On Wenlock Edge

We found a landscape of surprises beyond Wenlock Edge.

For the best views on this route, drive out to Much Wenlock on the A458 and start your journey back to Shrewsbury from there on the B4371

We left the Priory and Much Wenlock market town behind us to head for Wenlock Edge.

Millions of years ago, when Shropshire lay on the Equator, the Edge was a vast tropical coral reef. From the viewpoint on the escarpment we surveyed the surrounding country. To the west, the Welsh hills glistened with a hint of snow left over from late spring showers.

Around us, the plains of the Severn and the Shropshire Hills streched out into the distance. We walked through the woods on Wenlock Edge, its white-grey limestone pushing up through the grass and trees clinging to its slope.

We left our lofty viewpoint and drove on through Hughley, round winding roads into Church Preen. Down a small lane, marked only by a public footpath post, we found the church and its ancient yew tree.

On again and wenlock Edge was behind us now, underlining the horizon in grey and green. We stopped by Langley Chapel, standing in quiet solitude in a field, its doorways sheltering sheep these days and not its human flock.

A long hill swung us down beside an enclosed park. Tucked around a corner in Acton Burnell was the gate into the castle ruins. Our journey almost over, we returned past Pitchford Hall, a private residence, where a country squire once displayed his wealth in the timber patterns and tall chimneys of his home. It is also where the Royal Family were to be housed if evacuated from London during World War II.