Shropshire

Shropshire is a beautiful county which does not get the press it deserves. Somehow it has escaped me for years! It must be one of the UK's best kept secrets, local folk must want to keep it to themselves. If you're heading for the Lake District, Wales or the South West for your hols then consider something different next time, especially if fuel costs are an issue. You are truly missing out as Shropshire is as beautiful as anything you'll see in England, and being off the beaten track is a great place for a holiday in a still unspoilt part of the country. It's classic lush green English countryside but with a dash of wildness that tells you we are not far from the Welsh wilderness.

Telford

Telford is a new town and it shows! The centre of town is a large modern shopping centre surrounded by a ring road, and there is no sign of any old buildings, it's all concrete and glass. Nearby is the Telford International Centre, a large modern conference centre with facilites to host thousands of delegates if necessary. I attended a conference at the international centre, the sixth largest exhibition centre in the UK. I stayed at the University of Wolverhampton Telford campus for about £26 per night, where you get a modern, warm and clean room with excellent shower facilities. What's more, it's right on the edge of the town centre. Ideal!

The Wrekin

The Wrekin is a prominent and very impressive hill just outside Telford, about four miles west of the town and just south of the M54. It just sticks out from the landscape like a cone, almost likening a volcano. It is quite forested on its lower reaches and you can park up and climb it for an afternoon walk; you can easily get up and down in an hour or two. I was impressed by the large number of people walking, or even running up and down, with or without dogs! The top part of the Wrekin is elongated in the manner of the back of a dinosaur, relatively open and windswept and a bit of a switchback, but when you get to the top the 360 degree view is magnificent. It's akin to surveying the Weald from the South Downs but from a higher elevation.

Views from the Wrekin

Great view from the Wrekin

Ironbridge

Views of the famous iron bridge opened 1781

The 'birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.' You can get there by picking up the brown signs to the Ironbridge Gorge from Telford a few miles away. This stretch of the Severn Valley was crucial to the development of iron and steel production,  china making, brick-making, pipe making and coal-mining, and was a hive of industrial activity in the 18th and 19th centuries, and even into the 20th century. There is a fantastic model in the Gorge Museum of this stretch of the river as it was in its heyday. At the centre of it all is the iron bridge across the Severn, the first iron bridge in the world, with the toll building on the far side.

General Dynamics F111F

Cosford

Cosford is an important RAF museum like Hendon in north west London. Cosford is situated just off the M54 between Telford and the M6 junction with the M54. It has four large hangars containing impressive displays.
In the first hangar is a collection of famous test aircraft from the jet age, and in an adjoining hangar are lots of those famous old planes we've all heard of, including the iconic Spitfire and Hurricane. In addition you can see the Catalina and even an Argentinian veteran plane from the 1982 Falklands conflict.
In the third hangar is an exhibition of the Cold War, missiles, jets, armaments, and displays with audio visual accompaniment of crucial moments of the Cold War like the Berlin Airlift and the Cuba Missile Crisis. In here you will see those impressive cold war warrior planes, the Victor and the Vulcan.
In a third hangar is a display of airliners and RAF transport aircraft, engines and missiles.

Spitfire

Hurricane

Much Wenlock

When I headed down into South Shropshire I must have got one of my best sets of photographs ever due to the matchless cloud flecked blue sky and limitless vistas.

Much Wenlock is a gem,  cute little chocolate box town with an attractive old centre and associations with the Olympic Games. It is quintessentially English and reflects a byegone age, like much of rural England. It is barely a few miles from Ironbridge, the centre of the Industrial Revolution, yet sits on the edge of glorious countryside full of great hump backed hills, gentle valleys and peaceful pastoral scenes. It was here that a precursor of the modern Olympic Games was started by Dr William Penny Brookes, founder of the Wenlock Olympian Society. The first Wenlock Olympian Games was in 1850 and they are still held here annually, archery, athletics, badmionton and all sorts (8th to the 22nd July this year). Why not go there instead of the London Games!
Much Wenlock also has a great Indian restaurant snug in the centre of the village! ('Bilash' - fully licensed Tandoori and Balti Indian takeaway).

Views from Wenlock Edge

Wenlock Edge

Wenlock Edge is a long thin wooded limestone escarpment that runs north east south west in Shropshire from Much Wenlock to the Craven Arms area, about 15 mile in length and 330m above sea level.  A main road threads along the summit giving superb views over the English countryside especially towards the west. If you like wide vistas and a thousand different shades of emerald green countryside, stop and take some photos. The feature characterises this area where the hills to me resemble hump backed whales rising out of a sea of lowland pasture to create a wonderful roller coaster feel to the landscape. The hills are so distinctive, like God just had a spare Golden Hour when he just sculpted a few multi-shaped masterpieces for the enjoyment of the generations to follow.
There are a number of spots for cars to stop to take in the views. Well worth a visit, and for walkers, striding along the escarpment would be a great day out.

Coming down off the escarpment you eventually find yourself in Church Stretton, and none of the prior photos I saw on the internet did it justice.

Parish Church, Church Stretton

Church Stretton

The market town of Church Stretton looks like the sort of place that should be far better known than it is. It lies amidst the South Shropshire hills in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a centre for walking and hiking around these parts. It was known as Little Switzerland in the late Victorian and Edwardian period which gives you a clue as to the ambience. Immediately to the west lies the Long Mynd, an impressive swathe of upland which looks like a piece of Wales has been scooped up and dumped in the English countryside. Not far away to the north east is of course Wenlock Edge, a sumptuous limestone outcrop with a road conveniently along the top to Much Wenlock.

The Tourist Office is very helpful and I picked up useful leaflets on cycling in the area. The following Saturday I did a 27 mile bike ride circular tour from Church Stretton out to the south east and over Wenlock Edge, then down to Craven Arms, a quick detour to Stokesay Castle, and then back to completing the circle via a westerly route back to Church Stretton. The area is ideal for cycling sleepy country lanes but you need reasonable fitness otherwise you'll be walking your bike up some of the hills!

Cardingmill Valley

This is your introduction to the Long Mynd from the east. Pick up the lane from Church Stretton either by car, bike or walking and you soon end up in the distinctive and beautiful Cardingmill Valley with its steep exposed sides and clear pathways up to the hill summits. A car park, toilets and other tourist facilities are all provided at the bottom of the valley.

Foot of Cardingmill Valley

Route up Cardingmill Valley

Looking down Cardingmill Valley

The Long Mynd

If you fancy a wonderful afternoon's walk with all round views from  the top over to Wales, The Midlands, north east to the Wrekin and the Church Stretton Hills you could do a lot worse than climb the Long Mynd from Cardingmill Valley, a few minutes walk from the Church Stretton town centre. In a couple of hours you can climb the valley to the top, swing to the south and head for the highest point on the Long Mynd, Pole Bank. Your companions are lots of sheep who browse the abundant heather. There are no trees up there, just lots and lots of heather which means uninterrupted views all round.

Views from the Long Mynd

Craven Arms.

I thought this was a pub when I saw it on the map whilst cycling around Church Stretton, and was looking forward to Shropshire sausages and mash for lunch, but I found there was a whole town there when I cycled down from the Shropshire hills! It's a good place to stop for lunch anyway and it was here that I fell upon the sign to Stokesay Castle which is just a mile or so south down the main A49 road

Stokesay Castle

Stokesay Castle

Stokesay Castle is more of an ancient stately home than a castle, but is a gem of a visit, barely a mile south of Craven Arms, a small town itself seven miles south of Church Stretton. I stumbled across it on a 27 mile bike ride, a circular route through the South Shropshire Hills via Wenlock Edge. Stokesay lies in a beautiful valley, and comprises the remains of a stately home with its own great hall, a tower, and a gatehouse that looks as if it'd been made for the gingerbread man, mushrooming out of the ground with its yellow and black Tudor decoration. These components surround a small grass courtyard, whilst slightly to the north is an old church with a notable war memorial in the churchyard, a first world war soldier atop a plinth.

Stokesay Castle, The Gatehouse, looking over Shropshire countryside

Views of the Gatehouse, Stokesay Castle

Interesting fact: Clive of India has connections around these parts and is one of the most famous Salopians. He was a bit of a tearaway in his younger days, running a protection racket in Market Drayton!  However after being packed off to India by his family he came good and found his destiny as a soldier and military leader. He ended up as MP for Shrewsbury. Sadly, he did suffer from manic depression during his lifetime and there are indications that he committed suicide in the end. Walcot Hall, his ancestral home, is near the village of Lydbury North just a few miles west of Stokesay.