Stourbridge Common

The all-ages play area has spring rockers, a modular climber, runway and rotating unit.

King John granted a charter in 1211 formalising an annual fair held by the Leper Hospital at Steresbrigge, between 24 August and 29 September. The name came from a Cam tributary, the Stour, at the eastern end of the common.

The fair grew to become one of the most important in Europe by the 1390s, with the University controlling the weights and measures. The town received a charter to administer the fair in 1589.

Much of Stourbridge field was enclosed in 1811, leaving Stourbridge Fair Green. The fair declined at the end of the Eighteenth Century and the town formally abolished it in 1934.

Now classed as a Local Nature Reserve, areas of the common are being managed to encourage diversity of animal and plant species, the grazing of cattle on the space forms part of this effort.