A chocolate box view?

It was a lovely sunny morning, so I set off for my lunchtime walk on the Lickey Hills full of optimism. Within seconds though it clouded over and minutes later it was raining. There must be something funny about the way I walk which the gods misinterpret as a raindance.

Anyway, by the time I got to the top of Beacon Hill, the views across Birmingham which I had hoped to capture had disappeared in the murk. It was clear enough though for me to take this view of Frankley Beeches framed by one of the arches of the rather curious Toposcope Fort on the top of Beacon Hill.

This view is almost entirely courtesy of the Cadbury family. The Toposcope Fort was built in 1988 to celebrate the centenary of the Lickey Hills country park and houses a toposcope donated by the Cadbury family in the early twentieth century. The locally well-known landmark of Frankley Beeches was given by George Cadbury as parkland to the City of Birmingham.