Page 6 - Illustrated Reditch History

Woolly Mammoths In Worcestershire

When our world was first created it was very different to today. The ground bubbled
and steamed and rose up and down. Volcanoes burst into the air and great rivers
and seas rushed across the land. There were no plants, no animals and no people.
It took millions of years to become the land that we see today.
Our story begins fourteen thousand years ago, when the world was coming to the
end of a final ice age. Great rivers from the melting ice had shaped the landscape,
creating today’s hills and valleys. Across (what is now) East Worcestershire, was a
long, low hill or ridge. This still exists, part of it runs from Evesham through Astwood
Bank where it’s now known as The Ridgeway. Then it goes to Crabbs Cross and down
the Evesham Road. It you find a gap between the houses on The Ridgeway or the
Evesham Road you will notice that you can see for miles across the county.
Small shrubby trees grew on the slopes of the Ridgeway. These were dangerous
places. Woolly mammoths were lurking here, so were other large wild animals such
as brown bears, reindeers, oxen and bisons.
Although it was cold and dry, it was warm enough for the first humans to arrive.
Along the top of the ridgeway was a pathway. Early man and his family would have
walked along its tracks, above the dangers of the forest. They were hunter-gatherers,
travelling around, living in temporary camps, eating what they could find and
following the best food source. They ignored the dangers and hunted the larger
animals with long spears made from the branches of trees, at the tip they tied a
shaped piece of flint.
If you walk along The Ridgeway you are following in the steps of early man.

When The Ridgeway reaches Headless Cross, it turns sharp left towards Bromsgrove.
If you leave The Ridgeway and walk straight on, you will find yourself going downhill.
At the bottom of the hill the land was wet and boggy. Only an occasional fisherman
would steer his boat through the reeds. No-one lived there, it
was too wet either to grow food or to keep animals. It was
a forgotten, desolate piece of ground known as Osmerley,
meaning ‘a wet meadow’. No-one wanted it.
This is where Redditch began.

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