Top 5 Natural Monuments around Norton And Lenchwick

The biggest Cotswold outlier, just short of a thousand feet high with magnificent views across the Avon and Severn valleys.

A quite impressive rock formation that really does look like an elephant lying down.

299m hill with fantastic views of Malvern Hills, Pershore, and Avon Valley. Also, this is the first Cotswolds hill from the Worcestershire side.

Gentle ascent in Little Comberton direction. The boundary marker is situated right along NCN 442, so it is easy to spot.

The PARK at Elmley, which belonged to the lords of Elmley Castle, was possibly made about 1234, for in that year Walter de Beauchamp received from the king a gift of ten does and three bucks for stocking his park at Elmley. In 1298 the wood in the park was worth 4s. yearly. Thomas de Beauchamp Earl of Warwick complained in 1349 that several persons, including Robert de Amyas, parson of the church of Great Comberton, had hunted in his free chase at Elmley Castle and carried away deer. The park was enlarged about 1480 by the addition of part of the demesne land of the manor called Court Close. In 1478 William Adams was appointed keeper of the park and warren at Elmley Castle. In 1480 John Mortimer was appointed master of the game in Elmley Park, and in 1484 John Hudelston succeeded to this office, but it was granted in the following year to Richard Naufan, and in 1488 to Sir John Savage. Henry VIII appointed Sir John Savage and his son John Savage keepers of the park and warren in 1512. Walter Walshe was appointed keeper in 1528. He died in 1538, and Thomas Evans and Rowland Morton both wrote to Cromwell asking for his aid in obtaining the position, the latter saying, 'if it please the King by your Lordship's mediation to prefer me, I and mine shall stand balanced in also et basso, live and die in your Lordship's retinue.' He also begs credence for his messenger 'and will give your Lordship £20.' Neither of these suppliants received the post, which was granted to Urian Brereton. The park was included in the sale to Christopher Savage, and remained in his family until 1822, when it was sold with the castle to Colonel Thomas Henry Hastings Davies. It now belongs to Lieut.-General Henry Fanshawe Davies, J.P., D.L.

Also known as the Banbury Stone, there is conjecture about the exact origin of the Elephant Stone. Some believe it to be an ancient focus for the dark arts, others say it was a type of amber stone dedicated to the sun by druids. There's also a superstition that if you kiss the stone on Good Friday you will be cursed with bad luck.

Fantastic views over the Malverns and towards Wales.

An ancient woodland with coppice and large oaks Jointly owned with Butterfly Conservation, Grafton has been at the heart of one of Worcestershire’s great conservation successes.  The wood is the centre of the only colony of brown hairstreak butterflies in the Midlands.  These elusive butterflies, on the wing in August and September, have been the subject of a long-term project to ensure their survival.  By working with local landowners and encouraging appropriate maintenance of hedgerows, volunteers from both conservation charities have helped the butterflies to increase in range and in numbers. Grafton Wood is an ancient semi-natural broad-leaved woodland and, until the 1950s was traditionally managed as coppice-with-standards that provided materials for products such as broom handles, pea sticks, hedge-laying, clothes pegs, spars for thatching and firewood.  Our management today aims to replicate this tradition and involves widening the rides through the woodland, coppicing and creating glades.  We also ensure that there are scrubby areas containing the young blackthorn bushes that are vital for brown hairstreaks to survive. The majority of the canopy at Grafton is ash and oak although we also have a small-leaved lime coppice stool that we think must have originally started as one lime tree at least a thousand years ago.  In many places there is a dense shrub layer of field maple, hawthorn and hazel.  The two compartments of conifers that were planted in the 1960s have largely been removed in 2010. It’s not just brown hairstreak butterflies that visitors to Grafton Wood should keep a look out for.  The wood is also important for other woodland butterflies including silver-washed fritillaries and white admirals.  After careful surveying of the habitat and flowering species in the wood pearl-bordered fritillaries were released into the woodland in 2011 in the hope that they would then naturally re-colonise the wood after a 30 year absence.  Notable moths include drab looper, rosy footman, Devon carpet and waved black. Many fungi have been recorded in the wood and it also supports a distinctive flora including herb-Paris, adder’s-tongue fern, violet helleborine, spurge laurel and bird’s-nest orchid.  Birds including buzzard, goldcrest, treecreeper, lesser and great spotted woodpeckers are regularly seen in the wood and the adjacent meadows and orchards are important for green woodpeckers.  Bechstein’s bats were recently discovered in the wood and the colony is thought to be the most northerly breeding roost in the UK.