Lickey Hills
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 hills had been a royal hunting reserve belonging to the Manor of Bromsgrove. Free public open access began in 1888 when Rednal Hill was bought by the Birmingham Society for the Preservation of Open Space. The Society then presented it to the City of Birmingham in trust. Pinfield Wood and Bilberry Hill were then leased at a nominal rent. Cofton Hill, Lickey Warren and Pinfield Wood were bought in 1920. The final stage in restoring public access to the area was the purchase of the Rose Hill Estate from the Cadbury family in 1923. No part of the Lickey Hills Country Park is within the city boundary
The Lickey Hills consist of two parallel ranges with a valley between. The higher range consists of Rose Hill, Beacon Hill and Stock Hill whilst the lower hills are Rednal Hill, Bilberry Hill and Cofton Hill. The three hilltops 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
Beacon Hill
On Beacon Hill stood one of the country-wide network of beacons which, before the days of modern communication were used to alert the country to an imminent invasion. A tapestry map woven about the time of the Spanish Armada shows the huge iron basket on top of Beacon Hill where two men kept watch night and day. It is reasonable to assume that a signal fire was lit on the Lickeys in 1588 when the Spanish Armada was sighted in the English Channel.
During the Second World War the Army's Royal Engineers built a range of buildings on top of Beacon Hill that were used by Air Raid Wardens, who acted as fire watchers over the south of Birmingham and Royal Observer Corps aircraft spotters who activated the air raid sirens for Rednal, Rubery, Northfield, the Austin motors factory and the Austin Aero aircraft factory at Cofton Hackett. The range of buildings included a dormitory / rest room block and an open topped toilet range. The latter building, the toilet block still painted in army khaki, was located just under the cover of the tree line and remained in use by the public as late as the early 1970s.
During the extremely cold winters that affected the Birmingham area during the 1950s the northern slope of Beacon Hill was frequently covered by snow for several weeks each year and was used daily by hundreds of families for sledging. In recent years milder winters have not produced sufficient snow and the slope has been reduced in scope by housing development and expansion of the Municipal Golfcourse.
Standing on the apex of the hill, is the toposcope gifted in the early twentieth century by Cadbury's. A small castle like structure was built to house it in 1988 to celebrate the centenary of the country park. It is 297 metres above sea level and provides the best views of the city and stands adjacent to the Ordnance Survey triangulation point.
Lickey Incline
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.
References
Margaret Mabey, A Little History of the Lickey Hills, The Lickey Hills Society, 1993, ISBN 0-9519839-1-1
External links
Lickey Hills webpage
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