Cotwall End Valley


Cotwall End Valley is a local nature reserve in West Midlands, England. It is about a mile south of Sedgley, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.
It incorporates some of the grounds of Ellowes Hall, a stately home built in the early 19th century and demolished in 1964, which has let to the wooded part of the valley being known locally as "Ellowes Hall Wood".

Description

It was declared a local nature reserve by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council in 1990. It is also a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation. The reserve, area, contains grassland, woodland including ancient woodland, and lowland heath. Some of the flora and fauna is rare nationally.

Geology

The valley is on two branches of a major geological fault at the edge of the South Staffordshire coalfield, and so there is great geological diversity. These features, meeting the criteria specified by the Global Geoparks Network, make it a geosite within the Black Country Geopark. Turner's Hill, within the reserve at, area, is a Site of Special Scientific Interest for its geology: important strata of the late Silurian period can be seen.