Similarly, the term Smestow Valley is sometimes reserved for the narrow section from Aldersley to Wightwick, although it can be used for the entire catchment, including the much wider plain south of Trescott.

However, its valley forms a natural north-south route of such importance that the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was constructed as a substitute for a navigable river, the Smestow supplying it with water.

As a result, the areas of South Staffordshire around the river, despite fairly high rainfall, had a natural vegetation of heath and open birch woodland.

[4] The relative decline of heavy industry in the region makes this the main, and growing, pollution threat to water supplies in the Smestow valley.

The Smestow runs very close to a number of Roman sites, the most important being at Greensforge, where two camps were successively situated, one apparently using the stream as part of its fortifications.

The banks of the Smestow and Stour were home to a thriving iron industry, based on locally produced charcoal, from the Middle Ages until the 18th century.

In the late 18th century, the spread of coke-fired blast furnaces in Shropshire and the Black Country brought charcoal-fired iron production gradually to an end.

[5] Water-power for the continuing industrial activity was so important that James Brindley was prevented from cutting off the flow of the upper Smestow when the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal was developed, around 1770.

Instead he was forced to preserve the flow with a "water bridge" or aqueduct at Dunstall, in the Aldersley Gap, which carries the brook over the canal and releases it to descend to its natural course.

The result was the development of larger iron-works at Swindon and Gothersley on the Smestow, as well as nearby at the Hyde, near Kinver on the Stour – all situated between river and canal.

The Swindon works included a rolling mill and generated power mainly from coal, although its drop hammer was driven by a large water wheel.

As early as 1851, the engineer Henry Marten gauged the supply at ten million gallons (approximately 45,000,000 litres) per day and proposed to extract water for drinking and industrial use from the Smestow.

[10] This was blocked by opposition from the carpet makers of Kidderminster, who feared that extraction from the Smestow would affect the flow of the Stour, which they used to carry away their effluent.

Perhaps it is a good thing that Marten's idea was not put into practice until the 1890s, when a large pumping station was constructed at Ashwood, south of Swindon, to supply water to Black Country industry.

Travelling upstream from the Stour confluence, they include: The Smestow flows through or past a number of settlements – many associated with the historic iron industry, or with the canal.