The best traffic-free bike rides around Wyre Forest

Fine footbridge across the brook that is part of the remains of an industrial settlement, now long gone.

Nice trail joining Wyre Forest to Bewdley

Cofee break

Looks pretty cool would have loved this as a kid

Knowles Mill is the remains of an eighteenth-century water-powered grain mill, located in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, England. The mill has been owned by the National Trust since 1938. The mill and its surroundings feature extant machinery, as well as notable populations of adders and wood cranesbill. One of nine possible mills that historically worked on Dowles Brook, Knowles Mill was built in the eighteenth-century, and was later modified in the nineteenth-century. The surviving building is two storeys high and the site also preserves an overshot mill wheel made of iron and a great spur wheel, alongside other remnant machinery. The first record of a mill on the site dates to 1757 when it was listed as for sale in a local newspaper. However there is documentary evidence preceding 1757 that lists owners of the land that the mill was built on. These owners include Arthur Palmer, c.1661, Edward Wheeler, c.1693, Roger Hunt, c.1704, Antony Betts, c.1717, Edward Faulkner, c.1722 and Daniel Crun, c.1735. The first owner of the mill was William Crun, in 1757. It passed through a number of owners, including William and Mary Herbert, William Nicholls and Arthur Nott. The mill takes its name from the Knowles family who worked there from 1803 to the 1870s; earlier names included Coventry Mill and Upper Town Mill. The first member of the family to be listed as owner was James Knowles. The mill continued in use until 1891, when it became no longer financially viable. It was donated to the National Trust by Paul Cadbury in 1938, along with four acres of orchards. The property was visited by the historian James Lees-Milne during his work as a curator for the Trust. Source: Wikipedia

The ‘Wyre Forest Line’ formed a connection between the SVR at Bewdley and the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway (S&HR) at Woofferton. The route encompassed two railways, the Tenbury Railway and the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway. Following the completion of the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway in 1864, the GWR took over the working of traffic over the Tenbury Railway section on behalf of the joint companies, with the LNWR also having running powers. As part of this process, the GWR telegraph system was extended to Woofferton; also the LNWR agreed to a turntable being installed at Tenbury to be paid for by the GWR. This turntable was moved from Bewdley and re-erected in the goods yard at Tenbury. (Some confusion has occurred in the past, as there was a small wagon turntable at Woofferton in its early days.) The completed line ran north from the GWR station at Bewdley on a single line track alongside the Severn Valley Line for a distance of about a mile before diverging to the west to cross the river Severn at Dowles Bridge (the viaduct referred to by Capt. Tyler), the remains of which are visible from trains on the SVR. The abutments where the line passed over what is now the B4194 remain in-situ. The line continued to Woofferton via Wyre Forest, Cleobury Mortimer, Neen Sollars, Newnham Bridge, Tenbury (later renamed Tenbury Wells) and Easton Court. The route acquired a number of names. A platform sign at Woofferton station referred to 'The Bewdley Branch', while passengers at Bewdley could take 'The Tenbury Branch'. Informally the route was often referred to as 'The Wyre Forest Line' or 'The Tenbury Line'. The Engineer's Line References were TBY for 'Tenbury & Bewdley' and WTW for 'Woofferton and Tenbury Wells', while the 1905 Ordnance Survey map describes it as the 'GW&L&NW Joint Railway - Woofferton & Tenbury' and the 'GWR - Tenbury & Bewdley Branch' One purpose of the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway was for freight traffic to gain access to the expanding markets of the West Midlands. However at the time of opening, this journey would require traveling to the SVR's southern terminus at Hartlebury, with a reversal to reach the West Midlands via Kidderminster. This was hampered by a lack of siding space at Hartlebury and resulted in frequent delays, leading to construction of the 'Kidderminster Loop Line' from Bewdley to Kidderminster. After the GWR built 'The Loop', the majority of services from Stourbridge and Kidderminster to Bewdley continued on the Wyre Forest Line. In January 1869, ownership of the Tenbury Railway was transferred jointly to the LNWR and GWR. It nominally remained an independent company until nationalisation in January 1948. The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway ceased to exist as a separate company when ownership was transferred to the GWR in February 1870. Both the GWR and the Tenbury Railway became part of British Railways' Western Region after nationalisation. In 1908 the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway opened. This connected with the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway at Cleobury Mortimer and ran as a spur for 12½ miles to Ditton Priors.

The bridge is a narrow, two arch structure built of local sandstone but with the arches lined with brick. The central pier forms a substantial cut-water, to deflect the water of the Borle Brook through the two arches. The narrow deck of the bridge shows that it was only ever intended for pedestrians or horses in single file and the alternative names for the bridge both reflect the local tradition that it was used for packhorses. The earliest map that shows Highley in any detail is a map of Shropshire drawn up in 1754 by a cartographer called Jean Roque. The bridge is marked on this and called the “New Bridge”. This suggests that it was built in the early 18th century; a date also suggested by its style (particularly the use of bricks, which do not seem to have been much used in this area until the end of the 17th century). There is an entry in the Poor Rates for 1742, noting that money was spent repairing Malpass Mill bridge (leading to Kinlet and long defunct) and the New Bridge. This is the earliest contemporary reference to the bridge. Writing at the start of the 19th century, the vicar of Kinlet, the Rev Blakeway, described the bridge as “very ancient and almost ruinous”, although it was still called the “New Bridge”. Blakeway preserves an intriguing story as to its origins. In 1709, the country was controlled by a Whig government; the Whigs were the ancestors of the Liberal party of today. In that year, a clergyman called Dr Henry Sacheverall preached two sermons attacking Government policy, particularly their tolerance of non-conformists. The Government arrested Sacheverall and put him on trial for seditious libel. The trial provoked riots in London and the House of Lords, whilst finding Sacheverall guilty, imposed a token sentence, preventing him from preaching for three years and ordering the public hangman to burn a copy of the offending sermons. The government was humiliated and, already unpopular for other reasons, soon fell to be replaced by a Tory administration. Sacheverall was offered a new post at Selattyn in North Shropshire and made what was effectively a triumphal procession from London to take up his benefice in 1710. Blakeway records how at Kinlet, the squire, Sir Lacon William Childe, invited him to stay. New Bridge was said to have been built for Sacheverall’s use and he was greeted by a crowd of 2000 on a flat space near the bridge. It is difficult to know how reliable this story is; presumably Blakeway obtained his information from the members of Childe family in his own day. There is no doubt that the family and much of the surrounding country would have been in sympathy with Sacheverall. Blakeway gave two examples of local people who were given the Christian name “Sacheverall”, apparently in honour of Dr Sacheverall. Regardless of the truth of the story, the bridge would have been used from the start by those who wished to cross the Borle Brook to reach riverside wharfs and crossings in Highley and Hampton Loade. As noted in an earlier article, there was no shortage of trade from the Rea Valley and the Clee Hills that needed to get to the Severn. It is possible to trace the old road, now a public footpath, that drops steeply down the hillside from Crumpsend Farm to Bind Brook and then follows this a short distance to the Donkey Bridge. On the Highley side, the path immediately from the end of the bridge seems to be on a causeway and there are traces of what may be a track going straight up the hillside. This may be the original road leading from the Bridge. On the Highley bank of the brook, next to the Donkey Bridge, are traces of stone blocks in the bank; it is possible that these represent an earlier bridge at this point.

Keep an eye out for forestry work and areas of protection.