Meole Brace

The Rea Brook Valley in Meole Brace

Welcome to the Rea Brook Valley

This information aims to help you explore the section of the Rea Brook Valley around Meole Brace. The map shows the main footpaths in the Valley and how they link up with the surrounding roads. 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.

The Rea Brook Valley in Shrewsbury is home to an enormous variety of plants and animals. The regular flooding of the brook had ensured that the meadows, hedges and copses have been preserved in the traditional pattern of land use that has disappeared from many other parts of the countryside. At any time of year, a walk along the brook can be a rewarding experience and the observant can expect to see a great deal of wildlife.

Fish, including trout, thrive on the wide variety of insects that live in the water. Kingfishers and herons feed on the shoals of minnows swimming in the shallows.

The bushy hedgerows are a secret world for many small mammals and birds, such as bullfinches. Food and shelter are provided and the line of the hedge is a safe corridor for wildlife to travel along. Hedgerows are an important wildlife habitat which has almost disappeared from intensively farmed areas of the countryside.

Cattle grazing and hay cutting of grassland provides ideal conditions for wild flowers to grow. Some of the fields in the Valley are managed in this way. Others have not been cut or grazed for many years and have become dominated by nettles, thistles, docks and ragwort providing food for several types of butterfly and the stripy cinnabar moth caterpillar.

The water loving willows along the water’s edge are home to many species of bird and insect. Look out for birds like siskin and redpoll on the alder trees during winter. Alder is another tree that can grow with its roots in the water and is found along the banks of the Brook.

The village of Meole Brace has been in existence since Roman times, when it was a popular resting place on the route from Llanymynech Quarries to Viriconium. The first real records of the area begin in the Middle Ages. The Domesday survey of 1086 records a manor of 360 acres with three ox teams and ten servants. The property was owned by King Edward the Confessor’s daughter.

At this time the village was known as Melu, which later became Meole. It means ground corn and refers to the corn milling industry. Indeed, the Rea Brook was known as the Meole Brook until the 1800s. There was a corn mill at Meole from the 10^th century and the remains of the mill races, now very dry, can be seen in the wooded area on the eastern side of the brook.

The newer part of Meole Brace is on the west side of the Brook. The main road is Moneybrook Way which gets its name from the time of the Black Death. Shrewsbury town was so rife with the disease in 1576 that most business was conducted outside the town walls to prevent the plague from spreading. Meole Brace village was home to a market where the townsfolk came to buy provisions. A long ditch was used to wash their money before handling and this became known as the Money Brook.

The oldest tree in the Valley is in Meole Brace. The venerable oak in the corner of the field closest to the big Meole Island roundabout is thought to be over 400 years old. It’s not old enough, however, to have been around in 1406 which was a particularly bad year for Meole Brace. Owain Glyndwr, the Welsh ruler, came to Shrewsbury to avenge the death of Henry Percy who had been killed during the Battle of Shrewsbury. The strong town walls prevented him from attacking the town so he plundered the surrounding villages instead. Meole Brace was so badly ravaged that the King exempted the villagers from paying taxes for a whole year.

Look out for horsetails as you walk through the Meole Brace fields. This is a very ancient plant which has been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth. Coal deposits contain lots of material from horsetails. Horsetails contain tiny pieces of silica which you can feel as a roughness if you touch the plant.

Some types of horsetail were rough enough to be used for scouring dishes before the advent of the pot scourer. Blackbirds search for worms on the close mown grass of the football field.

A robin will choose a prominent position to sing from to warn others that this is its territory. Tawny Owls hunt mainly at night, perching until they spot prey then swooping down onto it from above. Small tortoiseshell, painted lady and red admiral butterflies all lay their eggs on young stinging nettle leaves. In early summer you might find their caterpillers busily eating away.

Great spotted woodpeckers feed on seeds, nuts, insects and berries. Its tongue can stretch beyond the end of its beak to pick up food. Listen for the drumming noise of woodpeckers chiseling out holes in tree trunks.

Comfrey grows along the banks of the Brook where flood waters have deposited fertile silt. It flowers in early summer. It is reknowned for its healing properties, especially for sprains and bruises and used to be known as "knitbone" for its power to mend broken bones.

Telephone 01743 359199 E-Mail countryside@shrewsbury.gov.uk