The Lickey Hills immediately became popular as a recreation area and attendance numbers exploded between 1924 and 1953 while the tram service connected with the terminus at Rednal.

Additionally a 3,000-year-old flint javelin point was found lying on the surface by an observant Mr W H Laurie when the Lickey's road-widening was taking place in 1925.

The road would have been used to transport salt and other goods between the Roman encampments at Worcester and Metchley, near where Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital now stands.

The coin was a dupondius struck during the reign of the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius who ruled Rome and Britain from 138 to 161 AD.

The Earl lived at nearby Tardebigge and his descendants would own the lands at Longbridge, Rednal, Cofton Hackett and the Lickey Hills for the next 250 years.

Birmingham City Council finally purchased Cofton Hill, Lickey Warren and Pinfield Wood outright in 1920.

In 1904 Mr and Mrs Barrow Cadbury gave the Lickey Tea Rooms building at the bottom of Rose Hill to the people of Birmingham, as a place of rest and refreshment and it remained open until the late 1960s.

There are records of crowds as far back as the Rose and Crown on busy Sundays, as families queued for the trams to take them home.

The obelisk, which is well hidden from the road, is inscribed with the words "To commend to imitation the exemplary private virtues of Other Archer 6th Earl of Plymouth."

Just a kilometre north of the monument, on top of Beacon Hill, is the toposcope made in the early twentieth century by the Cadbury family, standing next to the Ordnance Survey triangulation point.

The visitor centre, which first opened in April 1990, contains an exhibition, leaflets and information on nature trails, guided walks and other activities organised by the Ranger Service.

Between the Bilberry, Beacon and Rednal Hills stands The Rose & Crown hotel and public house which serves meals daily including Sunday lunches.

"[10] There are several deer species and badgers living in the park, together with a range of waterfowl on the lake including Canada geese, mallards, coot, moorhen and mute swans.

The damp woodland and the nearby heathland is also home to a variety of reptiles, which include grass snakes, adders and the common lizard.

Diamond services 145/145A and National Express West Midlands route X20 from Birmingham City Centre also stop nearby.

The nearest railway station is Barnt Green, with frequent services on the Birmingham Cross-City line from Bromsgrove/Redditch in the south and the City Centre/Lichfield in the north.