Saltwells local nature reserve, spring and harvest

Saltwells local nature reserve, a set by Dudley Council on Flickr.

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Spring is a great time in Saltwells Wood - but it always reminds me of Autumn, and harvests in particular. Black Country harvest festivals start with "the salts of the earth": a block of rock salt, a lump of coal and a jug of water. All of these were extracted from the Saltwells area....

The area - now an extensive urban nature reserve - was part of Pensnett Chase a large common with retained hunting rights for aristocrats in the middle ages. Commoners began digging pits for coal and iron ore from the 13th-century and part of their diggings are preserved in the woods - as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was annexed to Lord Dudley's Saltwell's estate by enclosure in 1785, and planted to provide charcoal for ironmaking. By now the long-established plantations have matured to provide a fine splay of bluebells and Ramsons (Wild Garlic), Wood Anemone, Sweet Woodruff and Yellow Archangel. It is also home to many typical woodland birds, such as Sparrowhawk, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Nuthatch and Jay, as well as butterflies, including Brimstone, Purple and White-letter Hairstreaks and Ringle.... an unintended harvest of joy.

The saltwells were brine pools used medicinally from the 17th century. Doctor Robert Plot in his Natural History of Staffordshire published in 1636, referred to '....the Salt Wells of Lady Wood', their popularity, in the Black Country, and the numbers of people 'taking the waters'. Brine bathing has an analgesic effect on rheumatic and arthitic conditions, and helps relieve gout  These baths cause serum to flow from the blood stream through the skin and into the brine by osmosis, carrying with it uric acid, urea, creatinine and other waste products.. It may help (if pure water is drunk) to dilute mild lead poisoning... when middle-class families might have water stored in lead tanks. You can still stay at the Saltwells Inn, alas without the spa now.

The locality continued to be used for extractive industries with deep coal mines sunk in the 19th century  and Royal Doultons Saltwell's Clay Field operated for 70 years, until 1930. The claypit has since been reclaimed by nature and now supports unusual plants including hundreds of Common Spotted and Southern Marsh Orchids, as well as Common Lizards, Grass Snakes and Smooth Newts. It was, until 1966, the only local nesting site of Red-backed Shrike. An area of open-cast coalmine provides yet another local habitat with nesting pairs of Common Whitethroat and Linnet. 

South of the woods is the squatter settlement of Mushroom Green   where nailmakers squatted the commons in the 18th century, only to be taken within Lord Dudley's estate subsequently. an area of scrubland and meadow, plus a large reed swamp that provides a safe refuge for winter birds like Water Rail, Common Snipe and Eurasian Teal, whilst Kingfishers are often recorded in the area. 

Overall, the landscape character - and the character of locality, occupations and people - reflect the history of the last 400 years