Shropshire - county of big hills.

I have just spent another couple of days in Shropshire after a conference in Birmingham. I drove via Bridgenorth and Ludlow to the extremities of England, just shy of Offa's Dyke and almost tumbling into Wales. I found a Tudor farmhouse B & B near the little town of Bishop's Castle, just off the main road heading west to Wales. My main goal was to explore the spine of hills known as the Stiperstones which stretch north-south for six miles not far north east of Bishops Castle.

Ensuite at the farmhouse

 Broughton Farm

I stayed at Broughton Farm on the B4385 just outside Bishop's Castle. You head out west towards Wales and the farm is signposted off the main road to the right.  The perfect place for  a holiday if you are interested, sitting in a valley surrounded by beautiful hilly scenery. It's a 500 year old Tudor farmhouse whose true character is concealed by the rendering on the outside of the house, but if you like oak  beams, sloping floors, wooden doors with ancient hinges and an all round medieval ambience this is the place to come to.

The weather was against me for these two days, we have just had the wettest June on record and the low pressure monster had decided to stay sitting squarely over the UK. On the first day I decided to head out to the little town of Montgomery in the morning and leave the Stiperstones until later. Montgomery has an English sounding name but is in fact just inside Wales  by a mile or so, in the Welsh Marches. It's only a small place but has plenty of character, sitting in the lee of the Welsh hills around a neat little town square. If you take a walk up the hill from behind the town hall you soon come to the site of the old castle at the top. There are still a fair few ruins and you can see clearly the moat which is now crossed by a little footbridge. With the hills behind there is an expansive view down to the town and out across the surroundig countryside.

Castle at Montgomery

Centre of Montgomery

Square in centre of Montgomery

The Old Bell Museum in the town centre is worth a visit. It has interesting exhibitions on local medical services pre-NHS, including a newspaper memento from the day the NHS came into being. There is also an exhibition on the local railway disaster of 1921 which killed 17 people, and a display on the old workhouse system in the locality.

The Ivy House Tea Rooms had a mention in the Independent newspaper and came out as the seventeenth tea shop in the UK and the top one in Wales. When I entered it was full of older people and felt very much pre-school summer holidays! If you look out the window the view is just like the one above, out on to the square.

The rain was continuing so I decided to carry on up the main road heading towards Welshpool to visit Powys Castle with its Clive of India connections. This castle was originally built to defend against the English but now makes for a pleasant afternoon delve into the past. Parting with £13 gives you access to the Castle state rooms, a Clive of India exhibition and a chance to wander aound the extensive gardens, although I had to give the latter a miss due to time. The castle rooms seem intensely liveable, the first one being the smoking room for the gentlemen. The rich furnishings, mellow lighting and fire burning reassuringly in the grate give the impression that it had been full of cigar smoking, brandy swilling gents barely five minutes previously.

Powys Castle

On the way back to Bishop's Castle I was keeping my eye on the weather which had been persistently grey and rainy, but wonder of wonders the sky began to clear in the late afternoon and evening as it so often does in England, and the sun began to dance upon the landscape. So I thought I would retrace my steps and go up to Stiperstones. This was a good move because when I got up there the sun's rays were mixing it with the cloud and producing some pretty cool colours.

Stiperstones is a range of quartzite hills that bubbles up above the surrounding landscape with a bit of a foreboding air. Along the crest is a series of rock tors that stick out noticeably, producing a wild, Dartmoor type countrast to the green valleys below. Reading up on these hills gives the impression that they are not the most gentle, friendly of destinations; the highest tor, a jumble of rock, is known as the Devils's Chair, which gives you a sense of what I mean.

Anyway, I parked up in the car park at the southern end of the hills and walked first along the contour, then zigzagged up to eventually reach the crest at an opportune time when the sun was bursting through the clouds to create some glorious palettes by Lady Nature. The hill crest turned bright emerald green like a lump of kryptonite waitng for superman to recharge his batteries. This against a backdrop of dark cloud enveloped- hills. So from my perch on a tor and wandering the crest I snapped happy for a few minutes.

Evening views of the Stiperstones

Sunshine dancing on the hills

Emerald green!

Stiperstones - west side

The next day I drove to the village of Stiperstones which nestles at the foot of the range on the west side. The hillsides here are noticeably more steep and challenging for walkers but the lady at the village stores advised taking a different path from the car park of the previous night to ride the crest tor to tor for the best views. 'This area has its own microclimate,' she said, as it drizzled on and off outside. I took her advice and climbed from the car park onto the top of the ridge, but alas, the weather was against me and it began to rain incessantly as I passed a couple with an umbrella! and a group of youngsters doing the Duke of Edinburgh award or suchlike. By now the rain had settled in and the wind was up, but I carried on, tor to tor, until I decided to shelter from the rain and wind by sitting among the rocks. Thoroughly soaked by now, after a few minutes the rain ceased and after walking a while longer the ridge cleared and I began to get some great views, especially down towards the village of Stiperstones, and also towards the north where the appearance of the Stiperstones took on a more innocuous and pastoral air.

Tor on the Stiperstones

Line of tors on crest of the Stiperstones

Retracing my steps later back along the ridge, the cloud descended again and it was rare to get a decent view as there was almost no moment when all the tors were free from low cloud. By the time I reached the last tor and sat for a few moments, it was pretty cloudy, unclear and miserable.

View west from Stiperstones

View west from Stiperstones

View north from Stiperstones

Bishops Castle

Later on I visited Bishop's Castle again but unfortunately the railway museum I had planned to visit was closed, there were few people around, and the incessant drizzle continued. I did view the castle remains at the top of the town, 'remains' being the operative word, a few ruins in a little park, and later on had a coffee in the town centre. Here I got talking to a couple who had tried walking the Stiperstones rather unsuccessfully that day, and we all chatted together withe the cafe staff about this and that. The wairess told us that a 

Centre of Bishops Castle

poltergeist dwelt in the building and retold a story of when a couple of policemen were holidaying in the area and visited the cafe. An implement on the counter (it looked like a light blue decorative saucepan to me!) shot up to the ceiling and back for no reason, much to the shock of everybody.. There had not been any incidents recently, the waitress professing that the poltergeist might be on holiday! They then told me that the building a couple of doors down was haunted, although the residents did not seem that bothered. Ghosts had been a bit of a theme, having stayed in a 500 year old farmhouse, although I had no strange experiences there. I was able to say that as a Christian, I have certain beliefs about these things. One of the couple related how their dog had been very sensitive to 'ghostly' atmospheres.

Bishops Castle - typical Shropshire building

Castle Hotel

Bury Ditches

When I say big hills this is one place where they grow them, bulbous, monster, forest topped hills that switchback you up and down little country lanes to delight with a new vista round every corner. Bury Ditches is a stomping Iron Age hill fort, one of many in Shropshire, and nearby is the vllage of Ledbury North where Clive of India had his pad, Walcot Hall. The estate is available for wedding receptions, accommodation and ballroom hire. I was running out of time when I passed this corner of Shropshire, and again the weather was inclement, but I plan to return!

Big hills near Bury Ditches

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