This information aims to help you explore the section of the Rea Brook Valley around Sutton.

The map shows the main footpaths in the Valley and how they link up with the surrounding roads.

Part of a longer walk from the Abbey to Meole Brace is also shown. This walk is in the "Rural Rambles" set. 

 

The Valley is part of the countryside. During the winter some of the paths may be wet and muddy so strong shoes or boots are needed. 
Agriculture in the countryside around Shrewsbury is dominated by large fields growing arable crops to provide us with food.
 

Farming methods are intensive using fertilisers, pesticides, hybrid crop varieties and large machinery to maximise production. These changes in farming techniques have created problems for many wild plants and animals which can no longer find a home in these landscapes.

 

The Rea Brook Valley has never been subjected to intensive agriculture so the plants and animals that evolved with traditional farming methods can still be found here. From the unpolluted waters of the Rea Brook itself through the fields to the hedges and woodlands there is habitat for an enormous variety of wildlife.

 

Kingfishers and herons are the fishermen of the area and can regularly be seen flying between the overhanging willow and alder trees. The pastures next to the Brook are flooded regularly in the winter but have many wildflowers and butterflies in the summer.

 

Management aims to revert to traditional techniques to improve the diversity of insects and flowers still further. Some of the Valley’s fields are cut for hay and others are grazed. The hedges surrounding the fields are vital shelter and food sources for all sorts of creatures and are full of life for most of the year. Hedgelaying is a traditional method of managing hedges which promotes bushy growth at the base of the hedge creating a stock proof barrier and shelter and food for many birds.

 

The willow trees lining the brook would once have been pollarded regularly to harvest timber for making hurdles and sticks. Pollards are cut about 2m above the ground to ensure that the new shoots are out of reach of grazing cattle. Pollarding does not kill willows, in fact, it can prolong their lives considerably.

 

The history of this area can be traced back over a thousand years to a time when Shrewsbury was a small town on the River Severn. At this time the fast flowing waters of the Rea Brook prompted the growth of a new industry - milling. Using only hand tools, a complex system of deep channels called races and leats was dug. Many of these can still be seen today adding great historical and archaeological interest to the Valley as well as providing a habitat for damp loving plants and animals.

 

Sutton Lower Mill and Sutton Old Mill were both in this area and as you walk along the Rea Brook, the remains of old walls, sluices and weirs are visible. Sutton Lower Mill was given to Shrewsbury Abbey in 1155 by a pious merchant from Wem. The mill was built on the original channel of the brook. The present day channel, which flows in a wide arc, is a man-made channel dug to carry any overflow. The old river channel has long been filled in. The footpath crossing the Valley close to the playground at White Hart marks the Mediaeval boundary between the lands of Shrewsbury Abbey to the north and those of Wenlock Priory to the South and West.

 

Sutton Old Mill was on the area now occupied by the golf course, but the old mill race is still visible in the fields close by.

 

Spa Cottage, now nearly derelict, was a smaller version of the great spa town pump rooms Until as recently as the 1940s people paid one old penny for a glass of the spa water. It was even prescribed by a doctor in Liverpool who gave it to his patients.

 

The embankments and tunnels of the disused Severn Railway Line are still visible in the Valley. Woodland has developed on the steep sides of the embankments and the railway is now a cycle track.

 

Several different types of willow grow in the Valley. The furry catkins of goat and grey willow are seen in early spring. Osier is the species most widely grown for basket making. Crack willow grows into large trees along the river bank, historically managed by pollarding. Willow wood is used to make cricket bats and the drug used to make aspirin was originally extracted from willow bark.

 

"As bald as a coot". The saying refers to the white front of a coot’s head which gives it a bald appearance.

 

Open stretches of water with plenty of waterside vegetation and sunshine are the best places to watch out for dragonflies skimming the water surface and darting about. Kingfishers perch on branches overhanging the water and fly rapidly up and down stream. Listen for their high pitched whistle and watch for the flash of blue as they fly past.

 

Roach, chubb, sticklebacks and minnows are food for herons, kingfishers and otters as well as sport for anglers.

 

Beneath the surface of the Brook lies another, watery world. Dragonflies, damselflies, mayflies and others all start life as nymphs which live underwater. Water snails and water beetles live here too. Close to the "blue bridge" at Summit Close is a gravelly stretch of the Brook where you can have a go at stream dipping if you have a net.

 

The elusive otter loves the water too and builds its home, called a holt, on secluded banks of rivers and streams. Otters are present in the Valley but to see one you will have to be very alert. Look out for otter spraint - a fishy smelling secretion - and otter footprints on soft areas near the water.

 

Listen for the endlessly repeated coo-coo-coo-cu-coo of the wood pigeon.