Parrot's Drumble Nature Reserve, Talke Pits, Stoke on Trent, Staffs.
N 53° 04.177 W 002° 15.983
30U E 549153 N 5880266
Staffordshire Wildlife Trusts "Parrot's Drumble" is a hidden gem - a beautiful ancient woodland that is alive with bluebells in the spring.
Waymark Code: WMTZQ3
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/29/2017
Views: 4
"For the preservation of this locality, collection or picking is prohibited."
An information board is situated by a small parking area on Pit Lane. From the parking area walk down the footpath for about a ¼mile and it will take you to the entrance of the reserve indicated by a named marker post.
This is a small reserve covering about 12.00 hectares with a circular trail. The name derives from the previous owner – Richard Parrott who owned the land in the 1700’s and ‘drumble’ which is a local term for a stream running through a wooded valley.
It is one of the the Trust’s finest ancient woodland nature reserves. Ancient woodland is an area that has been continuously covered by trees since the 1600’s. Trees in the reserve include oak, ash, hazel, birch, rowan, willow and alder.
In the spring time bluebells grow in abundance forming a brilliant carpet of blue beneath the trees.
"Bluebells are perhaps one of our most famous and unmistakeable woodland flowers - look for long and narrow, drooping leaf fronds and bending flower stems heavy with the nodding, blue bells that give this flower its name."
"Bluebells spend most of the year as bulbs underground in ancient woodlands, only emerging to flower and leaf from April onwards. This early spring flowering allows them to make the most of the sunlight that is still able to make it to their forest floor habitat and attracts the attention of plenty of pollinating insects. Millions of bulbs may exist in one bluebell wood, causing the blue carpets we so keenly associate with spring, and new plants are sometimes able to split off from these bulbs and grow as clones." (
visit link)
Many flowers such as dogs mercury, wood anemone, marsh marigolds and wood sorrel can also be found.
It is a haven for birds such as, the greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches and trees creepers.
The water in Valley Brook which runs through the reserve is
discoloured by iron- oxide which leaches out from nearby ancient mine workings turning it orange.
Website: (
visit link)
(
visit link)