs for Young People went into administration. The Birmingham City Council has owned 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. [5]

Geology

A quarry cutting on Bilberry Hill through the Lickey Quartzite. Quarry cutting, Bilberry Hill.JPG
A quarry cutting on Bilberry Hill through the Lickey Quartzite.

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 is the basis for the area's diversity of landscape and habitat, comprises: [6]

The soil is marl and the subsoil gravel, sand and clay. There is a small quarry where Wenlock limestone was worked at the time of the making of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, and there are some gravel-pits.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rednal</span> Human settlement in England

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Lickey Hills Country Park is a country park in England. It is 10 miles south west of Birmingham and 24 miles 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.

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The Clent Hills lie 10 miles (16 km) south-west of Birmingham city centre in Clent, Worcestershire, England. The closest towns are Stourbridge and Halesowen, both in the West Midlands conurbation. The Clent Hills range consists of, in order from north-west to south-east: Wychbury Hill, Clent Hill, and Walton Hill. The north Worcestershire range of hills continues eastwards to include Romsley Hill, Waseley Hills and the Lickey Hills.

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Lickey is a "linear development" in the north of Worcestershire, England approximately 10 miles (16 km) south west from the centre of Birmingham. It lies in Bromsgrove District and is situated on the Lickey Ridge, amongst the Lickey Hills, its proximity to countryside and the city makes it a popular commuter area. The civil parish of Lickey and Blackwell has a population of 4,140.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lickey Hills</span> Range of hills in Worcestershire

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Llanbedrog Volcanic Group</span>

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Haffield Breccia, or Clent Breccia, consist of a texturally immature compacted gravel, rich in volcanic clasts with some sedimentary rocks, in a sandy or muddy matrix, which outcrops in the English Midlands, in South Staffordshire, Birmingham and the Malverns. It is thought to have been deposited by during flash floods in rivers that were flowing through a desert, somewhere between 200 and 280 million years ago during the Permian period. The gravel consists of angular fragments, showing that they have not been transported over long distances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dent Group</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceiswyn Formation</span> Geologic formation in Wales

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References

  1. ↑ "OS Maps: Online mapping and walking, running and cycling routes".
  2. ↑ "Bilberry Hill". Peakbagger.
  3. ↑ "Bilberry Hill Centre". Archived from the original on 27 March 2010. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  4. ↑ "Save the Bilbury Hill Centre". Archived from the original on 12 November 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
  5. ↑ Bromsgrove Editorial (17 March 2022). "Future of Bilberry Centre near Lickey Hills Country Park, discussed at public meeting". Bromsgrove Standard. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  6. ↑ Birmingham City Council. "Lickey Hills Country Park: Geology" . Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  7. ↑ British Geological Survey. "Barnt Green Volcanic Formation". The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  8. ↑ British Geological Survey. "Lickey Quartzite Formation". The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  9. ↑ British Geological Survey. "Halesowen Formation". The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  10. ↑ British Geological Survey. "Clent Formation". The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units. Retrieved 4 January 2012.

52°22′36″N2°00′37″W / 52.37664°N 2.01024°W / 52.37664; -2.01024

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