NOT RUNNING BORDER TO THE
With great roads, superb scenery and quaint stone villages that have you googling Rightmove, the Shropshire Hills is a destination in itself.
With the potential for a wonderful, traffic-free ride any time of the year, our journey starts at Telford Services after the misery of an M54 slog, weaving its way to Much Wenlock and then the B4378 and B4368. These are typical Shropshire roads – high, verdant hedgerows and flowing grippy blacktop. This isn’t about stop/start craziness, more flow and relaxation. Perfect for a big sports tourer or adventure bike…
The best bits are the deserted single-track roads, and Rushbury Road from Hungerford passes through perfect weathered sandstone villages and farms that look unchanged in centuries. It even has a proper hairpin.
Soon you’re in Church Stretton – and for some that’ll be a destination in itself.
Known as Little Switzerland in Edwardian times, the resort is an engaging combination of Tudor-style buildings and rolling hills.
But the main attraction is the Carding Mill Valley and the Long Mynd heath. A heritage site and renowned walking destination, the road to the south of it rises high, hugging a cliff side and climbing into the moors.
These roads are very different to the ones you usually read about in these pages.
Small, nadgery and occasionally stony and bumpy, they twist across the heathland, clinging to the side of mountains as you go, bereft of traffic but full of interest.
The final part of the journey has some of the most enjoyable riding. The B4368 is everything a B-road should be — lush, green and serpentine, it twists and turns joyously. Sometimes narrow, sometimes expansive, the rough-hewn, frost-scarred tarmac keys into your rubber, has surprising grip and breeds confidence. This journey ends at the Welsh border and for many Shropshire is just for passing through. But you’d be missing so much if you did that.