スタンフォード・ウィズ・オーレトンの天然記念物・トップ6

It's a steep pull up Walsgrove Hill from the north, and in the winter it will be slippery and muddy due to the activities of the sheep that live in this field. However, it offers fine views across to the clocktower and beyond.

A real picturesque old mill, and the Geopark Way affords a really good view of the weir and house from a number of angles.

Usually a rope swing, for the young at heart :-)

Amazing rock formation in the woods. Well worth a visit. The path to the south side of the stream is badly overgrown. Here are some notes on its formation: https://earthheritagetrust.org/southstone-post/

Red sandstone rock formation - low cliffs of exposed stone that has been historically quarried for building materials. A path runs along the bottom and the top, currently (Sept 2024) overgrown in places. An information sign gives details among the nettles.

View to the West The lower part of Walsgrove Hill and the hill on which Abberley clock tower stands are Silurian siltstone. The valley of the River Teme cuts into soft mudstones of the upper Silurian Old Red Sandstone with the harder sandstones of the lower Devonian Old Red Sandstone forming the Bromyard plateau. The low hummocky ground at the base of these hills is underlain by Carboniferous age Coal Measures rocks. These form the southerly tip of the Wyre Forest coalfield. Coal was mined here until the early twentieth century. To the north west, the Clee Hills are also formed of Carboniferous rocks. A molten layer of rock pushed between the layers and formed a hard black dolerite rock, the Dhustone, which slowed the erosion of these still prominent hills and is quarried for roadstone to this day. Source: Local signage

Prior's Mill is a former seventeenth century timber-framed water mill, with twentieth century alterations, and now used as a private residence. Next to it is a very high weir on the Dick Brook. There used to be several mills on this stream long ago.

There are grooves in the bed rock that suggest it was some kind of rope or chain-operated incline. On the east side of the sunken road the rock is Bromsgrove Sandstone.