ecclesiastical buildings such as the abbeys of Buildwas, Wenlock, Shrewsbury and Ludlow. The next hundred years also saw many periods of plague, with 10 per cent of the population being killed by one epidemic in 1604.
The people of Shropshire were largely Royalists. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1642 King Charles I visited Shrewsbury and Wellington, where he made the Declaration of Wellington, promising to uphold Protestantism, the laws of the country and the liberty of Parliament. Shrewsbury was forced to surrender in 1644, and the Royalist strongholds of Ludlow and Bridgnorth were captured in 1646. In 1689 the Council of the Marches was suspended and Ludlow’s importance waned.
The 18th century brought the Industrial Revolution. Coalbrookdale in the Severn Valley is generally regarded as its birthplace. In 1708 Adrian Darby leased the Coalbrookdale furnace and started iron-smelting with coke. John Wilkinson, a precision engineer of Broseley, built cylinders for early steam engines and also produced the first iron boat.
Under instructions from Adrian Darby III, Thomas Telford designed the first cast iron bridge in 1779 to link the important industrial towns of Broseley and Madeley in a place now known as Ironbridge. The 30-metre bridge still spans the Severn to this day and the two towns became known throughout the world for the production of tiles, clay pipes and bricks. The Ironbridge Gorge Museums (www.ironbridge.org.uk) are a must see if you’re in the area.
The coming of the canals and then the railways accelerated the march of industry, and quarrying and mining were now practiced on a large scale in order to feed the new industries with raw materials for roads, factories and furnaces.
The New Towns Act of 1946 gave rise to a plan that would eventually create Telford, Shropshire’s largest town and one which would re-house people from the slums of Birmingham. The town was built on derelict industrial sites of Dawley, Oakengates, Shifnal, Wellington and the Ironbridge Gorge. The scheme was supported by the construction of the M54 motorway, a new railway station and a huge shopping centre, and also by the encouragement of new industries to the area.
Plants and wildlife
Common heather, or ling, grows prolifically over the acidic soils of the Stiperstones and Long Mynd ridges, with bell heather thriving on the drier, sunnier hillsides. In wetter peaty uplands you’ll find the cross-leaved heath, cotton grass, bog asphodel, sphagnum moss and, less commonly, the insect-eating sundew. The heathers are often interspersed with bilberry, known as whinberry throughout the county. Stiperstones has cowberry and crowberry too.
Red grouse are common on the heather moors, as are ravens and buzzards, and the blackbird-like ring ouzel can be found here too, along with skylarks, meadow pipits and redstarts. Well camouflaged grayling butterflies can be found on the heath, along with green hairstreaks and emperor moths.
Peacock butterfly seen on Wenlock Edge
Red Kites, whose UK population was for over a century confined to a small area of Mid Wales, have been re-introduced to the Shropshire Hills and are a common but beautiful sight. The author counted over a dozen in the skies above the Bury Ditches one day.
Mat grass, which is so unpalatable to sheep, is found on poor acidic grounds of the Long Mynd and the Clee Hills. The batches or small valleys that penetrate the western side of the Long Mynd have been overgrazed and the bracken and gorse have spread across sheep-shorn grass slopes. On the shady side of the batches you may well be able to spot wood sorrel and rare oceanic liverworts. Dippers can be seen bobbing up and down across, and diving into the streams of the batches.
The Wenlock Edge and the hills around Oswestry are of limestone, often ravaged by quarrying and mining. Here, herbs such as wild thyme, wild basil and marjoram flourish. On or near the coppiced woodlands of the Wenlock Edge you’ll see not only bluebells and garlic but herb Paris, violets, the yellow bird’s-nest, primroses and orchids – including the quite rare bee orchid.
Getting there
Covering an area of 3,487 square kilometres (1,346 square miles), Shropshire is the largest of England’s inland counties and, as such, routes to Ludlow in the south of the county would be very different to those to Llanymynech in the north. For people coming any distance, the transport infrastructure of the region is based on Shrewsbury, which is used in the following sections as a hub.
By bus
The 410 National Express service runs from London to Shrewsbury via Birmingham and Telford. See www.nationalexpress.com for timetable and ticket details.
By rail
London Midland (www.londonmidland.com) run direct trains from Birmingham New Street to Shrewsbury via Telford. The Heart of Wales line (www.heart-of-wales.co.uk) runs from Swansea to Shrewsbury, stopping at some of the smaller towns along the way. Arriva Trains Wales (www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk) run regular direct trains from Manchester to Shrewsbury, as well as direct trains from Chester to Shrewsbury via Wrexham.
By car
From the north west there are two ways. The first uses the M6 and M54 motorways via Telford, then the A5 to Shrewsbury. The second – better at busy times – leaves the M6 for the M56, M53 and A55 around Chester, followed by the A483 and A5. From the north east you would take a combination of the A1M and A1 to the M1, which you would leave near Nottingham for the A50, A38 then the A5 just south of Lichfield. From the south east the M40 and the M42 take you south of Birmingham to Bromsgrove, where the A448 Kidderminster road followed by the A442 take you to Bridgnorth and then the A458 continues to Shrewsbury. The M5 serves the south west well. Leave this at Junction 6 north of Worcester, where the A449 joins the south east route at Kidderminster.
Getting around
Like most rural areas, Shropshire’s bus services are sketchy. Links between the major towns of Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Telford are frequent and villages in between such as Much Wenlock, Church Stretton, Craven Arms and Ironbridge benefit from this. However, the out-of-the-way places such as Stiperstones and the Clun Valley are not so well served. A car or taxi would be a distinct advantage, especially outside the summer months. Detailed travel information can be found at www.travelinemidlands.co.uk
By bus
The following services cover the larger settlements featured in this book:
1 Oswestry to Shrewsbury (Arriva)
88 Telford to Much Wenlock (Arriva)
96 Shrewsbury to Telford (GHA/Bryn Melyn)
99 Bridgnorth to Telford via Ironbridge (Arriva)
141 Bridgnorth to Ludlow (R&B Travel)
292 Ludlow to Kidderminster via Clee Hill (Diamond Buses)
435 Shrewsbury to Ludlow via Church Stretton, Craven Arms (Minsterley Motors)
540 Shrewsbury to Cardington via Church Stretton (Boultons)
552 Shrewsbury to Stiperstones via Pontesford and Snailbeach (Minsterley Motors)
553 Shrewsbury
