About Redditch

Redditch has many green open spaces enjoyed year-round by residents and visitors alike, the largest and most impressive of which being the Arrow Valley Country Park. This award-winning park comprises over nine hundred acres of beautifully landscaped and picturesque parkland including the twenty seven acre Arrow Valley Lake, which is a popular location for sailing and fishing as well as being the perfect habitat for migratory wildfowl, making it much frequented by birdwatchers.

One of the industries that brought prosperity to Redditch during the Victorian era was the manufacture of needles - ninety percent of the world's needles were made in the town at one time. This fact is commemorated at The Forge Needle Museum, which documents the history of the industry in Redditch in the form of many models and dioramas depicting the manufacturing process, as well as live demonstrations of the use of needles in the world of textiles.

On the outskirts of the town lie the remains of the twelfth century Bordesley Abbey, a Cistercian abbey that was destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. Now an important archaeological site with an excellent museum and visitor centre onsite displaying many artefacts excavated there, the abbey represents a fascinating historical relic. The town is also home to the preserved remains of a medieval moated rampart and settlement known as Moons Moat.

Several country manor houses of note lie just outside Redditch, one of the finest of which being the Tudor mansion Coughton Court. Surrounded by decorative formal gardens, this stunning house has links to both the Gunpowder Plot and the English Civil War and, as such, is home to many interesting and unusual treasures from the past.