Top 5 Natural Monuments around Morton Bagot

In spring 2022 Morton Hall Gardens opens its gates to visitors for its annual Tulip Festival, with all ticket sales supporting costume-making at the RSC. More than 100 tulip varieties can be admired in borders,  pots and three cut flower marquees, revealing the magic and splendour of the queen of the spring flowers. Bloms Bulbs, winner of 68 Chelsea Gold medals, supply the bulbs and will be on site with expert advice on your favourite choices. History of Tulips The tulip’s conquest of western Europe began in the Netherlands: In the mid-16th century, travellers brought back bulbs from the Ottoman Empire. The Turks had been cultivating tulips as early as 1000 AD and adopted them as an emblem of the court. The correct name for tulips is the Persian word ‘lale’, but there was a confusion with the Persian and Turkish words for ‘turban’. This is how the misnomer was created and adhered to ever since. In the Dutch Golden age, tulips caused the first major financial bubble. They became the ultimate status symbol. During ‘Tulipmania’, which lasted from 1634 to 1637, just one bulb of a desirable tulip could fetch the same price as a house in the best quarter of Amsterdam. In England, tulips were introduced in the 1630s, which is probably why they don’t feature in Shakespeare’s works. Nowadays, tulips are widely available and affordable. However, they have not lost their magical pull. Tulip festivals are celebrated in many countries. The Netherlands, where tulips are bred and sold in billions, host the most important and well-known. However, if you visit Istanbul in April and early May, you will find that more than 20 million tulips have been planted throughout the city for the ‘Lale’ Festival. This tradition goes back to the late 17th to mid-18th century, which was the height of tulip popularity in the Ottoman Empire, as can still be seen in the ceramic decorations of many palaces. What is tulip magic? I like to compare it to a carnival or New Year’s fireworks. There is a joyful, limitless riot of colour and shapes. All is allowed: the boldest and most outrageous combinations and wild pageants of pattern. It is the ultimate victory over the bleakness of winter. But tulip festivals are more than celebrations of winter’s end. They are also a great opportunity to see hundreds of different varieties ‘in the flesh’. Beyond colour and shape, there are scent, texture and habit. It can be startling how varieties that look very similar on a catalogue page will appear very diverse when planted next to each other. An ideal opportunity to find the tulip you have been looking for!

Nice for a walk and close to the the lake

Section of the epic long distance footpath. This tree is maybe old enough to have been here in Cromwell's time? Along this section, the path is paved, with cattlegrids and some gates.

Beautiful SSSI...great access...full of bluebells

This is a beautiful peaceful hike with amazing views.

Clowes Wood is a piece of history as it was the first reserve owned by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, acquired thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor in 1974. Clowes Wood has probably been wooded since the last ice age, though it was almost cleared of trees in the early 1900s. It is cut through by the Birmingham to Stratford railway and habitats found here today include heathland, woodland, and wet meadow. Wildflowers to be seen here include bluebell, lily of the valley, cow-wheat and bilberry. Fifty species of bird breed here, such as jay, chiff chaff, nuthatch and treecreeper, and also woodcock and all three woodpeckers. Badgers live in this woodland and red fox, muntjac and brown hare are all regular visitors to this reserve.

The cutting on the approach to the tunnel on the north side is a designated site of special scientific interest. Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) are protected by law to conserve their wildlife or geology. The cutting exposes a sequence in Arden sandstone of the late Triassic period in which grey-green shales and siltstones with wavy and lenticular bedding pass into white fine-grained well sorted dolomitic sandstones. The facies (character of a rock expressed by its formation, composition, and fossil content), thus indicates marine (intertidal) deposition conditions.

Bannam's Wood is a small remnant of the ancient wildwood that was once widespread across the Midlands, but which is now very rare in Warwickshire. The woodland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.