Chinn Brook Nature Reserve in the Shire Country Park
Continuing on from the Chinn Brook Meadows, is the Chinn Brook Nature Reserve. It is a 17 acre site bound by Yardley Wood Road and Warstock Lane, with the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal to the south. The Chinn Brook flows through here. Beyond is the Cocks Moors Woods Golf Course. The area is quite small. Heading to the north you end up at Haunch Lane, and beyond is Billesley Common.
Chinn Brook Nature Reserve
The walk around the Chinn Brook Nature Reserve continues on from the Chinn Brook Meadows in the Shire Country Park. Located in Yardley Wood. The main entrance is on the east side on Yardley Wood Road. Paths goes around it and over bridges that cross the Chinn Brook and Haunch Brook. Eventually you would get to Warstock Lane to the west, where there is access to the towpath onto the Stratford-on-Avon Canal which is the southern boundary of the nature reserve. Use the steps and not the muddy hill (I once tried to climb up it but slipped down and got mud on my hands). Another way out is if you head up the path towards Haunch Lane. If you want to, you can continue your walk around Billesley Common.
The Chinn Brook Nature Reserve is a 17 acre site, with a variety of habitats. In the 1900s this area formed part of the area known as the "Happy Valley", the working mens picnic spot. On Sundays and Bank Holidays, boats could be hired, and there used to be a fairground on the open space. Yardley Wood Bus Garage was the location of the original Happy Valley Tea Gardens. Since the 1920s various parts of the site had been used as allotments and during WW2 parts were used to grow corn. There used to be a BMX track in what was known as Cocks Moors Wood in 1986-87. Site improvements in 2010 including new footbridges and fencing over the Chinn Brook.
2014
This was during the Christmas Day 2014 walk which started in the Chinn Brook Meadows and continued around the Chinn Brook Nature Reserve on the 25th December 2014.
Information sign at the Yardley Wood Road entrance.
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Enter through the gate on Yardley Wood Road to get in.
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Shire Country Park fingerpost. Head towards either Warstock Lane and the Stratford upon Avon Canal, or to the Chinn Brook Meadows and the River Cole.
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Heading along the path, the trees were quite bare of leaves.
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Trees on the left.
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Seems like branches lower down had been cut off.
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This footbridge goes over the Chinn Brook and the path leads to Haunch Lane.
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A look at the Chinn Brook from the footbridge.
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A lot of bright sunlight over the green area.
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The bridge on Warstock Lane. Beyond here is the golf course.
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View of the Chinn Brook from Warstock Lane.
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Also the view of the Chinn Brook as it flows into Cocks Moors Woods Golf Course.
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A fence from Warstock Lane. The golf course is on the other side (I think).
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Looking up Warstock Lane.
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Heading back into the Chinn Brook Nature Reserve, there was two paths you could walk on.
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A large green lawn that you can walk past.
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2020
This continues the April 2020 lockdown walk into the Chinn Brook Nature Reserve from the Chinn Brook Meadows. As before entered on Yardley Wood Road.
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This time there was more green leaves on the trees, as I had a look at the Chinn Brook.
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The Chinn Brook is not where you dump your wheel and tyre! Take it to a garage!
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Onto the path, as this point, not all of the leaves had grown back onto the thin trees on the left.
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A blue sky with the green open space.
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Growing in the grass was yellow iris.
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Continuing along the path towards Warstock Lane.
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After Haunch Lane, we headed towards Haunch Lane, and when I saw people who stopped for a chat, we took a different path to be socially distant from them.
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Then over the bridge that crosses the Chinn Brook, with a bike on the left.
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So lush and green around the Chinn Brook on both sides.
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Yes this is in Birmingham, but it could be in the countryside. But it's in Yardley Wood.
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The path to Haunch Lane surrounded by all these trees.
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It looks wonderful and natural here.
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Flats on the right reminds you that you are still in an urbanised environment, as we got close to Haunch Lane.
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With the lockdown, the only place to see bluebells was your local nature areas such as here.
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The Shire Country Park fingerpost close to Haunch Lane. Head left to the Stratford upon Avon Canal and Warstock Lane. Or go right to Haunch Lane and Billesley Common.
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After this headed up Chinn Brook Road back to the car, going past the Chinn Brook Meadows.
Future Shire Country Park posts will include:
- Scribers Lane SINC
- Hollybank Spinney
- The fords on Slade Lane and Scribers Lane
Photos taken by Elliott Brown.
Follow me on Twitter here ellrbrown.