Lickey Hills
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The Lickey Hills (known locally as simply The Lickeys) are a range of hills in Worcestershire, England, eleven miles to the south-west of the centre of Birmingham near the villages of Lickey and Barnt Green. Part of them form the Lickey Hills Country Park of 525 acres (2 km²) belonging to Birmingham City Council and a golf club. The land was gifted to the City of Birmingham in the 19th Centuary by the Cadbury family though no part of the Lickey Hills are within the city boundary
The three hilltops geographically comprising The Lickeys - Rednal Hill, Bilberry Hill and Cofton Hill - are the summits of the Lickey Ridge, a formation of hard quartzite. Beautiful views over the city and surrounding countryside can be seen from the top of these hills. In the hills there is an obelisk commemorating the sixth Earl of Plymouth (died 1833) as gratitude for his work in forming the Worcestershire Yeomanry volunteer regiment of cavalry.
The Lickey Hills 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:
- Barnt Green rocks - Precambrian tuffs and volcanic grits
- Lickey Quartzite - a Cambrian quartzite
- Keele Clay - a Carboniferous clay
- Clent Breccia - a Permian breccia
- Bunter Pebble Beds - beds of Triassic water-worn pebbles
The Lickey Incline runs about 1.5 miles south of the hills — it is reputedly the steepest sustained adhesion-worked gradient (approximately 2 miles at 1 in 38) on the UK railway system.
[edit] Reference
- Margaret Mabey, A Little History of the Lickey Hills, The Lickey Hills Society, 1993, ISBN 0-9519839-1-1
