Wom Brook Blog

Last Tuesday the Friends of Wom Brook AGM took place in Wombourne Civic Centre, with the election of executive officers and members of the committee overseen by South Staffordshire Council’s Landscape manager, Howard Medlicott.  The meeting quickly moved on to discuss and plan future work and developments for the coming year.

High on the Group’s agenda is this year’s Green Flag inspection (set for early summer), along with further scheduled work to improve the Wom Brook Walk.

As ever, the Group are grateful for the continued input and support from Howard.

If you live in Wombourne, South Staffordshire, and enjoy the outdoors, and particularly appreciate the local natural landscapes that are within relatively easy reach of most locations in the village, then please consider joining the Friends of Wom Brook on

Tuesday night, 23rd February at 7:30 pm, in the Brook Room of the Civic Centre, Wombourne.

The Friends of Wom Brook work voluntarily in partnership with the South Staffordshire Council to promote the conservation of the Wom Brook and its adjoining land, including the plants and animals found there. In addition to keeping the area tidy, there are monthly activities planned which serve to increase members’ knowledge of this natural habitat.

The combined efforts of both the South Staffordshire Council and the Friends of Wom Brook have received local and national recognition in the form of Local nature Reserve (LNR) status and the Green Flag Award.

The group is small in number,  and would welcome additional members in order to help maintain the high standards of conservation work so far achieved.

If you can spare two hours, usually on the first Saturday morning of each month, then the Friends Group would be delighted to meet you.

Resembling lanterns of white light, these snowdrops have appeared on the northern bank of the Wom Brook, close to the Bow footbridge that runs parallel to Gravel Hill in Wombourne. They are easily spotted-the brilliant white of their flowers standing out from the predominant browns and greens that surround them, but which fail to envelope or smother them.

An ever increasing number of molehills are appearing along the Wom Brook Walk.  Members of the Friends of Wom Brook are receiving complaints from other residents of Wombourne who are concerned about the rise in the number of molehills, which are causing green spaces to assume an appearance of an organism infected with measles!

The situation is being made worse when some dogs attempt to burrow into the fresh soil in pursuit of the errant moles.Consequently the surface of the ground in such places is developing pot holes.

The Friends Group have reported the issue to South Staffordshire Council.

Last Saturday, the Friends of Wom Brook used their new high-visibility waistcoats for the first time, during one of the Group’s monthly work parties-which on this occasion focused upon litter collection from not only the Brook itself, but also along the banks and land surrounding the Wom Brook Walk.

The waistcoats will be used for safety purposes-there are sections of the Brook that are obscured by trees and plants, and during previous work parties it has proved difficult to see Group members.

The Friends of Wom Brook are grateful to  South Staffordshire Council for supplying the waistcoats.

The small brook, nowadays mostly hidden from sight underground, and only visible for the last few metres of its journey before it joins the Wom Brook 300m downstream of Bow Bridge, is normally crystal clear. Yesterday morning, it appeared to be discharging muddy water into the Wom Brook in such quantities that the Wom Brook looked positively clean!(See above photo).

This event occurred roughly between 11:00 and 12:00, but this morning the small brook had thankfully reverted to its clear appearance.

If you know what caused this discolouration, please leave a comment below-any form of pollution is a serious matter, as it can adversely affect the wildlife that depends upon the Wom Brook for water.

This squirrel could be anywhere-but it was first observed drinking from the muddy waters of the Brook this morning, unperturbed by the human and his dog watching. Throughout the process, even when the human reached for his camera, it continued to drink, watching carefully. As fate would have it, just at the point of taking the photograph, the squirrel decided to scamper at lightning speed up the tree trunk ( above, photographed), returning to the heights and the accompanying  caws of alarmed crows.

Above is one of the trees the Friends Group believe has been identified as requiring pruning in order to make it safe. It has a large elongated lower branch. However such large willow branches have been known to break off, especially during high winds.

It is located by the new railings and next to the pedestrian bridge crossing the Wom Brook, close to Glendale Drive. The photo was taken on Sunday after the previous night’s light snow fall, and before the heavier snow fall which occurred during the early hours of Tuesday, causing disruption to traffic on the dual carriageway and along the Penn Road.

Today work had already been carried out on the oak tree next to Gravel Hill, which was reported to South Staffordshire Council for attention, as a large branch was only partially attached to the main tree trunk, and posed a danger to children who played beneath it.

That report featured in an earlier blog entry, which was erroneously reported  as a willow- it is an oak tree. featured here.