The woods between Newcastle and Stoke, bordered on the west by the A34 and the east by the A500, are ancient oak woodland and, as can be seen on a map of 1117, formed part of a much larger forest which originally stretched the thirty miles south to Stafford.
It was here in 1690 that two Dutch entrepreneurs began to mine the iron-rich red clay from the hills to make teapots which didn't break when filled with boiling water. The 'Brown Betty' teapot
Link is still made to this day from the same local red clay.
The streams and the two pools at the foot of the hill were for years heavily polluted from landfill and from the industrial estate at the top, but this is improving. The north-west section was declared a Local Nature Reserve by Newcastle Borough Council in 2007, and volunteers have been active in reducing the impact of invasive species such as willow and undertaking other local management projects.
Three public footpaths and a cycle way traverse the wood, converging on (or radiating from) a roundabout on the A500.
See other images of Bradwell Woods