Severn Valley Country Park, West Midlands League and Championships, Sunday 2 November 2025

Note that this event has been planned to “middle distance” specifications.

Travel:
By Car: Follow the Brown tourist signs from A442 (Bridgnorth to Kidderminster)
By Steam Train: Take the Severn Valley Railway and Request the Country Park Halt
By Bus: Check Local bus timetables to Alveley and Highley (followed by a short walk to the park Visitor Centre)
By Bike: Follow route 45 (Mercian Way) from Bridgnorth or Bewdley

Parking: at Severn Valley Country Park Visitor centre. If full you will be directed to park on the sides of the entrance road. All parking including on road is pay and display (update: anyone taking part in this event does not need to pay for parking). Parking is limited, so please car-share if you possibly can.

Entries: now open via Fabian4 (link below), closing Sunday 26 October (23:59). There will be very limited entries available on the day (EOD).

Entry Fees:
Seniors £10 (£12 for non British Orienteering members)
Juniors £3

Start Times: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

Courses Close: 2:00pm

Start and Finish: both very adjacent to the Visitor Centre

Punching: SportIdent with mixed electronic punching, i.e. SIAC enabled or traditional dibbing depending on the dibber you use. SIAC users please note, you must physically dib the Start and Finish controls.

Competitions:
This event forms part of the West Midlands League for 2025. If you want to score league points for your club, you need to run one of the courses for your age group – these are set out in the League Rules (there is a long and a short option for all ages).

The event will also host the West Midlands Championships for 2025. For each age group, the Championships will be based on the same course as the “long” option for the league. Please refer to the Championships Rules for full details of age class eligibility.

However, you are welcome to enter any course of your choice if you don’t want to be part of these competitions!

Courses
Courses are planned to Middle Distance specifications.

Brown, Blue, Green and Short Green courses have a map flip to accommodate entering and leaving Hallclose Coppice

Course	Length	Climb	Controls	Notes
Brown	5.6 km	185 m	28	Double sided Map
Blue	4.6 km	170 m	28	Double sided Map
Green	4.2 km	150 m	25	Double sided Map
Short Green	2.7 km	130 m	19	Double sided Map
Light Green	2.2 km	90 m	15
Orange	1.6 km	40 m	13
Yellow	1.3 km	25 m	10
White	1.0 km	25 m	9

The area is divided by the River Severn. There is one bridge across the River Severn which is a mandatory crossing although there is no control on the bridge — do not attempt to cross elsewhere!

Longer courses have many controls in a small area, two mandatory crossings, and use a double-sided map. Please take extra care to visit all the controls on your course in the correct order.

There are some quite lengthy sets of wooden steps in the area. For map clarity these are not mapped as steps, just with the standard path symbol. Take care on running down as some have lost the metal mesh grip and can be very slippy.

Short Green, Green, Blue and Brown Courses will use Hallclose Coppice at the southern end of the area. There is only one mandatory entrance and exit to Hallclose across a path over a small bridge and stile alongside the river. Do not attempt to cross a deep stream and fence further up the slope; the only route is using the crossing, and the fence/stream is clearly marked in purple on the map. There is no control marking the mandatory crossing point itself.

There are some fences on longer courses which can be crossed unless they are marked as uncrossable or not to be crossed.

Map
New survey and map by Richard Pay using LIDAR Data Scale 1:7,500 5m contour interval. 

Pre marked maps will be printed on waterproof paper at A4 size.

There are many benches, sculptures, play areas and some abandoned machinery in the area which have not been mapped.

Control Descriptions
There will be loose control description sheets in the start lanes.

Terrain
The terrain is very varied, combining reclaimed coal mining areas and open parkland with areas of more mature woodland.

Runnability is highly variable across the park. It has been challenging to map the runnability at this time of year as vegetation is yet to die back, and there are many fallen branches due to storm damage. However, courses have been planned to avoid the worst areas, but note that “Walk” can turn into “Fight” 

Hallclose Coppice is a former sandstone quarry area and is generally runnable with many point features, small crags and boulders. Its possible you may encounter grazing cattle in Hallclose but they are very docile – go calmly around if you meet them.

The west side of the River is a former loading site for coal onto the Railway with some riverside pasture.

Courses have been planned to avoid the worst runnability.

Facilities
Severn Valley Country Park Visitor Centre has toilet facilities (please remove spiked/Dobs O shoes).

Please check out No.92 café at the Visitor Centre which will be serving coffees, cakes etc.

Dogs
The park is very dog friendly and suitable for dogs on shorter courses but please not on the longer courses as there is grazing livestock in parts of the park.

Please take care that your dog and/or its lead are not a trip hazard, and that it leaves no trace.

Safety
As this a WMOA event whistles must be carried. Full leg cover is needed and arm cover recommended.

There are some quite lengthy sets of wooden steps in the area. For map clarity these are not mapped as steps, just with the standard path symbol. Take care on running down as some have lost the metal mesh grip and can be very slippy.

A risk assessment has been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.

Officials 
Organiser: Clive Richardson (WRE) 07875 161265
Planner: Richard Pay (WRE)
Controller: Andy Johnson (HOC)

Acknowledgements
Access is by kind permission of Shropshire Council, the Severn Valley Country Park management team, and local landowners.

Medical information

If you wish any medical information to be available to a practitioner in the event of an emergency, please fill in the British Orienteering medical information form, place it in a sealed envelope with your name on it, and deposit it at Enquiries. It will not be opened unless we have reason to believe you may have suffered a medical emergency and will be shredded after the event if you don’t collect it.