A WOODLAND originally paid for by pupils from a school near Stourport has been cleared up and reopen-ed as a nature reserve.

Half Crown Wood, near Windmill First and Middle Schools in Areley Kings, was planted with Scots pine when children each paid half-a-crown. It was intended as an amenity for local people but gradually fell into disrepair.

Now it has been cleaned up by Wyre Forest District Council's Countryside Rangers and reopened as a managed nature reserve.

"The children will be able to use it as an outdoor learning area," said Ranger Adam Hamilton. "It's not a big site but it is a valuable amenity for people walking dogs or just as open space. It has some lowland heath and meadow areas as well as the Scots pine trees."

Sue Williams, school receptionist at Windmill First School, said she remembered her own daughter contributing towards the cost of the wood when it was first created.

"It will be very good for the children now it has been restored," she said.

Former Windmill Middle School headteacher, David Everton, was deputy head when the original planting was carried out, at the time of decimalisation in 1971, when each pupil paid for a tree with their then outgoing half-crowns.

"We planted 1,300 Scots pines and 400 silver birches," said Mr Everton, 68, who added: "The trees were only single, tiny saplings."

Mr Everton, of Church Walk, Areley Kings, said that, after 30 years, some of the trees had to be separated out as they had grown too close together.