Moseley Bog is located close to Wake Green Road. The main entrance is on Yardley Wood Road.

Entrance Gateway from Yardley Wood Road at Moseley Bog (December 2012). Photography by Elliott Brown

 

You can also get in from Pensby Close off Thirlmere Drive (if heading from Sarehole Mill on the Wake Green Road). To the north is a playing field that is Windermere Park. Entrance to that via Windermere Road.

The walk down Wake Green Road to Moseley Bog via Thirlmere Drive and Pensby Close (April 2020). Photography by Elliott Brown

 

It is on the site of an old millpond and is made up of both wet and dry woodland together with patches of fen vegetation.

Algae in the bog at Moseley Bog (September 2016). Photography by Elliott Brown

 

History of Moseley Bog

Moseley Bog is a local nature reserve located in the Moseley area of Birmingham. It was formerly called The Dell. There are burnt mounds that run alongside the Coldbath Brook that flows through the Bog, dating to the Bronze Age, and they are Scheduled Ancient Monuments. The bog was once a secondary reservoir to feed the water to Sarehole Mill. The Coldbath Brook flows from Coldbath Pool through a culvert. The western half of the Bog was used as a landfill by Birmingham City Council from the 1930s to the 1960s. This was levelled off and became a playing field for the nearby Moseley Grammar School.

Windermere Park playing fields at Moseley Bog (April 2020). Photography by Elliott Brown

From the 1980s the Bog was allowed to revert to natural woodland. The whole site was declared a nature reserve in 1991 by Birmingham City Council. It was renamed to Moseley Bog and Joy's Wood in 2000 in recognition of the work of Joy Fifer to protect the site. The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country now leases Moseley Bog from Birmingham City Council. In 2006 a public consultation on proposals to enhance access around the Bog took place. The Council got a lottery grant in 2010 and by the summer of 2011, the Bog was reopened by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham. It now has wooden decking to walk around the bog safely. J. R. R. Tolkien lived nearby as a child, and acknowledged the site as inspiration for the ancient forests in his books The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Steps up to the decking around Moseley Bog, it's easy to get lost! (September 2016). Photography by Elliott Brown

 

Winter at Moseley Bog

Decking at Moseley Bog (December 2012). Photography by Elliott Brown

Spring at Moseley Bog

Decking and lush green trees at Moseley Bog (April 2020). Photography by Elliott Brown

 

Summer at Moseley Bog

Joy's Wood at Moseley Bog (August 2018). Photography by Peter Leadbetter

 

Autumn at Moseley Bog

Leaves on the ground at Moseley Bog (November 2018). Photography by Peter Leadbetter