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The Hidden Highway

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Hawkstone Park and Follies is the most spectacular man-made landscape in Europe and a fine place for exploration and admiration with its caves, cliffs, grottoes, tunnels and Red Castle. It was the location for some of the filming of the Narnia cronicles of C.S. Lewis.
 

SHREWSBURY - CRAVEN ARMS

This part of the route takes you through Corvdale, a beautiful valley overlooked by the undulating Clee Hills. Along the way you will find peaceful villages, ancient churches and traditional inns. Dick Turpin is said to have stayed at the Swan Inn at Aston Munslow.

Shipton Hall is an impressive mansion built in 1587. The parish church here has a plaque commemorating four local children who were sent to America on the Mayflower.

WENLOCK EDGE

"On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble; His Forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;"
A.E. Housman

The sixteen-mile (26km) escarpment beagn life as a coral reef south of the Equator many millions of years ago. Now in the care of the National Trust, its limestone woodland is a haven for wildlife.

The Edge is well known for its ghosts. 'Major's Leap' takes its name from the spot where Major Smallman, desparate to escape pursuing Roundheads, made his horse jump over the edge. He survived but his mount died and his ghost haunts the place.

There are literary connections here too, not just with Housman but also with Mary Webb, author of 'Presciuos Bane' and 'Gone to Earth' who used to ride with her father along the Edge in a pony and trap.

MUCH WENLOCK

Much Wenlock is a charming medieval market town. The picturesque ruins of Wenlock Priory are the remains of a Cluniac monastery built on the site of the original Abbey of St Milburgha, founded in 680.

The town also has a half-timbered guildhall dating from the sixteenth centur, a parish church with impressive Norman nave and chancel, and the Much Wenlcok Museum.

In 1850 Dr William Penny Brookes founded the Wenlock olympian Games which were the inspiration for the modern Olympics. Much Wenlock still stages Olympian Games each July.

Buildwas Abbey is a runined Cistercian monastery set in wooded countryside to the west of Ironbridge. It is cared for by English Heritage.

IRONBRIDGE

The award-winning Ironbridge Gorge Museums are set within the deep wooded gorge of the River Severn which is a designated World Heritage Site. This spectacular and beautiful area offers the visitor a unique chance to step back in time and explore the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The dates from 1709 when Abraham Darby I perfected the mass production of cast iron.

The place takes its name from the world's first iron bridge, built in 1779 by Abraham Darby III, which spans the Severn here and forms the centrepiece of the nine museum sites. The Museum of the Gorge offers an excellent introduction to the museums and history of the River Severn. The Museum of Iron includes the original furnace used by Abraham Darby I. Coalport China Museum has dazzling displays from two centuries of china production. Blists Hill Victorian Town is the reconstruction of a nineteenth-century industrial town with squatters' cottages, the steam-operated pit head of a coal mine, schoolhouse, bank, pub, chemist and other Victorian shops. Jackfield was once the centre of the decorative tile museum here has colourful displays of the range produced over the years.

Wroxetor Roman City was the forth largest city in Roman Britain in the second century. Today visitors see the impressive remains of the municipal baths which include the tallest surviving Roman masonry to be seen in this country. Tresures unearthed in the excavations are displayed in the on-site museums. Adjacent is Wroxeter Roman Vineyard, which produces excellent wines with crisp English charater.

SHREWSBURY - WELSHPOOL

Shropshire's county town occupies a loop in the River Severn, a site chosen by its medieval builders since it was easily defendable. Shrewsbury is perhapsEngland's finest Tudor town, with numerous black and white buildings on cobbled streets, hidden 'shuts' and passages with ancient names often reflecting the trades once plied there; Fish Street, Milk Street and Grope Lane (a former 'red light area!).

Shrewsbury is a fine town for shopping - everything from second-hand books to antiques and art deco - and walking. A guided walk or following the town trail from the Tourist Information Centre will help you discover more about Shrewsbury's exciting history and you can even follow a Brother Cadfael Trail and see the places mentioned in Ellis Peters' famous mysteries including Shrewsbury Abbey, founded in 1083 and at the heart of the Cadfael tales.

Shrewsbury is known as the Town of Flowers and holds the famous Shrewsbury Flower Show every August.

The towns most famous son is Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution shocked the world. Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918), arguably the greatest of all war poets, spent childhood and adolescence here, while the Shropshire novelist Mary Webb (1881 - 1927) kept a market stall here and disguised Shrewsbury as 'Silverton' in her books, which include 'Precious Bane' and 'Gone to Earth'.

Standing proudly on its hill, Shrewsbury Castle dates from the 1160's. It is now home to the Shropshire Regimental Museum.

Rowleys House Museum is a beautiful half-timbered mansion where you will find collections and galleries interpreting the rich history of Shropshire and its county town.

Just north of the town, Battlefield was the site of the Battle f Shrewsbury in 1403 when Harry IV defeated Harry Hotspur.

Attingham Park (National Trust) is a spelndid neo-classical mansion which embodies country life on a grand scale. Enjoy the splendid Regency interiors with magnificently furnished state rooms. The house is set in sweping riverside parkland laid out by Humprey Repton.