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Photo: Mat Fascione, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
160 hectare (400 acre) nature reserve in former gravel pits, with meadow and wetland habitats for bird-watching.
Middleton Lakes RSPB reserve is a 160 hectares nature reserve, formally opened on 19 May 2011, created and run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at Middleton, Warwickshire, England, just south of Tamworth. The Northern part of the reserve lies in Staffordshire, yet the reserve is only a few minutes from the outskirts of Birmingham.
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Theme park with rollercoasters for teens and Thomas the Tank Engine and zoo for younger children.
A large flooded gravel pit forming numerous large boating, fishing and recreational lakes and field areas. Plus children's playgrounds and activities, a visitor centre and coffee shop.
Resort hotel and spa with three golf courses: the Brabazon, the PGA National and The Derby.
This bastion was the seat of the Kingdom of Mercia from 781 AD, but this was a simple earthwork and palisade wrecked by the Vikings then the Danes. A stone motte-and-bailey castle appeared around 1080, extended in later centuries. It came into public ownership in the 1890s and was refurbished as a museum.
A church was established here in the 8th century, with the present building from the 14th with a makeover in the 1850s. It remains an active Anglican church.