Wychbury Hill

Wychbury Hill
Wychbury Hill looking towards Wychbury Obelisk
Highest point
Elevation	224 m (735 ft)
Geography
Location	Worcestershire, England
OS grid	SO920817
Topo map	OS Explorer 219

Wychbury Hill is a hill situated off the A456 Birmingham Road, at Hagley, Stourbridge, on the border of West Midlands and Worcestershire.

It is divided between the parish of Hagley and former parish of Pedmore. It is one of the Clent Hills. The hill offers good views across the Severn Valley as far as the Malvern Hills and Clee Hills. It is the site of Wychbury Ring - an Iron Age hill fort - and the Wychbury Obelisk, and is much beloved of pagans, with the site containing a 28-tree ancient yew grove, and not because the name sounds like "witch". The name is actually unrelated, being derived from that of the Saxon subkingdom of the Hwicce.

On the flank of the hill is a folly in the shape of a Greek Doric temple, in fact a miniature replica of the end of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Built in 1758, it was England's first example of Neoclassical architecture. The temple is currently in a seriously dilapidated and vandalised condition. It is a listed building on private land and permanently fenced off to the public.

In 1943, during World War Two, woman's body was discovered inside a wych elm tree in a wood near Wychbury Hill, on the Hagley Hall estate, prompting the intriguing graffiti "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?". This message has reappeared in a variety of local places at intervals ever since, and as of 1999 the obelisk has borne the message "Who put Bella in the Witch [sic] Elm" (no question mark). The victim was never identified. It has sparked a lot of media interest over the years, featuring on the BBC's Inside Out TV program in the West Midlands.

Cultural references

• Stourbridge band The Vengeful Widows' second single 'Turn Out The Light' (1990) featured the Wychbury Obelisk on the cover.

External links

• 3D Panorama
• Bella in the Wych Elm

See also

• List of hill forts in England