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Walk 1 - Triangle
Along villiage roads and across fields. Generally easy walking - but some muddy areas. There are also several styles to climb.
1. From the Y & CC car park, go out of the main entrance and turn right up Meerash Lane.
2. Turn right into Overton Lane.
3. Turn left onto a Public Footpath between house numbers 47 and 49.
4. Follow the footpath until it emerges from the hedgerow then continue following the old field boundaries which make a dog-leg across the fields, down to a stile leading out into Hospital Road.
5. Cross the stile and the road and turn left down the hill.
6. At the next junction, cross to the stile and enter the area of open ground.
7. Cross to the brook and follow the brook to the hedge on the left of the Triangle.
8. Return to the stile and retrace your steps up Hospital Road, passing The Ridgeway.
9. Continue up Hospital Road as far as Coppy Nook Lane then turn right.
10. Continue along Coppy Nook Lane to its junction with Overton Lane then turn right and up the hill.
11. At the stile just before the first house on the left turn into the field and follow the footpath to a junction with another footpath.
12. Turn right and follow the footpath to the path between the bungalows.
13. Turn right onto Burntwood Road and return to the
Points of Interest
A. The Ashmall Institute was established in 1911 as an 'Institute, Reading Room, Club and Recreation Room'. The family of the late Elias Ashmole Ashmall (founder of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) intended it to be a memorial to 'him, and of his life and works', and was designated for the use of 'men...18 yrs and upward...and sober, industrious and of good character, without regard to their political or religious opinions'.
B. On the left is the house that was the farmhouse for the Old Farm. The farmyard is now a housing development. There is a date on the front of the farmhouse of 1767 but the back of the house is thought to be an older cottage. There is a fire plaque on the gable wall proving that the owner had paid insurance to ensure that the 'Birmingham Fire Company' would turn out in the event of a fire.
C. There has been a mill in Hammerwich since 1300, but its exact site is not known. The present building was originally a stone tower, which was bricked on the exterior in 1779 when it was a working flour mill known as Speedwell Mill. It was worked until the early years of the 20th Century, when it began to fall into disrepair. The sails were removed in about 1908 and a fibreglass cupola added in 1977 when it was converted to a dwelling house.
D. The original name for Overton Lane was 'The Plateau' - a name still used by older residents. The first houses, numbers 17-47, were built here by Mr T J Moss, a local builder, in 1904. They housed several mining families, many of whom also ran small businesses used by local people, including a bicycle repair shop (17), a general store (37) and a cobblers (39). In late spring and early summer, you may see Swifts and House Martins sweeping over and around the houses and Swallows resting on the overhead lines. Look out for the House Martin nests under the eaves. A survey in a nearby garden recorded 26 species of birds.
E. The Public Footpath was known at one time as 'Occupation Lane' and served, in the pre- and post-WWII years, a nursery owned by the Croxall family, who supplied fresh produce to many local shops.
F. The way across the fields is no longer obvious as many of the hedgerows have been removed. This area was, in living memory, a patchwork of small meadows, supporting a wide variety of wildlife including Skylarks. The blackberries were renowned among many local people who remember a particularly fierce farmer called 'Lanky Pyatt' who would regularly chase them off his fields. You may still be lucky enough to hear a Skylark overhead.
G. The farm and small wedge of land down the hill to the left is known as Brook Cottage and was the home for many years of the Burke family, one of the many families who came to Hammerwich looking for work as a result of the Irish famines. This cottage and its surrounding fields supported a large family, despite the lack of mains water until the last few years of the 20th Century.
H. The Triangle, known to older local residents as simply Triangle', is an area of Public Open Space administered by Hammerwich Parish Council. In the early 20th Century there was a block of four three-storey houses called the 'Bunch of Fours' at the far corner facing Wharf Lane. These houses were often a first stop for incoming Irish men looking for work in the local mines and on the railways and canals.
I. Crane Brook arises in the fields above Biddulph's Pool in Chase Terrace, and flows as 'Big Crane Brook' into Chasewater (formerly Norton Pool). It flows out of Chasewater and through the Triangle to cross the A5, joining Black Brook, once known as Hammerwich Water at Chesterfield and flows on to Shenstone then on through Drayton Manor Park to join the River Tame at Fazeley. Flocks of House Sparrows and Dunnocks can usually be heard feeding in the hedgerows and a Heron may be studying what is available in the stream. The sides of the brook support the tall Water Figwort, Branched Bur-reed and Hemlock Water Dropwort which are rarely found elsewhere in the Parish. In the stream itself, Water Forget-me-not and Brooklime with its fleshy leaves can be seen struggling to remain here when the water rushes through. The brook was provided with a new culvert to enable it to pass under the new road built as part of the approach to the M6Toll bridge further along Ogley Hay Road.
J. At the time of writing, the buildings of Hammerwich Cottage Hospital still exist but this site is destined to be developed for housing. The Hospital has been part of the local community for over a century, providing care for local miners and immunization for local school children, and latterly respite care and various out patient services. Annie Ker, who died in 1920, was the matron until her marriage to J.S.Gettings a surgeon who worked at the hospital and lived at the Old Rectory, adjacent to St. John's Church. During the First World War, she became commandant of a new military ward which was established to rehabilitate returning soldiers. In 1919 Annie Ker-Gettings helped to establish the Burntwood and Hammerwich Parishes War Fund which supported the military ward and provided much of the cost of opening a District Nurse's Home in the building on Bridge Cross Road which is now the No 7 Wine Bar.
K. Coppy Nook Lane was once overshadowed by large Elm trees and today the hedgerows here contain large amounts of Wych Elm. There was also a collection of cottages set back to the left of the road below what is now the football field.
L. Overton Farm is the remaining one of two farms originally in Overton Lane. The other was Overton Manor Farm further up the hill. All that remains of the latter is the Manor House, which was once a three storey building, parts of which date back to the 16th Century. Its derelict farm buildings were demolished during the 1980s and replaced with the three large detached houses presently on the right.
M. The Old Square was a group of six or seven cottages and a communal washhouse on the site of what is now a group of semi-detached houses and bungalows. These were the only houses on the right of Overton Lane at the start of the 20th Century. The buildings were condemned shortly after WWII and replaced with the present buildings.
N. The view from the top of the hill in Overton Lane is truly spectacular. From here you can see Lichfield Cathedral and, to the north, Gentleshaw Common and Cannock Chase beyond. It is not hard to understand why its original name was The Plateau.
Walk 1 was researched and edited by Mandy Tanna
