Ankerdine Common Picnic Place

A room with a view – three steps take you up to the viewing area, a level open area of grassland with picnic table, and an extensive outlook southwards towards Ravenshill, Alfrick and beyond to the Malverns. You really do feel on top of the world here.

If you continue along the Fox Trail the path becomes steep and narrow with several steps. The woods are rich with flowers and birdsong in spring and summer, with the pungent smell of Wild Garlic filling your nostrils. Violets, Bluebells and Wild Strawberries are just a few of the delights you can find here. Autumn colours, fungi and fruit on the trees transform the scene as the year goes on. Winter is no less dramatic, with crisp, clear views, shelter from cold winds and snowdrops and primroses assuring you that spring is just around the corner.

In the sky all through the year you are likely to see and hear Buzzards here. Listen out for their strange mewing sound, which you wouldn't expect to come from such a large, strong bird. Many Buzzards make their home in the Teme Valley. On warm days they can be seen wheeling effortlessly over woods, hardly needing to flap their wings at all to stay aloft.

Under foot you can see the remains of small scale quarrying on the site near the road. Stone from here was used to build Knightwick church and several cottages in the area, as well as for road materials. The little quarries were called the ‘boys’ quarry and the ‘girls’ quarry, from where children used to play after they were decommissioned. Knightwick itself, at the bottom of the hill, is where Elgar is attributed to have composed The Dream of Gerontius. There is a good pub in the village, where they still brew their own beer.

Not all this site was originally woodland. There would have been much more open grassland than we see today. Look out too for Cherry trees in the woods here, evidence of the harvests that once flourished on these hills. Cherries grow well on steep well-drained soil, and local people created a co-operation to sell their crops, until it became cheaper to buy imported cherries. You can still occasionally see the very tall ladders with narrow tops and spiked bases that were used to pick cherries on these steep hills.