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Top Attractions in Bromsgrove

Wychbury Hill

Wychbury Hill is a hill situated off the A456 Birmingham Road, at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire. It is divided between the parish of Hagley and former parish of Pedmore. It is one of the Clent Hills and lies in Hagley Park. The hill offers good views across the Severn Valley as far as the Malvern Hills and Clee Hills. It is the site of Wychbury Ring an Iron Age hill fort and the Wychbury Obelisk and is much beloved of pagans, with the site containing a 28-tree ancient yew grove, and not because the name sounds like "witch". The name is actually unrelated, being derived from that of the Saxon subkingdom of the Hwicce. On the flank of the hill is a folly in the shape of a Greek Doric temple, in fact a miniature replica of the end of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Built in 1758, it was England's first example of Neoclassical architecture. The temple is currently in a seriously dilapidated and vandalised condition. It is a listed building on private land and permanently fenced off to the public. In 1999 the obelisk was defaced with graffiti referring to the unsolved post World War II mystery: Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? when the decomposed body of a woman was found in a nearby wood. The graffiti was removed during the restoration of the obelisk which was completed in 2010.

Artrix

Artrix is an arts venue in Bromsgrove, England, located on School Drive just outside the town centre. The building was constructed between 2004 and 2005 on a green field site near Heart of Worcestershire College Bromsgrove campus and the Bromsgrove 'Blue Light' centre. It hosts Theatre and Dance performances, Cinema screenings, Live Music (including touring bands, solo artisits and Classical Music), Comedy from well known performers to circuit comedians. It also works with local groups and organisations as part of Bromsgrove Arts Alive which provides space for theatre performances, a Pantomime a Classical Music Club, Spoken Word talks and productions by local Dance Schools. Artrix also has a very active Learning and Engagement department that coordinates many projects including a Youth Theatre group and projects in the community for all ages and social standing. The building also contains a rehearsal room/dance studio on the second floor which since 2013 has been regularly used as a Studio theatre in addition to its Main House for small scale theatre, music and spoken word. There is an art gallery on the three floors of the venue. It has a total seating capacity of approximately 520, in both of its venues. The seating in both venues can be dismantled to create open spaces for events. Both the Main House and the Studio are sound proofed and are not linked structurally within the building, in order to eliminate sound conduction between the two. There is also a licensed Cafe-Bar.

Bittell Reservoirs

The Bittell Reservoirs are located in Worcestershire between Barnt Green to the south and the Birmingham district of Longbridge to the north. They consist of the Upper and Lower reservoir. They were built to feed the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which was finished in the 1790s, however, the reservoir was not completed until 1837. The Upper reservoir is to ensure that the level of the canal is kept sufficiently high, even in times of drought. The Lower reservoir are compensatory reservoirs to ensure that the local area does not become parched in dry times. The "Upper" reservoir can be seen as a form of insurance. A dried up, i.e. unusable, canal would have been disastrous for the owners of the canal as well as the artisans and tradesmen who relied upon it for a living. The irony of the reservoir is the length of time it took to build: only 6 years after it was finished the Birmingham Gloucester railway was built alongside, mitigating the economic reasoning behind the large investment. The reservoirs are quite obscure nowadays, however they are used actively. Today one can fish in several places, especially on the lower reservoirs. The upper reservoir is used for sailing and windsurfing, and is the home of the Barnt Green Sailing Club. The reservoir is also used by 1st Kings Norton Sea Scout Troop who occupy a large boathouse on the south east shore. One bank of the reservoir is inaccessible because it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest . During the early 20th century, the bird life of the reservoirs was regularly recorded by the West Midland Bird Club, long before such site-monitoring became commonplace. They were also visited regularly by a young Bill Oddie.

Wychbury Obelisk

The Hagley Obelisk stands close to the summit of Wychbury Hill in Hagley, Worcestershire, and is only about 150 metres from the border of the West Midlands. The obelisk is a Grade II* listed building. It is 84 feet high, and can be seen for many miles around, as far as Shropshire, and the hill if not the monument on its summit from the Malverns. The obelisk was commissioned by Sir Richard Lyttelton, a son of the elderly Sir Thomas Lyttelton, the owner of the nearby Hagley Hall. Hagley Hall has been the home of successive Viscounts Cobham and Wychbury Hill is part of the property, but is accessible from public footpaths. Building of the obelisk started in 1747, and it was constructed at the same time as George, the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas, started to refashion Hagley Hall park in the fashionable Picturesque style. The refashioning included building a ruined castle, the Clent Hill four stones and temples styled in Greek and Roman architecture. Since at least the 1970s the obelisk has been sporadically defaced with graffiti asking "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?", a reference to an unsolved World War II-era mystery in which the decomposed body of a woman was found in a nearby wood. The graffiti was last updated in 1999. There was much debate for decades over whether the badly damaged structure should be demolished for safety reasons, but the consensus was that time and weather should be allowed to do the job until its restoration could be funded. It was on the English Heritage list of the most endangered listed buildings, and in 2010 conservation work was begun to repair the structure with funding aid from Natural Englands Higher Level Stewardship scheme and the Viscount Cobham. This involved it being largely deconstructed and rebuilt. By 2011 the obelisk had been fully restored.

Barnsley Hall Hospital

Barnsley Hall Hospital was a psychiatric facility located in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on a 324-acre (131 ha) site purchased by the County Council in 1899. It opened in 1907, to relieve pressure on the county's only existing asylum, Powick Hospital near Malvern and to serve the northern part of the county. By 1929 it had reached its capacity of around 720 patients. Additional buildings increased its capacity to about 1,200, but it was heavily populated when it was used as a military hand emergency hospital during the two World Wars. The hospital closed in 1996 and most of the patients were settled into the community. During its operation it had been known as Worcestershire Mental Hospital (1929 - 1947), Barnsley Hall Mental Hospital (1948), and Barnsley Hall Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases (1949 - 1966) and had been administered by several different district, regional, and county authorities. At the time of its closure, it was managed by Worcestershire county, providing a continuation of psychiatric care after the Powick Hospital closed in 1989. Originally reserved as an Area of Development Restraint following the closure of the hospital closure, the land has been replaced by residential development as part of a drive to sell off NHS property in order to increase national housing stock in conjunction with a government plan to construct housing at affordable rents, while the sale would boost the NHS funds. After closure, only the administration block, part of the original complex designed by architect George Thomas Hine, an airing court shelter, and the porter's lodge, were retained. Attempts to get Its landmark water tower listed failed and it was finally demolished in 2000.
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