Kings Norton Park

Kings Norton park is my go to park for walking the lovely TJ. There is a car park which tends to get full in the week by people using it who arent going to the park but are using the nearby railway station - ive knocked a star off for this as it is most annoying for those people who do actually want to use the park!

There is a fenced off children's play area which always seems popular but we tend to give that a wide berth!

To the left of the car park there is a huge big playing field where ive been able to let TJ off the lead when there are no other dogs around (thats why i love going mid-morning in the week when im not at work!). At the end of the huge playing fields is the Kings Norton Skate Park which seems quite popular with the local youth - ive never had any trouble from the kids using the skate park and i think its brilliant that they have this facility. Heading across one of the two bridges into the more park-y area there are loads of trees, shrubs and a couple of more formal type gardens. Lots of bins around for dropping off those dog poop bags!

Next to the park is St Nicholas church which dates from the early 13th century - i always like to have a wander through the graveyard and then down a footpath between the church and St Nicholas Place (winner of 2004 BBC's Restoration programme and Birmingham's largest collection of Tudor buildings) which leads onto St Nicholas Gardens which is then a short walk back round to the car park (you can always park on St Nicholas Gardens if there is no room in the car park). You can always stop off at one of the many local businesses on Kings Norton Green as well :)

A little known fact is that the Revd W. V. Awdry, author of Thomas the Tank Engine was a curate at St Nicholas Church from 1940 to 1946. The church stands next to the historic buildings of Saracen's Head, recently restored and named Saint Nicolas Place.

Unless the weather is awful I go for a walk around the park on my 30 minute lunch break, the route I take is around 20-25 minutes long so its great for me to just get out of the office for some fresh air.
In my opinion its a lot bigger than I at first thought, there a more secluded walkways, large sprawling playing fields, a skate park on the east side and a children's play area near the carpark on the west. To the north it connects to the back of a school and some allotments. There is usually an ice cream van parked in the aforementioned car park as well, I am not ashamed to say on days when the park has been empty I have gone for a play on the swings.
Equipped with adequate bins, benches and picnic tables I would love to spend my lunches here if I had more than half an hour!

Ah, Kings Norton Park. It's a beautiful park. It's also deceptively small - as in, it's smaller than it looks. That's not to say there isn't plenty of space in it - it's not a handkerchief. It's situated perfectly: one end reaches up to the lovely old medieval church of St. Nicolas on Kings Norton Green and the other end backs onto the car park and beer garden of the Toby Carvery. It seems to be particularly well landscaped. The entrance has an obvious design: elegant and simple lawn, flower beds, benches and hedges. Once you've passed through here you're into the park proper: lots of open space, some dell-like areas, a big kids' play area with lots of fun-looking climbing things and there's also a skate park.

Like Cotteridge Park, there are pleasant tree-lined paths to stroll along. Traffic noise is relatively loud, due to the fact that it's right on Pershore Road South, but it's not overpowering - in fact, you can move pretty far away from it and hardly know it's there.

Another cracking bit of Birmingham parkland.

This is a lovely and beautiful park. There is a childs play area, secured by a fence down by the car park with swings, slides, bars, see saw etc. The car park can get quite full and people swarm when the ice cream van comes!
Amoung the greenery a stream runs through and it is nice to take a stroll on the path that runs alongside it.
There is pleanty of space and benches.
For the older children there is a skate park on the other side of the stream and before you reach the road. If you do cross the road there are more fields which are great to play football and there is access to the canal for walking, jogging, cycling.
It is nice on a sunny day to walk to the church and graveyard at the top of the park and the old school house and once national library.

what a beautiful park! it has it all - greenery, play area, water! The play area contains swings, slide, see saw, monkey bars, climbing frames. it has always been really clean and i hve even seen litter pickers there collecting the tiniest scraps. there is a stream running through and hedged areas with lots of benches. there is a skate park further in the park for teenagers and on the other side of the redditch road there are playing fields where they play football. this park gets really busy and the car park is full even on rainy days! there is the beautiful Kings Norton Church and graveyard at the top of the park and paths that are suitable for bikes. It makes a lovely day out for all the family as there is space for all ages!