Wychbury Hill
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Wychbury Hill | |
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Wychbury Hill looking towards Wychbury Obelisk |
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Elevation | 224 m (734 ft) |
Location | Worcestershire, England |
Topo map | OS Explorer 219 |
OS grid reference | SO920817 |
Wychbury Hill is a hill situated off the A456 Birmingham Road, at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire.
It is divided between the parish of Hagley and former parish of Pedmore. It is one of the Clent Hills. The hill offers good views across the Severn Valley as far as the Malvern Hills and Clee Hills. It is the site of an Iron Age hill fort and the Wychbury Obelisk, and much beloved of modern pagans, apparently due to the name sounding like 'witch'. However the name is actually unrelated, being derived from that of the Saxon subkingdom of the Hwicce.
A woman's body was discovered inside a wych elm tree in a wood, on Wychbury Hill on the Hagley Hall estate during World War Two, prompting the intriguing graffiti "Who Put Bella in the witch [sic] Elm?" that has adorned the obelisk for several years, and is still there. The victim was never identified. It has sparked a lot of media interest over the years, featuring on the BBC's Inside Out program in the Midlands.
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