Craven Arms to Much Wenlock: LEJoG Day 23

Today the sun chased away the gloomy clouds for a riverside walk and a hike along the wooded top of Wenlock Edge.

After a hearty breakfast I followed the River Onny and one of its tributaries to Strefford. The meadows were covered by buttercups, trees lined the river, people walked their dogs and squirrels ran across my path. Strefford had a some old buildings, one with a Queen Victoria red post box on the outside, which you do not see very often.

River Onny.

The route then climbed a sunken, muddy track up to the top of Wenlock Edge, and subsequently followed it for many miles. Wenlock Edge is formed by a layer of Silurian Limestone dipping gently to the east. The steep, westerly scarp slope strides across the landscape. Wooded along its length, my path, was splashed with sunlight sieved by the beech leaves above, and edged with bluebells and wild garlic. The pungent, smell of the garlic hung in the air. I also spotted an early purple orchid. A young deer briefly looked at me before bounding away into invisibility among the trees. Except on rare occasions woodland hid the views towards the west which I was hoping to admire, towards the Long Mynd and Church Stretton. In places the route followed the edge of large fields of wheat and grass, but with the woods close by, and views to the east as far as the Clee hills with their radio masts and radar domes. My boots squelched through mud in wetter lengths of path or tracts churned by horses and bikes, marked with the prints of humans, dogs and deer. To avoid such mess I followed a short section of an abandoned railway line that once served Much Wenlock, where the old ballast provided a firmer foundation.

The path through woods on Wenlock Edge.

Between the woods on Wenlock Edge and fields to the east.

Although Wenlock Edge is formed of limestone, outcrops are rarely seen. To find some I climbed up to Ippikins Rocks on a narrow path. The outcrop was a length of squat, weathered cliff of layered limestone above a steep tree and wild garlic coated slope. Later, above an extensive quarry, there was an exposure more convenient for viewing, with some fresh rubble in which I searched for fossils. Not terribly successful, I found a small section of bryozoan and some shell fragments.

Much Wenlock is a small town full of old buildings. I walked into it with two ladies and their dogs who I helped in a small way with a navigation issue. I am now at the Gaskell Arms, an old coaching Inn, freshly showered, fed and watered.

Much Wenlock.