Barrow Hill Local Nature Reserve is a local nature reserve situated in Pensnett in the county of

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, England. Its most distinctive feature, Barrow Hill, is the eroded remnant of a high level

igneous intrusion In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...

that was formed 315 million years ago during the

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

period. The reserve was created in 2005.

History

The area was once woodland inside

Pensnett Chase Pensnett Chase was a wooded area of land owned by the Lords of Dudley Castle in the parishes of Kingswinford and Dudley (or mainly so). As a chase, it was originally used by them to hunt game in although it was also used as common land by local ...

, which was mainly common land under the lordship of the Barons of Dudley. The hard volcanic rock (

dolerite Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-grained ...

) that forms Barrow Hill was quarried in the 19th century for use as road stone. Another reminder of the industrial age in the reserve is a footpath that follows the course of one of the Earl of Dudley's private railways. The reserve was created in 2005.

Location

The reserve is located at Pensnett, near to St Marks Church and Russells Hall Hospital. Access is via Vicarage Lane, Pensnett.

Landscape

The reserve is dominated by Barrow Hill, the remains of an extinct volcano. The effects of quarrying for dolerite can be clearly seen. The quarrying removed the two barrows (

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

burial mounds) that gave the hill its name. Exposed rock faces in the quarries reveal volcanic features, such as hexagonal pillars that formed during the cooling of the magma. The area contains woodland, such as Barrow Hill Copse, along with meadowland and ponds.

References

{{Authority control Local Nature Reserves in the West Midlands (county) Carboniferous volcanoes