Sheepwash Nature Reserve — Attraction in Sandwell

If you stick to the main paths, then it's quite a nice place to walk around. Unfortunately, when I first arrived, I went into a side path through the trees, and there is even a gate to show that you can walk that way. That was the worst mistake ever, as the path is more of a path merged with a brook, so it is extremely thick mud sludge for quite a distance through the trees. My newly cleaned shoes instantly had mud all over them. Not only that, but this whole part smelt like the sewers. I had walked quite a ways through this, hoping that it would get better, and I didn't really want to have to go back. You can't even cross over to the main path as there is a big main brook all the way along. There were downed trees everywhere, and every few meters, a cobweb would hit me in the face. Before long, it felt like I had webs all over me. It was a nightmare to say the least. I did eventually get out into the main park and pathways, and it is quite in contrast. Unfortunately, as other reviews have said, there is rubbish everywhere, I mean it's actually disgusting. The main paths in the park are clean, but if you go on the paths through the trees, you'll see rubbish everywhere. Someone even threw a TV away here too... in a nature reserve. The entrance I went in, someone had dropped a coffee cup from Costa, and next to it were about 25 unused wooden stir sticks. Who needs 25 sticks to stir their coffee? I only need one. I don't think there is even a Costa nearby. So they had to walk from there, all the way to this park, ignoring all the bins along the way and then dump the lot in the park. Just animals, what a waste. If I lived in one of the houses next to this, I'd be ashamed of how this placed looks, all of the entrances have rubbish layed about, it's even in the trees. If I lived here, I would clean it up. Aside from that, the walk around the main paths and around the ponds is quite pleasant, and there are many ducks and birds around. There are no benches anywhere though. A few would make all the difference. There are some red brick walls you can sit on between the 2 ponds though. There are power lines stretching over head where the walls are, and rather unsettling is that you can hear the electric crackling above you. Before yesterday, the last time I came here was 30 years ago when I was a kid, I used to walk down here with my parents, usually once every few weeks from the Netherton tunnel. There is a tunnel you could use to walk under the train rail tracks to reach this park from the other side. It's still there, but you can't exactly walk through it anymore, more like swim. The park has changed over 30 years, and I'm sure it wasn't even a nature reserve back then. Unfortunately as it stands at the moment, and the state the park is in, I won't be going back any time soon. It's ideal for dog walking and bird feeding. Just outside the main entrance is an abandoned house. You can actually see inside, and there is still furniture and stuff in there, but it's clearly not in use. That would be a nice place to live if it...

It's a absolutely gorgeous nature reserve set right in the middle of the Black Country. Bolly and I had a little walk round there before collecting my husband and I have to say we both loved it. It was early evening and so quiet that a fox was just sat on the grass sunning himself in the late summer sunshine. I could've watched him for ages, but I think he sensed Bolly was there ( she'd gone straight back on the lead when I saw him) and he walked off into the bushes. There's a main tarmac path and then other smaller paths running off it, we didn't walk that far really, I'm sure there's a lot of exploring to be done. Some of the smaller paths are just trodden down grass, but they are still reasonably easy to walk on with a little care. When we walked, there wasn't any benches and just one bin for dog poo, perhaps the council could consider a couple of benches and some more bins. The only other people in the park were fellow dog walkers enjoying the sunshine. Parking isn't very good, it's on street parking on Sheepwash Lane and there are no toilet facilities or a playground in the bit I explored. There are a couple of buses that run quite near to the park, but nothing immediately by it.

Despite all that, I was impressed how nice it was and certainly intend to take Bolly and explore a bit more of the park.

Bolly (of...

A real hidden park this, I only discovered this whilst walking the Birmingham Canal and saw an access on my O.S.Map albeit an extremely dark tunnel beneath both canal and railway! What an excellent undertaking to reclaim over 35 acres of disused industrial land to provide lakes, ponds and woods for I guess multitudes of wildlife. I only walked along a few of the myriad of paths and saw hundreds of coots, several herons and surprisingly cormorants! (Birmingham must be as far from the sea as you can get!) It was a dry but cloudy Saturday and I only saw two other people in there! What a peaceful haven, away from the noise of modern day living, which assaulted my ears when I exited at Great Bridge. PS - can anybody tell me what the bird doing a “take-off” is when I zoomed in...