Wyken Croft Nature Park

Text and sketches below derived from Coventry City Council Noticeboard displayed on the site.

This is the City's first ecological park.  It was created by Coventry City Council as part of a Department of Environment reclamation scheme, and has involved top soiling to new contours, landscaping, planting native trees and wild flowers.  The park is for you to enjoy.  It lies over what was once a coal mining area, Craven Colliery, and in the 1950's and 60s the site was used as a refuse tip.  What you now see is an example of the City Council's far sighted commitment to Conservation.
 

Sedge Warbler The sedge warbler likes dense vegetation close to damp areas, and is known to breed near a small pond to the south-east of the site.  It is a Summer visitor, living here from April to September and spending the Winter in tropical Africa.  It eats insects such as flies and gnats, and its 'song' is a varied mixture of sweet and harsh sounds.  Cuckoos quite often lay their eggs in sedge warblers nests.

Comma Caterpillar The comma caterpillar usually lives alone, often on nettles where it weaves a small web under a leaf, making clever use of camouflage to avoid being eaten.  The caterpillar resembles a bird dropping, and the butterfly looks like a dead leaf when its wings are closed.  Commas do not hibernate until late in the Autumn, usually about October, but come out early in spring when they can be seen feeding on catkin pollen.

The Church of St Mary - Feb-2002 The Church of St Mary is one of the oldest buildings still standing in Coventry.  Inside it has the feel of a small country church, and there is a fifteenth century wall-painting of a windmill on a riverbank.  It is quite possible that this shows a local mill which once stood beside the River Sowe.  Over the centuries, the surrounding land has had many uses - for pasture and woodland, for mining and industry and, when that ceased, for twentieth century housing.  Today, it is a nature park for all to enjoy.

120 degree Panorama from viewpoint - Sunset Dec-2001

See also:

Sowe Valley Footpath

History Notes on Potters Green Corridor page for information about colleries