The River Cole is about 25 miles long. It rises on the lower
slopes of Forehill, one of the south-western ramparts of the
Birmingham Plateau, and enters the Blythe just south of its
confluence with the Tame. The name is pre-Saxon and means
'hazel'. The Cole is an intriguing stream, much affected by
post-glacial events. Its south-flowing upper reaches were once a
tributary of the Blythe, captured when the faster-flowing Cole
cut back to Hob Hill. The contrast between the relatively
straight course to Stechford and the aimless meandering
therefrom is explained by the river's having been diverted from
a confluence with the Tame probably near Castle Bromwich : an
ice-sheet or moraine overlying Hodge Hill and Shard End obliged
the Cole to wander eastward into the Blythe valley. It is
notably lacking in tributaries south of Titterford : the
largest, the Chinn Brook, may have been the original source
stream. Due to lack of replenishing brooks, the quick floods to
which the Cole has always been subject subside as qui