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The River Blythe flows through the English Midlands, rising from central Warwickshire, mainly through the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull and on to Coleshill in North Warwickshire. It runs through the Meriden Gap in the Midlands Plateau, is fed by the River Cole and is a tributary of the River Tame beside the West Midland Bird Club's Ladywalk reserve. The Tame then joins the River Trent, whose waters reach the North Sea via the Humber Estuary.

The Blythe rises at various sources near Earlswood Lakes, close to the county boundary of Warwickshire and Worcestershire and near the sources of the Rivers Arrow and Alne whose waters flow via the Avon and Severn to the Bristol Channel; but the principal tributary is listed as Spring Brook at 52.350915°N 1.843601°W SP107725. From here the Blythe winds northeast, skirting Cheswick Green, towards Solihull. Here it passes through a local wildlife park, Malvern and Brueton Park and Nature Reserve, where it briefly splits or outpours for approximately 250m (275 yrds) to form Brueton Park Lake. From here it meanders east, past several old country houses including Old Berry Hall, Ravenshaw Hall and Eastcote Hall, before turning sharply south towards Barston, which is encircled within a large meander of the river. At Temple Balsall the Cuttle Brook feeds the river, which now arcs north, and again close by Barston. Past Hampton in Arden (where it is crossed by an ancient packhorse bridge alongside a treacherous ford) the river is fed by Shadow Brook at Diddington Hall. Travelling further north it passes to the east of Coleshill, where it is fed by the River Cole, only a few hundred metres or yards before it itself debouches into the River Tame at 52.522317°N 1.688242 W SP212916 in Ladywalk Nature Reserve.

The river is "a particularly fine example of a lowland river on clay" according to its Site of Special Scientific Interest citation. The SSSI was notified in 1989, and includes a 24-mile (39km) stretch of the river from near its source to the point where it joins the Tame. The Blythe has a wide range of natural geographical features such as riffles, pools, small cliffs and meanders, combined with a high diversity of substrate types ranging from fine silt and clay in the lower reaches to sands and gravels in the upper and middle reaches. The structure of this river is very variable, and is important as a rare example of such diversity in lowland Britain.

The diverse physical features of the Blythe are matched by its diverse plant communities. Botanically, the Blythe is one of the richest rivers in lowland England, with the most species-rich sections containing as many species as the very richest chalk streams. In addition, several damp, unimproved meadows occur along the length of the river; they receive some of their water from annual flooding and are largely dependent upon the river for the maintenance of a high water table. As well as the rich and diverse flora, the river supports a diverse invertebrate community with a wide range of molluscs, oligochaetes and caddis flies. However, physical modification to the watercourse and the riparian zone has impacted the functionality of the River Blythe, resulting in the SSSI's condition being assessed as "unfavourable, no change" in 2017. The factors leading to this were mainly due to historic management: many sections of the river have been straightened, and the riparian zone modified and disrupted, upsetting the site's ecological health and lowering the overall SSSI status.

The river is popular with anglers along much of its length, although in dry weather it can become shallow in places. Species to be found include perch, chub and dace with occasional summer carp being caught. The river also holds tench, bream and rudd and more recently a small number of barbel have been caught.

Wikipedia: Link

Created: Wed, 27 Feb 2013, Updated: Tue, 6 Feb 2024