Clent Hills
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| Clent Hill | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 309 m (1,014 ft) |
| Location | Worcestershire,  England |
| Prominence | 207 m |
| OS grid reference | SO942797 |
The Clent Hills lie 15 km southwest of Birmingham city centre in Worcestershire, England. The closest towns are Stourbridge and Halesowen, both in the West Midlands conurbation. The Clent Hills range consists of, in order from highest to lowest: Walton Hill, Clent Hill, Wychbury Hill, and Calcot Hill. The range of hills continues eastwards to include Romsley Hill, Waseley Hills and the Lickey Hills.
Clent Hill is the most popular hillwalking hill in the range, although it is not often mentioned because the whole area is referred to as Clent Hills. The Clent Hills claim to have more visitors in a typical year than Worcester cathedral. They are often busy with walkers.
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[edit] History
Clent appears in the Domesday Book as "Klinter", and may be derived from the old Scandinavian word klint for a cliff. Once part of a Mercian forest, the hills contain the remains of a multi-vallate Iron Age hillfort on Wychbury Hill. Local historians have claimed that there was a battle between ancient Britons and Romans fought on Clent Heath. The Clent Hills are graced with several classically-inspired architectural works from the late 1700s. Most of them are in the private grounds of Hagley Hall but most of them are visible from public areas. Lord Lyttelton of Hagley Hall constructed the Wychbury Obelisk on Wychbury Hill in 1758, which visible for many miles, even from the Clee Hills. He also had constructed many other follies including a Temple of Theseus, other small Greek and Roman temples, a full sized ruined Mock castle (his lands did not contain a real one!) and 'The Four Stones' on top of Clent Hill. Some suggest that Lyttelton raised the Four Stones to annoy the Earl of Dudley, who had boasted that from his estate, Himley Hall, he could see no man-made structures.
The Clent Hills are also well-known for their role in the legend of St. Kenelm, who was murdered on a hunting trip at the north eastern slopes of Clent Hill in 821 AD. The church of St. Kenelm in the parish of Romsley marks the site of the murder. The church is the starting point of the sixty mile walk St Kenelm's Trail. One source of the River Stour is within the grounds of St. Kenelms church.
The summits of the two largest hills, Clent Hill and Walton Hill are now the property of the National Trust. Clent Hill Common was managed by a Board of Conservators from 1881 to 1959. Walton Hill Common became a regulated common land (under Commons Act 1899) in 1935. Both commons and woodland between were given by Worcestershire County Council and Bromsgrove Rural District Council in 1959. Both hills were then managed by a Management Committee of the National Trust until 1974, when the committee became advisory only. Both the Conservators and Management Committee were largely funded by contributions from neighbouring local authorities, particularly in the Black Country. In 1974, the hills became a country park, managed by Hereford & Worcester County Council under the Countryside Act 1968. In 1995, management reverted to the National Trust, which set up a new Advisory Committee in 2000.
Clent Hills was recently featured in the BBC's website magazine in which Match of the Day 2 presenter Adrian Chiles chose it as his favourite 'hidden tourist attraction'.
[edit] View
The hills rise to a height of 316 m (1037 ft) on Walton Hill, with views over the Malvern Hills, Kinver Edge, The Wrekin, Wenlock Edge, Shatterford Hill, Clee Hills and back round to Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Dudley, Halesowen and Turners Hill. On a clear day you can even see as far as the Black Mountains of Wales, the Cotswolds, the Peak District and Charnwood Forest. A toposcope indicates the mountains visible. Landmarks visible from the hills include Dudley Castle, the large Droitwich AM transmitters near Bromsgrove, the large silos on the British Sugar Corporation land in Kidderminster, Ironbridge Power Station, near Telford and the nearby Wychbury Obelisk. It is because of this that the hills are very popular with hillwalking visitors and local ramblers groups. The hills are criss-crossed with many public footpaths. A popular means of access to Clent Hill is from Nimmings car park, off Hagley Wood Lane. From this an easy access walk route leads to the ridge. Another popular access is from the public car park on Adams Hill. Adams Hill is not a separate hill, but the name for the hamlet (part of the parish of Clent) and the slope that form the south west flank of Clent Hill.
[edit] Geography
The hills along with the Lickey Hills form a range of hills in north Worcestershire. The largest of the Clent Hills is Walton Hill which is just over 316 metres high followed by Clent Hill at 309 metres. They are separated by a valley known as St. Kenelm's Pass, which starts as an escarpment one side of which along with the sides of the two hills falls away towards Uffmoor Wood water flowing down this slope enters streams which become the River Stour. The other side of the escapment becomes a sharp V valley in which a stream flows down into Clent village and the Walton Hill side of the vally is known as Clatterbach. In the past, before steam power replaced water power, the stream in the valley was dammed at regular intervals to provide water power for watermills. The remains of one such dam can be seen behined the Vine Inn in Clent which was once a local mill.
Either side of the two largest hills are two more hills. Beside Clent Hill is Wychbury Hill and beside Walton Hill is Calcot Hill. Calcot Hill is not really a separate hill but at the end of a long spur which runs from the summit of Walton hill for about a mile. There is a public footpath along the spur joining the two hills. Alongside the spur is another deep V shaped valley which was also dammed at frequent intervals to provide power to its mills. This stream flows on to the village of Belbroughton in which the Nash crown scythe works used the water to power its machinery. On the other side of the valley is Romsley Hill, the valley banks of which are covered by Great Farley Wood beyond Romsley Hill are a number of lower hills (Windmill, Chapman's and Waseley) which join the Clent hills to the Lickey Hills in one continuous chain.
The National Trust land on the hills encompass 1.77 square kilometres of woodland (both natural deciduous and coniferous forest plantations) and heathland, important for wildlife including Fallow Deer and Common Buzzard, plus visiting Ring Ouzel and Common Crossbill.
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