A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



of land called Feckenham Bog, long since brought under cultivation. 

 Here have been recorded Alisma ranunculoides, Anagallis tenella, Cnicus 

 pratensis, Carex distans, Cladium Mariscus, Pinguicula vulgaris, Schcenus 

 nigricans and Zannichellia palustris. All these plants have disappeared. 

 Cradley Park, between Stourbridge and Halesowen, before it became 

 absorbed into the Black Country, nourished some rare plants so lately as 

 1832, among them Carex distans, C. strigosa, Pyrola media and Sambucus 

 Ebulus. Of a list of plants growing at the Lickey in 1834, the following, 

 through drainage or other causes, have vanished, Andromeda polifolia. 

 Erica Tetralix, Parnassia palustris, Potentilla comarum, Vaccinium Oxy coccus 

 and Scirpus ccespitosus. Anagallis tenella remained here up to 1890. 



In its course through the county the Severn has worn for itself 

 a deep channel in the red marl of the district through which it flows, 

 while above Holt precipitous banks of red sandstone in places bound its 

 course. Below Worcester flat meadows stretch out on either side of the 

 river. The sandstone cliffs are frequently clothed with woodland, 

 notably at Shrawley and Stagbury, below and above Stourport respec- 

 tively, on its right bank. The red marl banks are not productive of any 

 especially rare plants, except in the case of the Mythe Toot at Tewkesbury, 

 on which precipitous cliff Isatis tinctoria flourishes abundantly. This 

 locality, however, though nearly surrounded by Worcestershire territory, 

 is locally in Gloucestershire, and the former county can lay no claim 

 to the plant. At Tewkesbury the Severn receives on its left side the 

 river Avon, which comes down in wide meanders from the Lias country 

 to the north and west of the Cotswolds. No other stream of any size 

 joins the river on the same side till Hawford, some miles above 

 Worcester, is reached. Here it receives the Salwarpe, and by its side the 

 canal from Droitwich, which follows the course of the river. The 

 Salwarpe comes down from the western slopes of the Lickey some fifteen 

 miles away, and is joined below Salwarpe Church by Dordale Brook, 

 which rises in Pepperwood and receives streams from the Randans and 

 Chaddesley Woods. Further to the north, at Stourport, the Stour falls 

 into the Severn on the same side, having been joined at Hoobrook, below 

 Kidderminster, by a number of streams that converge there coming 

 from the higher land in the neighbourhood of Clent ; and on the same 

 side of the Stour, just above Kidderminster, at Broadwaters, more 

 streams from the same district join its course. These streams flow 

 through a country nearly entirely situated on the new red sandstone, 

 except the highest portions of the Clent Hills, where Permian sandstones 

 and breccia are met with. Above Kidderminster the Stour, leaving on 

 its right bank the sandy district of Blakeshall Common, passes out of this 

 county into Staffordshire, joining Worcestershire again near Stourbridge, 

 whence for some distance it forms the boundary of the county, with the 

 detached portion of Dudley to the north of it. At Halesowen the Stour 

 again enters Worcestershire, passing over the coal measures to find its 

 sources on the north-eastern slopes of the Clent Hills. We have here 

 reached the easternmost part of the watershed of the Severn ; further on 



36 



