(no subject)
A couple of weeks ago I took some leave and went driving around Shropshire with Ian, since I had a hospital appointment there and Ian was off for half term. Shropshire is probably my favourite place on earth; it's beautiful and peaceful and I feel a real connection to it since a lot of my ancestors came from there.
We went to so many different places....here are a few photos.
The county of Shropshire
I love Much Wenlock; I think it's my favourite town in the whole county. It has so many lovely old buildings, the ancient Wenlock Priory (home of my favourite saint, St Milburga), lots of little boutique shops and a great deli but no chain stores whatsoever. It was great to see people queueing up outside the butchers to buy locally reared meat, and vegetables from local producers at the market. No-one used carrier bags...they all seemed to have those cotton bags instead, though some shoppers even carried wicker shopping baskets, which is something I have never seen anywhere else! I'm a big fan of organic, locally-produced food so I thought all this was fab.
The 16th century guildhall in Much Wenlock. Council meetings are still held in the upstairs hall, and organic farmers markets are held every fortnight in the open space underneath.
This is Reynauld's House, on the high street. The front dates from the 1600s but the building behind is medieval.
Wenlock Priory was founded after the Norman conquest, but was ruined during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1500s. St Milburga is buried here.
The monk's garden that was attached to the priory had been overgrown wasteland for centuries, but it has recently been cleared and made into a garden again, producing plants and vegetables for sale to the public. The sense of peace here is indescribable.
This farm is right in the middle of the town, literally surrounded by houses. Cows would be driven right into this yard at night, and back out to the fields around the town in the morning.
We climbed Titterstone Clee, one of the two Clee Hills (the other being Brown Clee), which is a few miles northeast of Ludlow (see map). Titterstone is some 1700 feet high and there's a government radar station at the top of it. The hill has been deeply scarred by quarrying for dhustone (a hard, volanic rock ideal for building roads), which is a great shame. There is a Bronze Age cairn on the summit, suggesting that it was an important ceremonial site 4000 years ago.
View north from Titterstone Clee
View south from Titterstone Clee
The Radar Station on the summit of the hill
Great parts of the hill have been quarried away :(
Quarry buildings on the side of the hill
Up there you can hear nothing but the wind blow.
To be continued...
We went to so many different places....here are a few photos.
The county of Shropshire
I love Much Wenlock; I think it's my favourite town in the whole county. It has so many lovely old buildings, the ancient Wenlock Priory (home of my favourite saint, St Milburga), lots of little boutique shops and a great deli but no chain stores whatsoever. It was great to see people queueing up outside the butchers to buy locally reared meat, and vegetables from local producers at the market. No-one used carrier bags...they all seemed to have those cotton bags instead, though some shoppers even carried wicker shopping baskets, which is something I have never seen anywhere else! I'm a big fan of organic, locally-produced food so I thought all this was fab.
The 16th century guildhall in Much Wenlock. Council meetings are still held in the upstairs hall, and organic farmers markets are held every fortnight in the open space underneath.
This is Reynauld's House, on the high street. The front dates from the 1600s but the building behind is medieval.
Wenlock Priory was founded after the Norman conquest, but was ruined during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1500s. St Milburga is buried here.
The monk's garden that was attached to the priory had been overgrown wasteland for centuries, but it has recently been cleared and made into a garden again, producing plants and vegetables for sale to the public. The sense of peace here is indescribable.
This farm is right in the middle of the town, literally surrounded by houses. Cows would be driven right into this yard at night, and back out to the fields around the town in the morning.
We climbed Titterstone Clee, one of the two Clee Hills (the other being Brown Clee), which is a few miles northeast of Ludlow (see map). Titterstone is some 1700 feet high and there's a government radar station at the top of it. The hill has been deeply scarred by quarrying for dhustone (a hard, volanic rock ideal for building roads), which is a great shame. There is a Bronze Age cairn on the summit, suggesting that it was an important ceremonial site 4000 years ago.
View north from Titterstone Clee
View south from Titterstone Clee
The Radar Station on the summit of the hill
Great parts of the hill have been quarried away :(
Quarry buildings on the side of the hill
Up there you can hear nothing but the wind blow.
To be continued...