Sandwell Valley Country Park is a

country park A country park is a natural area designated for people to visit and enjoy recreation in a countryside environment. United Kingdom History In the United Kingdom, the term ''country park'' has a special meaning. There are around 250 recognised cou ...

, run by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, in

Sandwell Valley Sandwell Valley is an area of green belt in the county of West Midlands, England, on the border of Birmingham and West Bromwich, with Walsall at its northern end. It is a valley on the River Tame of which are owned by Sandwell Metropolita ...

, on the River Tame in the middle of the urban

conurbation A conurbation is a region comprising a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most cas ...

between

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

and

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ) is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is north-west of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area ...

in West Midlands, England.

Location and features

The country park stretches from the A41 at West Bromwich to the edge of Walsall. The main entrances to the site are at Sandwell Park Farm, Salter's Lane, West Bromwich, B71 4BG. Forge Mill Farm, Forge Lane, West Bromwich B71 3SZ. Leisure facilities include a pitch & putt golf course, a Millennium Cycle Route, a Mountain Bike Trail, tennis courts and open spaces. Swan Pool (also known as Wasson or Warstone) is used for sailing. The park has received a

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

."Sandwell Valley Country Park"
''Green Flag Award''. Retrieved 12 September 2020. Sandwell Valley parkrun happens here every Saturday morning at 9.00am. This is a free, timed, 5 kilometre event for walkers, joggers and runners which is organised by volunteers.{Sandwell Valley parkrun https://www.parkrun.org.uk/sandwellvalley/

Local nature reserves

Priory Woods and Forge Mill Lake, both local nature reserves (LNRs) since 1991, are within the park."Priory Woods LNR"
''

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

''. Retrieved 12 September 2020."Forge Mill Lake LNR"
''Natural England''. Retrieved 12 September 2020. Priory Woods LNR has an area of . It has woodland, with many varieties of native trees and introduced species; pools, inhabited by wildfowl; and it contains the ruins of

Sandwell Priory Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and ...

. Footpaths in the reserve link to other areas of the country park. The car park for the reserve is at Sandwell Park Farm."Priory Woods"
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 12 September 2020. Forge Mill Lake - geograph

Forge Mill Lake LNR has an area of . The lake is alongside the River Tame, and there is a footpath around it. The car park for the reserve is close to Forge Mill Farm, on Forge Lane."Forge Mill Lake"
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 12 September 2020. Sandwell Valley RSPB reserve manages part of Forge Mill Lake, including one of the two islands in the lake; there is a bird hide and an RSPB visitor centre. The reserve is important for breeding birds including

oystercatchers The oystercatchers are a group of waders forming the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, ''Haematopus''. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia. The e ...

and lapwings. A car park is next to the visitor centre."RSPB Sandwell Valley"
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 12 September 2020. There are two working farm visitor centres. Sandwell Park Farm is a restored Victorian farm with a walled kitchen garden; it has rare breeds including

Hereford cattle The Hereford is a British breed of beef cattle originally from Herefordshire in the West Midlands of England. It has spread to many countries – there are more than five million purebred Hereford cattle in over fifty nations worldwide. The bre ...

and

Berkshire pig The Berkshire is an English breed of pig. It originated in the county of Berkshire, for which it is named. It is normally black, with some white on the snout, on the lower legs, and on the tip of the tail. It is a rare breed in the United Kin ...

s. Forge Mill Farm has a farm shop and a farm trail."All about Sandwell Valley Country Park"
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council. Retrieved 12 September 2020.

History

Sandwell Valley Country Park was once the site of Sandwell Priory, a 12th-century

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

which itself was founded on the site of an earlier hermitage. The monastery was closed on the orders of

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

in 1525, and by 1705 the land was redeveloped once more, into

Sandwell Hall Sandwell Hall was a mansion house in the county of West Midlands (originally in Staffordshire), England, about east of West Bromwich. The site is within Sandwell Valley Country Park. It was built in 1711 for William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmou ...

, built for the

Earl of Dartmouth Earl of Dartmouth is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1711 for William Legge, 2nd Baron Dartmouth. History The Legge family descended from Edward Legge, Vice-President of Munster. His eldest son William Legge was a ...

. From the late 19th century the Hall was used as an asylum, and then in 1907, a home for boys, "Sandwell Hall Industrial School for Mentally Defective Boys". In 1928 Sandwell Hall was demolished due to subsidence caused by mining from Sandwell Park (Jubilee) Colliery which employed over 600 miners. A coal tramway ran from the Jubilee pit through the Sandwell Park to the canal at Smethwick. By the 1960s the site was developed into the Country Park with up to set aside for amenities.

References

External links

{{commons category
''Explore Sandwell Valley'' (leaflets to download)
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Photos of Sandwell Valley Country Park and surrounding area on geograph
Country parks in the West Midlands (county)