Lifford Woods An area of land bordering the River Rea at Allens Croft, with a pathway to Lifford Reservoir and Lifford Hall. The linear woodland runs either side of the river with willows and alders thriving. The site is little used today, with most people passing along the walkway, whilst much of the area is out of the public domain, cut off by railway embankment and the river. In terms of wildlife, I guess this is under recorded, as are most sites, all records should be submitted to EcoRecord and twitter is a good way of doing this. Lifford Woods and surrounds The account below is taken from "Lifford - William Dargue - A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames" B30 - Grid reference SP055796 la Ford: first record 1250 Lifford stands close to the ford across the River Rea. As the red clay on the east side of Birmingham became slimy and slippery in wet weather, a place where the river ran over a firmer bed would have been a draw ...
Opportunities here for combining leisure, education, work/life skills, and so on.
ReplyDeletePerhaps through forest school, gaining involvement of local schools in surveying and redesigning the area. Features to include wildlife observation structures: boardwalks, bird hides, canopy inspection, selectively felled trees, ...
Designing lots of learning and interpretative points along the way would give people a reason to detour through that patch. Making it possible to hold events would be even better. So things like the gathering circle at Moseley Bog would help.
Finding ways of developing local skills in earth/timber construction and woodland management would also be a plus.
Great ideas, many thanks. I'm hoping we can provide more details at the Stirchley Park Midsummer event on June 21st.
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