Introduction

Walk details:
Start point: Wren's Nest car park, Dudley
Reserve Wardens' office: 01384 812 785
Dudley Museum: 01384 815 575
Ordnance Survey: Explorer 219
Start: OS grid ref (394250, 291750)
Distance: Approx 2 miles (3.2 km)
Time: 1 - 2 hour

More info:
Without wanting to blow our own trumpet (too much), the Black Country is one of the UK's most fascinating areas for natural history.
The name 'Black Country' refers to the black coal abundant in the area, which is now famous for its industrial heritage. Human beings have had a big impact on this landscape - the rock from hills around Dudley has been quarried for hundreds of years both at the surface and underground.
The Wren's Nest, where this walk starts, is very special - it's well known to geologists from all over the world who get rather excited by it. On this walk, you'll go back in time to come face to face with ancient creatures and see ripples on a three million year old seabed. You'll then walk back to the present day, finding out about the first settlers in Dudley, the rare bats who are costing the council millions of pounds and why this area is so important in Britain's history. You'll see birds, wild flowers and evidence of Dudley's industrial past. And hopefully, you'll be able to take home some fossils!

Getting there:
By bus: The nearest bus stop to the start of the walk is on Priory Road. Call the Centro hotline for bus routes and times on 0121 200 2700 or visit the Centro website
By rail: Dudley Port and Tipton railway stations are a half hour walk away from the start point. Visit the National Rail website for train times.
By car: Drive to the start point. It's well signposted off Priory Road in Dudley (see map). There's room for up to 100 cars in the free car park. Do NOT leave valuables in the car.
We recommend that you use public transport.

Walk conditions
You will walk along concrete, grass and rubble paths, which can get muddy. Although there is no incline walking, there are several flights of steep steps, both up and down. Alternative routes are detailed within the pages.

Page 2 - The Snake Pit

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

Walk up the bank at back of car park. Go past the Wardens' Office (on your left) and up to Wren's Hill Road. At the top of the road, look for the large 'Dudley Bug' carving on the right. This is a sculpture of a trilobite - Dudley's most famous fossil. (There's more about fossils on page 4 and 5.) Under this area are the foundations for the house where Abraham Darby was born. He was instrumental in the Industrial Revolution - more about that later.

Turn into the reserve on the right, just past the Dudley Bug.

The area just past the entrance is part of a disused limestone quarry. Limestone is the one of the oldest rock types in the Midlands. It was laid down here 443 - 417 million years ago in the Silurian Period. At that time, Dudley was at the bottom of a warm shallow sea. Imagine what it must have been like where you're standing - you'd be underwater with soft sand between your toes, the seabed covered with different types of coral and burrowing creatures. The water around you is crystal clear as sunlight twinkles down from the surface, picking out the bright colours of the many strange creatures swimming past.

When the creatures which lived here died, they settled on the sea bed, leaving layer after layer of dead bodies in the mud. Over millions of years, under heat and pressure, the mud became limestone with the dead creatures preserved inside it as fossils. If the Earth's crust didn't move, this limestone would be buried hundreds of metres underground. So why is it sticking up here on the surface? Over the millions of years since the limestone was created, the plates of the Earth's crust have been moving about, folding and tilting the rock as easily as if it were fabric.

If people hadn't quarried the limestone here, they would never have found fossils and found out about Dudley's incredible past. Dudley limestone was first used as a building material - Dudley Castle is made from the local rock (and its walls are full of fossils!). Then, in the 1600s and 1700s, limestone was burned and sold as quicklime all over the UK, when it was used as a fertilizer on farms.

After that, the major use of Dudley limestone has been in the iron industry. All the elements needed for ironworks are available in the Black Country. Quicklime takes impurities out of coal - this means the reaction for making iron needs less coal, so it's cheaper.

Go back onto Wren's Hill Road, cross over and go into the nature reserve. You'll see there is a pathway cut into the hill on the right...

Page 3 - Three million year walk

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

You'll see there is a pathway cut into the hill. Walk up the cutting - you're walking through three million years of history! In the 1960s, English Heritage cut this trench through the rock. The rock is made up of lots of layers stacked on top of each other, each layer representing a period of time. Look closely at the particles in the rock - they become finer as you walk up through the cutting. Each layer gives geologists clues - the layers here represent sea levels. Fine particles mean that the water wasn't very energetic. (If it was rushing in fast currents, it would carry bigger pebbles and rocks.) So, because the particles change, the water which covered Dudley millions of years ago changed. So was the land rising or the sea level dropping? Scientist wanted to find out, so they cut this trench straight through this limestone hill.

Look out for yellow/orange stripes in the limestone. These show volcanic activity. When a volcano erupted, it covered the ground (and sea!) with a layer of volcanic ash and rock. And here it is, sandwiched in the limestone. Look out, too, for holes in the rock - they're the burrows of soft-bodied creatures (like worms). Their bodies rotted away but the burrows remain.

Since the cutting was made, plants have begun to move in. Soil starts to build up and the plants' roots can work their way through to anchor themselves in the rock.

The bottom of the cutting, you can see the road on the right which is raised above where you're standing. The 18th century quarrymen left the limestone under the road - so the road must be older than the quarries! The trees growing here tell historians exactly when the quarrying stopped - that's when they started to grow. If you cut down a tree, a slice across the trunk shows rings of growth which can be used to accurately calculate the age of the tree.

Walk out at the foot of the cutting onto Wren's Hill Road. Turn left and go through the gate after The Caves pub.

Page 4 - Reef Mound

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

Continue along the footpath. Look out at the rock face on the left of the path - the rock has been folded up and over - you can see 'stretchmarks' in it. Continue along the path until you reach the Reef Mound, a jagged-edged mound covered with plants and loose pebbles.

Because the rock is so close to the surface, the soil is very thin here. It's a hostile environment for plants but some thrive in the thin soils - look out for bettany and flax. The plants here attracts insects. You might see butterflies, including the rare 'small blue'. Cinnabar moth larvae only feed on ragwort - they're black and orange caterpillars. Ragwort is a weed which is considered a pest. Although it provides food for insects (which in turn are food for birds and mammals), ragwort is poisonous to livestock so farmers prefer to get rid of it. Here at the Reef Mound, the stripey caterpillars are providing a biological control - they're chomping their way through most of the ragwort! Look out for bare stalks and caterpillars on the move looking for more ragwort.

The Reef Mound itself is fascinating. Look closely and you'll be able to see the texture of the ancient coral reef which lived here. Local children call it 'fossil pizza' because (like a seafood pizza) you can see loads of different things scattered in it: shells, corals and creatures. Fossils (complete and partial) erode off the mound every time it rains. You can rummage through the debris on the ground and take any fossils you find home with you! (There's more about fossils on the next page.) There is a sign here which says 'No hammers' - so don't give erosion a helping hand by using tools to chip away at the rock.

You'll easily be able to find fossil coral and shells, other sea creatures, and, if you're lucky, maybe a piece of a trilobite. Dudley is so famous for its trilobite fossils that the beast featured until recently on Dudley's coat of arms! When limestone was mined here, people travelled from all over the world to buy a 'Dudley bug'. There are now Dudley trilobites in museums in every corner of the globe. There is no creature alive today which is anything like the trilobites.

On the right, you'll see an outcrop of rock sticking up. Continue along the path until you reach the viewing platform on the left...

Page 5 - Ripple Beds

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

Stand on the platform to view the beds, where the rock looks like ripples in a sandy beach. The surface of the rock looks like ripples on sand - you're looking at the surface of a three million year old seabed. These ripples were created by the wind and waves three million years ago! Layers of sand and mud built up on top, each with its own pattern of ripples. Today, as each layer erodes, the ripples underneath are exposed again.

Why are the Ripple Beds fenced off? A huge chunk of the rock has slipped down into the trench, leaving a yellow-y patch of rock beneath it. At the moment, the rock face is unstable. The rock didn't just slip down on its own. A fossil dealer cut out a beautiful fossil of a complete 'sea-lily' - a creature that flopped onto the bed when it died and was preserved as a perfectly. The dealer left a gap at the bottom of the flat rock face, so the rock above eventually slid down. The fence around the Ripple Beds will be removed when the top layers of the rock have weathered away and it's safe again - this could take years. The fossil dealer has prevented people from seeing the sealily fossil in the exact spot where it died and we won't be able to look closely at the surface for years.

To the right of the platform, walk down into the 'Fossil Trench' to hunt for fossils!

Each time it rains, more fossils are naturally eroded from the rock ('weathering'). Climb down and have a look for yourself - you are permitted to take away anything you find lying around. The fossils here are acknowleged as the best in world in this type of rock. You might find something truly unusual! Two years ago, a boy found a fossil here that is so rare, it's been sent all over the world and, so far, no-one has been able to identify it. You'll know you're looking at a fossil if you can see patterns in the rock. Keep anything interesting that you find - you can take it Dudley Museum to identify it.

You'll definitely be able to find fossil coral. It looks like twigs and has a dotty texture. Coral grows in rings, like trees, with more growth in the summer months. A full year's cycle of ancient coral rings is 400 days. Hang on, that should be 365, shouldn't it? There must have been more days to one year! Was the Earth spinning faster? Or did it have a slower orbit around the Sun? Scientists are still looking for the answer.

Scientists can find out all kinds of information about what Dudley was like millions of years ago from the rock. You can calculate the wind direction by looking at the ripple patterns and magnetic properties of the rock can be used to find out where Dudley was located on the surface of the Earth... The Midlands used to be 30° south of the Equator!

Dudley used to have three fossil shops! People used to come from all over the world to find and/or buy Dudley fossils. Miners often found superb fossils when they were quarrying the rock. They could earn a lot of money by selling fossils they found - a much-needed boost to their low mining salary.

Go back to Reef Mound, and up the steep steps behind it. Walk along to the right past the playing fields. Detour - if you continue walking past the ripple bed platform along the footpath, you'll be able to see old lime kilns.

(Optional route without steps: Go back to Wren's Hill Road. On the other side of The Caves pub, there is another footpath. Make your way along this to the viewpoint.)

Page 6 - Watershed viewpoint

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

You're now standing on a watershed. Look out at the stunning view across Dudley. To the left (East) water drains into rivers which flow into the North Sea. To the right (West), water drains into the Atlantic. From here you can see Dudley Castle, the BT Tower in Birmingham to the left (if you squint a bit) and woodlands where limestone has been quarried for hundreds of years. Straight in front of you is Rowley Hill which is 970ft high. People think the Midlands is flat - but if you carried on in a straight line after this point, the next highest peak is in the Urals! The Abberley Hills are on the right - these mark the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border.

Under your feet are underground mines. At the moment (2004), there is major repair work taking place to fill these in because they are unsafe and liable to collapse. It's not just people who are in danger - thousands of rare bats live in the underground caverns beneath Dudley. Bats and their habitat are protected in Britain. All the engineering work to stabilise the mines has to be done in summer when the bats are not hibernating in the mines. Also under your feet here are underground canals which were used to transport limestone out of the mines. It was easier to build a canal than have to haul the rock 100m up from the seam!

Continue on the footpath until you reach the 'Ninety-Nine Steps'. Descend the steps - be careful on the steep steps down. Try to count them. It's said no-one ever counts the same number... Walk along to the right on the path. You'll emerge on Cedar Road. Keep going straight on then cross Priory Road at the pedestrian crossing. Turn left into Woodland Avenue and enter Priory Park, on the footpath on the right.

(Optional route without steps: Go back along the high-level path to Wren's Hill Road. Continue along Priory Road to Priory Park. If you want to drive, you can park at Dudley Technology College, just off The Broadway.)

Page 7 - Dudley Priory

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

Continue on the path around the left-hand edge of the park, past the playground to the formal garden in front of Priory Hall. Underneath the path you're walking on, there is a canal tunnel running right through the park.
Priory Hall was built in the 1820s for the first Earl of Dudley. It's now a listed building which is now used as Dudley's register office. Continue walking straight on towards the priory ruins. Just past Priory Hall, there's a mosaic depicting life in the priory. It's made of pebbles and slate set in the path. You're now in entering the borough of Dudley from the borough of Sedgley. As you walk towards the priory ruins, there are dips in the ground where old ponds used to be. On the left is a 1920s/30s rectangular formal pond set inside a garden with a low wall. It's on the site of an older pool. There are roses growing in the garden, water lilies in the pond and you might be lucky enough to see some frogs or bats which come out here at night.

Explore the ruins of Dudley Priory. Dudley Priory is now in ruins - some spectacular arches, staircases and walls have been preserved and you can clearly see the outline of rooms marked in the grass by stones. These stone lines were put in by the archaeologist Rayleigh Radford in 1939. They mark out the cloisters and other rooms in the Priory. The location of the cloisters is unusual - it's on the North side. Most priories and monastries have the cloisters on the South side because it's warmer.

Often buildings are made with local stone. Dudley Priory is made from limestone mined on Wren's Nest, where you've just walked from. Look out for the thick simple pillars (built in the 1170s and 1180s) which form an archway - the rocks in these pillars show ripples, just like the Ripple Bed! The Priory seems to have been worked on by several different builders. The low curved walls are evidence of this. You can also see where newer areas of building work have been added to the Priory - the neatest bricks are the most recent.

One of the most magnificent arches of the Priory is fenced off. It's very tempting as a climbing frame but it's too fragile and too dangerous to climb. The arch was part of the Lady Chapel area of the Priory. This was built in the 1300s, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The stonework in the Lady Chapel (and the arch) is much better quality than in the rest of the walls. The mortar joints inside the arch show that this was constructed by extremely skilled craftsmen - the Sutton family who built this section of the Priory must have been very wealthy!

Near this archway is a patch of tiling on the ground at the top of the steps - this is a collage of the best medieval tiles found by Rayleigh Radcliffe's team when the site was excavated in 1939. There are ferns growing in the walls of the main chapel of the priory. They anchor themselves in the rock (just like the plants in the geological cutting - page 3) and obtain all the water and sunlight they need here. Now, Dudley Priory is part of the park and local children enjoy playing in and around it. Like any building, the Priory needs to be looked after and the council take care to maintain the ruins as they are.

From the priory, walk past the Technical College into Gervaise Drive. Behind the college, you can just spot the tip of Dudley Castle. (Optional detour: Dudley Castle and Zoo. These are some of the Black Country's biggest tourist attractions and well worth a visit.)

Page 8 - Dudley Priory

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

Historians look for clues in the landscape to find out about an area's history. Look at the shape of the road - there's a dip in it. It's hiding a river, which is culverted under the road. Enter the footpath on the right-hand side of the road, opposite the turning into Woodland Avenue. Optional: take the steep steps down to a dug out trench to look for lime pyes.

Nothing to do with tasty puddings, lime pyes were an old method of making quicklime. You'll spot them in cutting in the rock - the limestone here is a yellow colour - lime pyes are more orange, pink or red. To make them, you dig a hole in the ground, add charcoal to the limestone, light it and leave for week. Hey presto, turns into quicklime. When lime kilns were invented, this became the preferred way of making quicklime (more about that on page 10). Go back to the path, turn right and continue.

As you enter the wooded area, look out for Japanese knotweed on the right, a tall plant with thick bright green stems. This plant is a major pain - it grows very tall extremely quickly and kills off other plants because it blocks their light. If you cut it down, it just grows straight back. If you spray it with chemicals, it needs to be resprayed regularly for years until it stops growing. Even if you cover the ground with matting, it just grows through it. It's so strong, it can even grow up through paving slabs and concrete!

On the left of the path, you'll see butterbur. This plant is a herb with big flat umbrella-like leaves and thick green stems - it looks like rhubarb (it's sometimes called 'bog rhubarb'). Butterbur grows in wet conditions so it shows this area is boggy, perhaps the site of an old stream or pond. In the past, people used to wrap butter in the big leaves, hence the name 'butterbur' and it's been used as a medicine since the Middle Ages, to cure headaches and fever.

Continue on the path through woods. Mind your head on the low branches and take care: this path can get muddy. On your right is a disused quarry. The trees in it started to grow when it stopped being used. Lady Dudley planted trees to hide the "ugly" mines and quarries. On the left of the path is a collapsed mine. The steep edges of the hollow indicated that the ground has fallen in on itself. The whole of Dudley sits on top of mining 'galleries' which go deep underground. When the mines stopped being used, miners took some of the pillars. That, plus natural processes led to the mines collapsing. The biggest craters are called crown holes. In one of the big craters on the right of the path, you can see a modern problem: fly tipping. If people can be bothered to bring rubbish here to dump it, why not drive to the local tip?!

Come out of the wood and turn right. Optional route: If you need to avoid the woodland, make your way back along Priory Road. Turn left onto the Birmingham New Road and then turn right into the canal basin. You rejoin the walk at page 10.

Page 9 - Industrial Dudley

Walk along next to the big green fence. This fence hides a good view of the canal basin. On your right, the wood used to be a fake rabbit warren! Rabbits haven't always been wild, like they are today and the Dudley estate employed a lodge-keeper to manage their warrens. The building on the left is Castle Mill. Today, there are industrial units here. This was originally Lord Dudley's factory which made trains and rolling stock. The first underground canal into the mines goes right under this factory.

Emerge into the meadow and turn left. Turn left again to walk on the other side of Castle Mill towards the road. The open meadow area was part of Lord Dudley's park. The area is covered with pineapple weed (green with bright yellow bobbles). Rub the yellow bits and smell your fingers - it smells just like pineapple!

Dud Dudley was an illegitimate son of Lord Dudley and one of the area's most famous people - he was the first person to smelt iron with coal and get it to work! He was very important in starting the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Lord Dudley also created the world's first geological map! At the main road, turn right.

Page 10 - Todd's End and the Tipton Portal

Continue along Birmingham New Road. Turn right into the canal basin. Walk down the zigzag path to the canal. Behind the Canal Trust's shop, there are brick arches in the rock face. These are old lime kilns.

You can see the 'Tipton Portal' entrance where the boats go into the underground tunnels. The canal was very important in Dudley in the Industrial Revolution. The mining companies used it to bring limestone out from the galleries where it was being dug out. The boats were loaded up and then the cargo was transported to ironworks in the Black Country, Birmingham and beyond.

The tunnel entrance is very low - the roof is only 1.65 metres (5'5") high. Boat owners have to make sure their craft will fit by measuring it against the gauge opposite the café - and boats have got stuck!

This is good place to stop for a break. There is a shop here selling refreshments and souvenires and you can pay to go on a barge trip into the limestone mines. This is well worth it - the trip lasts 45 minutes and you'll see many disused mining caverns. The vast Singing Cavern is as tall as a cathedral. Some of the journey takes place in the dark, when exciting light and sound shows bring the history of the mines to life. Visitors are encouraged to try 'legging' - a method of propelling a boat through the tunnel by 'walking' you feet along the walls.

Go back up to the main road (Birmingham New Road) and turn left. Optional detour: Visit to the Black Country Living Museum.

Page 11 - The Final Straight!

Map of this stage of the walk © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. BBC licence number 100019855, 2004. Map not reproduced to scale.

Continue along Birmingham New Road. Take the footpath which branches off to the left. You emerge on Castle Mill Road. Continue along this road until you reach Priory Road. Turn right and continue back to the car park. Optional route involving beer: if you're after a pint before going home, continue on the main road to the King Arthur pub at the junction of Priory Road.

Look out for Bluebell Road on the left which leads to a wood which is filled with bluebells in spring. There are clues to the area's history all around you: opposite The Sunrise on Alexander Place, you'll see mound of land covered in grass. This is an old railway embankment.

Cross over Priory Road at the pedestrian crossing and walk back into the car park on the left. The sign says 'Donkey Pool' as the area was used by the collieries, which used donkeys on the canals. It's also known locally as 'Foxes Yard'. You're now back where you started. We hope you enjoyed the walk! If you enjoyed finding out about Dudley's natural history, you'd love Dudley Museum! It's right in the centre of town on St James' Road.