Sitting at the heart of England adjacent to a motorway network that leads in all directions, Knowle provides us with fantastic opportunities to visit historic, delightful and fascinating places across the Midlands. Here is a selection of suggestions that otherwise we might simply drive past:
Spetchley Park Gardens
Distance from Knowle: 30 miles (40 mins)
A local, tranquil, scenic and imaginatively created green gallery, with a different depiction at every turn, these historic gardens provide several hours of relaxed and varied pleasure on a sunny day. Immaculate they are not, but the joy here is in enjoying the planting, the atmosphere of the many different ‘rooms’, the statues, the glorious blooms and the ancient walls.
Bodenham Arboretum
Distance from Knowle: 33 miles (45 mins)
Bodenham Arboretum, near Kidderminster, provides a splash of colour from spring through to autumn and a fine day out with delightful strolls amongst a wide variety of trees set amongst the rolling hills. Here the miles of paths, in 156 acres of woodland, meander around overhanging glades and a network of pools and islands, connected by wooden bridges.
Shuborough – Streamside Splendour
Distance from Knowle: 36 miles (50 mins)
A stately home, a parkland and garden filled with follies, a farm, a riverside arboretum, a remarkably narrow packhorse bridge, a restaurant and a teashop, Shugborough has a superb set of scenic ingredients for a varied visit. It also offers an excellent insight into the contrasting lives of the Anson family whose home it was.
Magnificent Malvern
Distance from Knowle: 40 miles (55 mins)
Too often passed by those seeking the rolling hills above, the town of great Malvern retains strong reflections of its heyday as a spa town and echoes of Sir Edward Elgar, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien who spent much time there. At its heart remains its renowned ancient and historic abbey, but less well known is that a host of inventions such as radar and liquid crystal displays were developed here.
Cromford
Distance from Knowle: 60 miles (70 mins)
Cromford in Derbyshire was a cradle of the Industrial Revolution, where Sir Richard Arkwright, built the first water powered cotton spinning mill in 1771and came to be seen as the father of mass production. Cromford Mill is the gateway to the Derwent Valley Mills, a World Heritage Site which draws visitors from across the world.