The Town Park has 170 hectares of open space. This park has a variety of areas for you to explore from play areas to landscaped gardens and from grassy banks to pools and woodlands. This unique environment which we see today has evolved through human impact on the land over many years.
Saxon times saw the first real changes when early settlers cleared areas within the forest to create land suitable for farming.
These became the starting points for places like Dawley, Stirchley and Malinslee ('Ley' is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning a clearing in the wood).
In the 13th century much of the land around Stirchley was given to the Cistercian Monks of Buildwas Abbey. It was these monks who built the original Grange at Stirchley and farmed the surrounding land until the 1530's.
The relatively peaceful scene of small farmsteads separated by hedges and woodlands continued until the Industrial Revolution when everything changed.
Valuable raw materials such as coal and ironstone were mined, and this produced enormous amounts of waste which created the pit mounds seen in the park today.
The Shropshire Union Canal passed through the Park. New industries grew up along side the canal - iron furnaces, foundries and forges at Hinkshay and on the Stirchley Chimney site. Most of the industries belonged to the Old Park Company which was set up by Isaac Hawkins Browne - he used to live at Stirchley Grange.
The Wellington Iron and Coal Company built Stirchely Chimney in 1873. However, due to bankruptcy in 1877, the furnace was never fired. This site was bought by the Wrekin Chemical Company in 1886 and used to manufacture naphtha charcoal and lime salts until the locals complained about the smell!
The last mine, Grange Pit, closed in 1894. However, new industries soon arrived to produce kerbstobes and paving slabs. By the 1860's industries had left the area leaving behind a trail of derelict remains to be reclaimed by nature.
Despite all this industrial activity plants and animals soon returned, and as you follow the paths you will find mining and factory remains amongst the trees and meadows.
The pit mounds evolved into small heathland and woodlands and hedgerows grew alongside the old canal and railway tracks and the quarries became pools.
The Park is so valuable for wildlife that much of it has been designated a Local Nature Reserve.
