Exploring Houses Built into Rocks 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kinver Rock Houses

I'm just finishing up packing for a little adventure that we're going on today. I've got my bag here. My favourite bag. It's my Cabin Max. You'll have seen this before. I love this bag. I take it on like little like overnight trips in this country. It's great if you're going abroad. It's the biggest size that fits as a personal. I assume like it fits in the seat in front of you on like easy jet and Ryanair. I love this bag. I'm just finished packing it up with a few little bits that I want to take with me. We are heading, I was going to say down south, it's not down south, it's to the Midlands. We are heading to, it's actually tomorrow, we're going to a kind of careers event thing for Stephen because he finished his college this time and he doesn't really know what he wants to do. So we're going to this event at the NEC in Birmingham tomorrow and that starts at half nine and we were literally just this morning just discussing, oh actually, you know, to get there in time, we'll have to leave really early and we've just sort of last minute decided let's go and stay overnight. So I've just booked somewhere now. We are going to go and do something along the way. It's going to be a bit tight because Stephen, before we leave, Stephen's got a hospital appointment. He's had surgery recently and he needs a little checkup. So we're going to go and do that and then we're leaving and the place I've chosen to go, it's a National Trust place, it is, I've been calling it NYFA but it's not NYFA, I'm pretty sure it's Kinfer, if it's not, correct me, Kinfer Edge and the Rock Houses. It's pretty near Birmingham. It's a high sandstone ridge and hill fort overlooking dramatic red sandstone rock houses. I thought the pictures and everything looked pretty interesting so I figured we would stop off there on the way to the hotel this evening. The only problem is the houses close at four and it's a little bit tight whether we're going to be able to get to the hospital, do the drive and get there in time before the Rock Houses close but time will tell, we'll see. We're going to finish up packing and then we'll get on the road I guess. We've arrived, we made good time, it's about three o'clockish, hospital appointment was super quick. I think up here are the Rock Houses. I don't really know much about them to be honest, I'm sure we'll find something out. We're in, we made it just in time because we're National Trust members it was free but if you are not a National Trust member it would be how much? £7, £7 for adults, £3, £3.50 for kids and the lady's just giving us some tips. Oh wow, we're gonna have to find out some information about these Rock Houses. You should come down here, you get a good view of the Rock Houses and then you can go up and you can have a little look inside them. Did people live in them? I think I do know that people lived in them until the 60s or something. A little cave, oh I thought it went back further than that. Like apple trees aren't they, it's like a little orchard. This is a really nice little area before you get to the apple trees, you can't say it, Worcestershire, Worcester, Pears, Worcestershire. Before you get to the Rock Houses it's like this little meadow and orchard, really nice, there's picnic tables, it's a lovely evening as well. What? Nottingham. Stephen's finding out all the, I never can remember the name, like brands, they're not brands, varieties of apples or pears that grow. Hearts green apple, it says on it that it's an apple. Oh look at the snowdrops coming out. Are they pears or apple, are they all apples? So over three levels in the middle of the 19th century there were 12 or 13 separate dwellings over those three levels, so quite a community. That's quite a lot isn't it, yeah. We don't know when they first started really making their homes in the Rock but they were certainly here, some of them, by the late 18th century. And what you've got in this little group here, you can see the green door, there was a house at the front and the house at the back. The eventually in the sort of 80s, 70s and 80s they were just stripped out. Yeah. So this, come in. Oh you've got a little fire going, lovely. Mr and Mrs Fletcher actually lived in this house and that is a painting of them sitting here. Oh yeah. Painted about 1900. So we have this one which the Trusters made as it was as far as possible for the Fletchers and then there are these two rooms here, then if you follow the pathway around to your left you come to the other recreated house which is a little bit bigger and is as it might have been about 1930, just before people started moving out. My colleague who was here a moment ago, his family actually lived. Why did they move out, do you know? One of the things that happened was the ironworks had drawn people into Kingborough in the late 18th, 19th century but it closed in the 1880s so there was less pressure on housing. Ultimately people moved, were moved out. The last people to live on the rock lived in one of the cottages on the top level which looked like some little Victorian cottages built into the rock and that was in the early 1960s. Oh, oh wow, look at this. Oh wow, this is huge. So is that, that's here isn't it? Yeah. Oh how incredible. That's where the water is, there. Yeah. And there's your stoves and your grandmother. Grandmother. See that chair? These used to be houses. This is the top level. Well that was the rock houses. Really quite fascinating, much more kind of interesting than I thought it was. I don't know how much you heard but the guy that volunteers there, he's, his grandparents lived there and then his dad lived there for a short period of time. Very passionate about it wasn't he Stephen? Which is actually quite nice that he was so passionate about the history of it and everything. People lived there like, I'm knees up, I'm getting a bit out of breath because we're going up to the hill fort. We're going quite uphill. There's 11 houses built into a rock there. The last people moved out in about, what did she say, the 60s? 65, 1965. They were kind of, yeah, one, the lady put it one way, a bit more politely and then the man said they were forced out by the council, which yeah, makes more sense. But wow, yeah, pretty amazing. Going up here I think, to the top of this hill I issue. Hill fort. It is a climb and a half. The man said that when you're up to the top here you can see four counties. I can't remember them. Staffordshire, Worcestershire. What were the counties Stephen? Shropshire and We've made it to the top of Kinver Hill Fort. This was built around 3,000 years ago. It would have been bustling with families and busyness. I don't know what I'm talking about. Check out these views. We've got a little white house in the middle of the woods. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Worcestershire. What's this? Worcestershire. Worcestershire. When I say Worcestershire, I get mixed up with Worcester, so I end up saying Worcestershire. Worcestershire. Where are we going? I don't know really. We'll walk this way a little bit and then see. We've left the hill fort now. We're just doing like a little loop around. There's three little trails that you can do. This is the point, the highest point I think. They're sharp, right? We were just admiring, I was just admiring these beautiful flowers. I didn't realise, actually. It's like a, it's really sharp. Ow. Stupid old me. We are on our way back down now. This is a really nice place. High praise indeed from Stephen. Did you say it was a really nice place? A lovely little place I think is what he said. Yeah, definitely. I would definitely recommend visiting if you're in the Birmingham area. Kinver Rock Houses and like this walk, you can, it's like a three-hour walk that you can do on the top. We haven't got time because the sun's going to set soon but yeah, really, really nice place. We were going to head straight to the hotel but we were driving through, I keep getting it wrong, I keep wanting to say knifer, kinfer, kinver. We're driving through Kinver town centre and we thought we would just pull up. It's a bit early to go back to the hotel really so we just thought we'd park up and have a little wander. It looks like all the shops and everything are closed but we'll just have a little wander anyway. But look, car parking charges do not apply at this rate. This cute little, the old, the oldie house tea rooms. Everything's closed though. It really is. Tea rooms are closed. This little kitchen thing, Nana's, Nana Val's southern kitchen, it's all closed. We found somewhere that's open. It's a little, is it a toy shop? Gift, kind of like a little gift shop. It's cute. Shall we go in this little shopping alley? Let's go down here. Oh, this is nice. It's windy. These gates automatically close at 5 30. Please make sure you vacate. What time is it? Four? Oh yeah, no, it's five. Cute little alleyway. It's got like a little wine bar, well it's like a daytime wine bar at the end. A dog parlor and a bike shop. It's all a bit random. Oh wow, look at these cameras. A photography place. It's very random down there. This is a tag or village. It's cute. It's just kind of got like one road running through it and all little, little shops. It's nice because there's no like chain shops or anything. It's all like little independent shops. It's very cute. Feels a little bit like stepping back in time to be honest. Yes. It's cash only, like loads of the places have got like cash only signs open. There's a grocer's. It's been a long time since I've seen a grocer's. Get you fruit and veg. Oh yeah, and then a co-op. We're back in the car and we are done. We bought a few little treats to have back at the hotel. We're going to head over there now. It's about an hour's drive to be honest. I thought we're about 15 minutes away from the hotel, so I'm pretty gutted. It's about an hour's drive to the hotel now. We bought a baguette. I'm excited for it. We love a baguette, don't we, Stephen? I was just thinking I really want a little bit before we leave. To be honest, as well as the baguette, Stephen also went for a salted caramel cake. Oh, can I put that somewhere? I'm having it. Oh, what a mess. Delicious. Once when me and Stephen were staying in France, when we were travelling, we stayed in France. It was about a month. Went to a France, a French shop. What are they called? No, they're not supermarkets. What are like the bread shops called? They're not a patisserie. No, a boulangerie is like a meat. Anyway, we went and bought lots of baguettes. I don't know. I don't know why I'm bothered. This is a wish tale. We got baguettes. We're in France. Let's go. I was right. It is a boulangerie, a baker's shop. Baker's shop? You said baker's, right? Not baker's shop. We have arrived at our hotel. It feels like I've been driving forever and ever. We're right by Birmingham Airport. I just like booked the cheapest, well not the cheapest, but just like whatever. Our hotel, all lit up there, like Birmingham Airport is there across that road. We're in a hotel room. You want to see it? Pretty basic. We've got, actually, we've got three beds. Three single beds. We've just obviously just checked in and the guy said, you booked a single room? And I was like, my goodness, it's warm in the bathroom. He said, you booked a single room? And I went, no. And I thought maybe that he wasn't going to have any rooms. And I looked and I was like, no, I have booked a twin. And this is our twin. Open the window. Yeah, it smells a bit. It smells a bit. We're trapped. We can't get out of the room. We can't twist the door handle. Stephen solved it. I'm not quite sure what he did. What did you do? Just stick the key in and push. Stick that in. So the only way for that to come in is on. We've got a dodgy, a dodgy. I hope there's no, um, we can't get out. We can get out so I can push it with the key. Stephen thinks he knows what to do. What do you have to, like, push it in type of thing? It goes really easy that way. You need to push it that way. Oh yeah, you do.