Andria Massey enjoys a short break rediscovering this scenic and historically important county
Shrewsbury makes an excellent base for exploring this beautiful and historically important region, says Andria Massey
A We were more than ready for another short break, but didn’t want to travel too far in these unpredictable times; so we headed to Shropshire, where I spent most of my early years.
We opted to stay in Shrewsbury and we chose the Greenhous West Mid Showground site, which was centrally situated for where we wanted to visit. The facilities did feel a little on the tired side, but the location is good and the site is clean and reasonable.
Of course, we had our own facilities, with access to plenty of water and hook-up, so we managed four nights with few problems.
We were planning to travel widely, including visiting Ironbridge Gorge and exploring the Shropshire Hills
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Victorian lifestyles
Our first visit was to Ironbridge Gorge, with its 10 museums on former industrial sites. This fascinating place is now a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Visitors can buy Passport tickets – access to all of the museums – at the Tollhouse, but do bear in mind that opening times are variable and pre-booking might be required.
The weather could have been better as we reached the biggest and probably the best of the attractions, Blists Hill Victorian Town. This open-air museum, established on a former industrial estate in Madeley, Telford, recreates aspects of a Victorian Shropshire town during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Here you will find volunteers dressed in period costumes and in authentic shops and cottages, and you can also watch skilled tradespeople hard at work in workshops and factories.
Stroll around and you will find a canal walk, woodland and a church. The Tollhouse itself has more than 50 exhibits, so it would be quite easy to while away many hours here. Sadly, it was closed during our trip, but we had better luck at Jackfield Tile Museum, a site that was once at the very heart of British tile production.
Important local industry
This museum tells the fascinating history of the British decorative tile industry between 1840 and 1860, when this factory complex and the nearby company of Maw & Co were important players in the sector.
Here you can admire the stunning friezes and story-telling panels in the impressive gallery, as well as a reconstructed pub, tube station and church.
Attached to the museum are the Fusion studios, where you can see contemporary creative artists and purchase their work. Opening times for the studios are variable, so it is a sensible precaution to check their hours before arranging your visit.
For us, it was time to take a muchneeded coffee break; so we headed for the historic town of Ironbridge, home to the famous bridge built across the River Severn by local ironmaster Abraham Darby III in the 1770s.
The first cast-iron bridge in the world, today it is rightly celebrated for its vital role in the Industrial Revolution and is an absolute magnet for tourists.
After stopping for a refreshing drink in Truffles Café, we walked to the Ironbridge Museum of the Gorge, which is housed in the former Severn Warehouse.
The arrival of cast iron
Here you can learn all about the history of the Gorge and nearby Coalbrookdale. It also houses an impressive 12m-long model, depicting what the Gorge looked like in 1796, on the occasion of a visit by William and Mary of Orange.
We then walked over the Ironbridge, across the Severn, to visit the information centre and gift shop in the Tollhouse, which was used to collect tolls from pedestrians until 1950. Nearby Truffles Café has a good menu, so we had lunch there before heading to Coalbrookdale, where Abraham Darby I first smelted iron ore using coking coal.
At the Museum of Iron, you can learn the story of how Coalbrookdale helped change the course of the industrial world. The exhibits, all iron, include everything from functional cookware to fine art castings.
Also in Coalbrookdale is Enginuity, the newest of the 10 museums, with its engaging design and technology centre.
The museum has four zones – Materials & Structures, Systems & Control, Energy, and Design. It also provides workshops and interactive displays for school groups and the general public.
Unfortunately we only managed to visit a few of the 10 fantastic and popular attractions to be found in Ironbridge
Gorge, but if you have the time, it is well worth seeing all of them, including the Coalport China Museum, the Tar Tunnel (a brick-lined tunnel dug into the hillside), the Darby Houses (homes of the Darby families) and the Broseley Pipeworks (an important centre for the manufacture of clay tobacco-pipes).
The weather improved later on, so we decided to visit nearby Buildwas Abbey, in a wooded setting by the River Severn. The impressive ruins of this Cistercian Abbey include a 12th-century church, a fine vaulted and tile-floored chapter house and the recently reopened crypt chapel.
Ancient landscapes
The forecast for the following day was much better, so we ventured to the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve, in the Shropshire Hills AONB. There is excellent public access to this wild, atmospheric landscape, where the geology is of national importance.
The quartzite that forms the ridge here was broken up in the last Ice Age, creating the jagged, boulder-strewn topography that you can see today.
The Shropshire Way follows the ridge, as does the 8km-long (and well-named) Stiperstones Stomp walking trail.
Wildlife to be spotted on the reserve includes common lizards and frogs, red grouse, red kites, skylarks, ravens and stonechats, as well as green hairstreak
‘At the Museum of Iron, you can learn the full story of how Coalbrookdale helped to change the course of the industrial world’
butterflies and emperor moths.
It is quite a hard walk along the boulders, but worth the effort if you’re up to it.
Feeling in need of a break for lunch, we moved on to Kirsty’s Café, in the attractive market town of Bishop’s Castle, in the heart of the Shropshire Hills AONB.
Keen hikers are spoilt for choice – the Shropshire Way runs through the town and an ancient track, the Kerry Ridgeway, starts from here. The BC Ring, a challenging 100km route encircling the town, was established in 2008.
If you are thirsty after all that walking, you’ll also find a good selection of breweries in the locality, including the Three Tuns, the UK’S oldest.
Bishops and castles
From Bishop’s Castle, we travelled the short distance to Clun, a small town that rejoices in the reputation of being one of the most tranquil locations in the whole country.
There is a 14th-century packhorse road bridge over the River Clun, and the ruins of Clun Castle are nearby. The castle was built by Robert de Say after the Norman invasion, remaining an important borderland stronghold during the 12th century.
Fewer than 10 miles away is picturesque Stokesay Castle, a beautiful medieval fortified manor house.
After another full day of exploring, we headed back to our campsite for a peaceful evening. The forecast for the final full day of our trip was excellent, so we decided on another walk in the Shropshire Hills, this time to Wenlock Edge.
We parked the car and started walking on the Jack Mytton Way, a long-distance footpath and bridleway for horse riders, hill walkers and mountain bikers covering 150km in mid- and south Shropshire.
As well as following the line of Wenlock Edge, for much of its length it goes through the Shropshire Hills AONB.
This section crosses a dense woodland, so views are few and far between, but if you walk here in the spring, you will be greeted by a display of bluebells.
Little Switzerland
Having worked up a thirst again, we headed to Church Stretton for morning coffee. Church Stretton is an attractive market town, nicknamed Little Switzerland in the late Victorian period because of the surrounding landscapes. It became a popular health resort.
This historic settlement, situated on the English/welsh border, is the only town in the Shropshire Hills AONB.
The area is renowned for its geology, with some of the most ancient rock formations in existence.
At all times of year, Church Stretton is also a magnet for lovers of outdoor activities and sports. We visited the Long Mynd, a moorland plateau that attracts hang gliders and paragliders and has a thriving gliding club. It also has one of the highest golf courses in the country!
Spectacular views
The views from Long Mynd, which forms part of the Shropshire Hills, are spectacular. The high ground here is at the very heart of the AONB, lying between the Stiperstones range to the west and the Stretton Hills and Wenlock Edge to the east.
We set off along one of the paths to enjoy the view down towards the lovely Carding Mill Valley, which was quite a descent, so necessitated the inevitable climb back up; but it really was worth the walk.
All too soon we had to return home – this whole area is lovely to explore and, although we’ve been to this part of the world before, we found plenty of breathtaking sights.
We have always believed that the county of Shropshire is a rather undervalued region, passed over by visitors heading to Wales or the north, but we highly recommend the area for its history, scenery and outdoor activities. We’ll be back!