Shire Oak Park Local Nature Reserve is a wonderful area of
Countryside, about 1.5km (1 mile) from Brownhills town centre.
This 26 hectares (65 acres) site was once a sand and gravel
quarry, but is now a haven for wildlife. It has woodland,
heathland, meadows, ponds and a good network of footpaths. History
Shire Oak gets its name from an ancient oak tree sited on the old
Shenstone/Walsall Wood parish boundary. (Shire would probably have
come from the Saxon word ‘scyre’ meaning divide). The
oak finally came down in the 1890’s. There is a small remnant
of it at Shire Oak Community School.
From the 13th century, Shire Oak was part of the Royal Forest of
Cannock, a mixture of arable, pasture woodland and heathland, in
which the King's deer were protected.
During the 18th century the area was enclosed into agricultural
fields and thus it remained for the next 200 years.
Quarrying for sand and gravel started here in the early 1930s,
but during World War II the government took over the area for tank
testing. After the war, quarrying continued in earnest to supply
materials for rebuilding Birmingham .
The quarry finally closed in 1978 although Birch Hollow, at the
south end, has not been quarried since the 1940s.
The series contains a variety of cache types and container sizes
and I ask that they are returned to their original hide as
carefully as possible. The area is very popular with dog walkers so
stealth is always required.
Congratulations for joint
first to find - basketcase crew and
hazumu.