Brindley Heath Trails - Green Trail

Green trail: 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) – approx. 2 hours

1. From the car park, walk a few metres to the interpretation board, turning right immediately to trail post (A).
2. Walk towards post (B), noticing on your left, a variety of planted tree species including Scots pine, Japanese larch and sweet chestnut. Notice the difference between the conifers such as the finer leaves of the larch and the different cone shapes. A spring creates a damp area where soft rush grows.
3. At post (C), turn left.
4. A little further on the right at (D) is an area of open heathland with heather and scrub, managed to keep the scrub at the right levels to support wildlife. Imagine this place 200 years ago – hardly a tree in sight with huge flocks of the now extinct Cannock Grey-Face sheep roaming across the landscape, keeping the heathland open. The heathland today represents a key wildlife habitat, designated as part of the Cannock Chase Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). More recently, these important heathland communities became a Special Area of Conservation or SAC. This puts the Chase heaths firmly on the map as an area of international significance.
5. There have been many unplanned fires in this area, including a devastating one in 1976. Some charring may still be seen on older trees in the area. Further down the track at (E), birch and pine invasion has been controlled, but it quickly re-invades without further management. In the past, grazing kept these areas open and in its absence mechanical methods have to be used to maintain the important open heathland areas.
6. Ahead at the track junction at (F) is a stand of Corsican pines, planted as a timber crop; notice the grey bark and longer, twisted needles when compared to Scots pines. Turn right here and continue down and then up the slope to (G).
7. There has been large scale clearance of pine and birch in this area to restore the rare heathland. Walk ahead through the woodland. As the gradient levels out, you C D 7a 20 E emerge from the trees; follow the track past a small field and continue to post (H).
8. Turn sharp left and walk along the path beside a hawthorn hedgerow on your right hand side.
9. Head past post (I). On the left the woodland in this area is a mixture of self-sown oak, pine, silver birch and rowan.
10. Continue to post (J) and turn right at the tracks’ crossing point.
11. Take the left fork to post (K), where you bear right. You are now passing through an area where grazing and bracken control trials took place on the heathland in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
12. At post (L), turn left; walking downhill, you pass an area where heather was cut for packing ceramics in the Potteries up to the 1940s. Turn left onto the main track (Duffields Lane) at post (18) between banks of heather, bilberry and cowberry. A programme of bracken control here has enabled these species to flourish again. Follow the track for half-a-mile to return to Brindley Village car park.