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The story of "the Ackers" and its environs is best told chronologically,
beginning with the appearance of the landscape before it was settled and
altered so drastically by man.
The marshy valley floors of the Cole and the Spark and their confluence with
lesser streams still carry the vegetation appropriate to an often flooded
expanse of silt and gravel: the watercourses have experienced many changes,
both natural and man-made, and there has been some land-drainage, but the
area south of the railway is least altered. North from there, the
embankments and industrial dumping upon formerly flat flood-meadows have
created artificial relief - the spectacular gorges in which the streams flow
are very recent in the district's history.
Natural cover was
of three kinds. In the water meadows, grass, reeds and weeds alternated with
clumps of willow, as now. On the gentle clay slopes of the valley sides,
dense oak forest grew, with thickets of impenetrable bush and bramble
beneath giant trees. The sandy and gravelly plateau level above bore
variable wood, thinning out from oak, elm and ash, with underbrush, to
hazel, birch, gorse and broom on the stoniest patches. 'Small Heath',
originally at the junction of the Coventry Road and Green Lane, was one of
these. Hay Hall was established in the middle of a circular deposit of
gravelly drift, which provided a clearing in thick wood. The 'hay' was an
enclosure, fenced for agriculture against wild creatures. Heybarnes (Hay
Barn) was another. 'Golden Hillock' was covered in gorse and broom after
clearance of the great timber in Tudor times.
Introduction
What can be seen from Ackers Hill
The natural landscape
Watercourses
Early settlement and boundaries
The Manors
The Warwick canal
Railways
Industry
Urbanisation
Parks and open spaces
Churches and schools
The Ackers leisure park
Itinerary
Maps |
