edgbaston pool
Edgbaston Pool, some two miles from Birmingham city centre as the crow flies, is a 15.93 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), one of 23 in the West Midlands.
Adjacent to Winterbourne Botanic Garden and Edgbaston Golf Course it is close to the University of Birmingham.
The site has two distinct units (areas) within it. The first is water-related and contains the seven hectare lake and the input channel of the Chad Brook as well as some land that is either marsh or lake depending on the season. The second, the smaller section is woodland..
The site is based on glacial sands and gravels overlying sandstone from the Late Triassic period. Maps from the 18th century show there used to be two ponds on the site but one has now been naturally filled in and overgrown. On the south side of the main pool is a dam holding the water in and a small weir.
[text largely from wikipedia.org in March 2009]