Tuesday
Left Conkers today after a lovely stay. Clean site with acceptable facilities and lots to do in the surrounding area.
My BIL had to leave early as he has work today, so my sister and Nephew stayed behind to spend the morning with me and my parents. As the weather was lovely, we went for a walk along the old railway line again.
We walked in the opposite direction to yesterday and it was lovely to get some fresh air before heading in our separate directions. We looked for bugs, threw stick in a pond and spotted railway tracks and as my Nephew got tired, my sister and I took turns with him on our shoulders as his buggy had gone home with his Dad earlier – he is getting big! After we got back to the site, final preparations were made to leave the site and my family left, just before I made myself a sandwich and headed off around midday.
The journey should have only taken about an hour and a half. I had planned it in advance, down to every detail, so should all go swimmingly. I was still anxious though.
Are you all as bored of my journeys not going to plan as I am? If you are, sorry, it’s another one of those stories, but nowhere near as traumatic as in the past.
I’ve learnt many things on this trip, but specifically about booking websites, these are;
- The campsite may look lovely on the website, but if it doesn’t show you any images of their facilities – it’s likely they are not worth photographing and will most probably put you off staying there.
- Always ask if they have a ‘no kids’ or ‘adults only’ area and if they do, ask to be pitched there (unless you have kids). This stops you being almost maimed by kids on scooters and bikes, who don’t care if you are walking on a path/road, or if you are driving on the road, they will still career directly towards you, expecting you to move. Same applies for playing outside – they won’t play outside their pitch, they will play right next to you, trying to read a book peacefully, as their parents have told them to ‘go and play somewhere away from them’.
- Yes, the website shows the site has fabulous views and is in a nice peaceful location, but that also probably means it’s in the middle of nowhere and difficult to get too. This is especially true if they give you no specific directions to follow on their campsite, again, if they did tell you how hard it is to find them, they wouldn’t get anyone to stay.
All things to remember next time!
Anyway, the journey started off well, directions followed to a T. As usual it’s the final part of the journey that gets me, when I get into ‘B’ roads, but this time, it was my own fear that got me there 😦
I was driving towards where the directions told me to join the ‘B’ road and took one look and was too scared to go down it! So I carried onwards, which meant the nav then directed me down an even narrower road. How silly am I. This eventually led to me having to turn around in a pretty tight spot and rather over-using my clutch on a very steep hill start. I got there in the end, but another stomach-curling moment. Later found out that, yes, the lane is rather narrow if a tractor or another caravan meets you there, but otherwise, the best way to get to the campsite.
Warm welcome from the site manager who read through the site rules with me and then I was left to set-up. Very strict about anything being out on the grass, but this mean the site is very green and well maintained. Sadly I found out later that the same couldn’t be said for the facilities. They weren’t the worst I have seen, but were effectively wet rooms and not in the best condition. But, I will only be spending 10 minutes in there every day for a shower, so I will get over it! Worst thing is, I have a friend staying for two nights who isn’t a regular camper and I’ll have to apologise for them. Hope it doesn’t put her off.
Another lovely view from my pitch, this time of the Shropshire hills.
After setting up, I went in search of some food as my friend won’t be arriving until late this evening, so made my way into Much Wenlock and found a small store. I will definitely be returning as it’s very pretty with a few things to look around.
Back at the site, I spent a couple of hours finishing the set-up and relaxing. New series of the Great British Bake Off at 8pm tonight, so watched that as I waited for my friend to arrive. 9:00pm, she arrived and I got told off for letting her into the camp myself, rather than her pressing an entrance buzzer and talking to them. This was because someone beforehand had let travellers on to the site once and they wouldn’t leave, so they no longer give out an entrance code. Very annoying for them but means you have to ask permission to enter the campsite each time, which is a little tiresome. Understandable I guess under the circumstances.
A quick dinner and catch-up, an introduction to the facilities (which she took very well), and then off to bed, in my warm, comfy caravan 🙂
Wednesday
Hurrah – we actually got to eat breakfast in the sunshine today!
I had some help doing the washing up which was excellent as it took half the time and after discussing potential plans for the day, we were off.
Much Wenlock
This is a Medieval town and played a major part in the 19th century revival of Olympic Games. It’s the home town of Dr William Penny Brookes, the inspiration for the modern Olympic movement and founder of the Wenlock Olympian Society.
Our first stop was the local museum, free to enter, just a donation as you leave. Set up in what used to be a place where dances and meetings were held, and also a cinema in later times. It now houses lots of interesting stories about the town and its history, from when it was a small settlement, up until present times.
We read more about the link to the Olympics here as Dr Brookes, who used to live here, instigated the Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850 and they still take place each year! In recognition of their sporting heritage, the 2012 London Olympic Games named one of their mascots Wenlock.
Next we found a brilliant second hand book shop where we spent a happy half hour sorting through the books and CDs in there. I bought a couple to listen to on the journey to my next destination in a few days. We also took a look around a brilliant antiques shop that was full of beautiful crockery, but so full of it that we were scared to walk around!
We continued to wander around the town and noticed a small film crew in the churchyard – no idea what they were filming but they were in WW1 uniform in a tent – maybe one day we will find out?!
Wenlock Priory is an English Heritage site of the ruins of an originally Anglo-Saxon monastery, founded in about 680 by King Merewalh of Mercia, whose abbess daughter, Milburge was hailed a saint. Her relics were re discovered here in 1101, by which time the Normans had founded a priory of Cluniac Monks. The ruins you see today are from their buildings. It was lovely to walk around and imagine what it must have looked like in its heyday.
Our next stop was a National Trust property, Dudmaston. There was no photography allowed in the house as it is still a family home, so you will have to google it if you want to see it! I managed to get a few shots of the exterior of the house though…
There were a few rooms open, including the beautiful library and entrance hall and a modern art exhibition, all collected by the late owners Sir George and Lady Labouchere while Sir George was working for the British Embassy in Brussels.
We enjoyed a light lunch before looking around the house and gardens and of course the second hand bookshop!
Bridgnorth
Beautiful Bridgnorth – so glad we decided to visit this town and take a look around.
We took a leisurely stroll through the town centre and popped in to a couple of antique and gift shops before making our way towards a church we saw at the top of a hill. On the way there I noticed a small information board next to a garden on the street.
On closer inspection, it told us that on the 29th August 1940 (strangely we were visiting on the 29th August 2018) at around 1.30am, a total of around 12 Luftwaffe bombs fell on Bridgnorth. One of these bombs fell on number 9 Church Street, which demolished the building and killed Mrs Elizabeth Hand and severely injured her husband. Number 9 has never been re-built but remains a garden of remembrance for Mrs Hand and Josephine Maynard, also killed on that night by a bomb.
A sad reminder of the lives lost in the war, but a lovely memorial.
Walking further up the hill we came to St Leonard church, which was surrounded by some beautiful buildings like the old grammer school houses and the house of Richard Baxter (famous as religious non-conformist).
The church was very pretty, but no longer holds services, the last one having been held in 1970. This was because the tower of the church had become unsafe, so in 1976 the church was declared redundant and is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust.
We visited another church next, high on a hill in the town, dedicated to St Mary Magdalen, and found that it was designed and built by Thomas Telford between 1792-96, who was a famous civil engineer architect and stonemason. He also designed the Menai Bridge that I wrote about when I was in Wales that connects Wales to Angelsey.
As we left this church we noticed a large piece of building to the side and walked round to take a closer look, we followed a path around the side of the church, which gave us some lovely views across the town and led us eventually to the old castle grounds.
Here we found a lovely memorial to the men who died for their country during the First World War and some beautiful gardens. There was a band stand in the centre, surrounded by benches that would be a lovely place to sit in summer and listen to music.
As we walked along, we eventually came to….The Leaning Tower of Bridgnorth!
There has been a castle in this area since the 12th century, but this specific castle relates to when the Civil War was taking place and Bridgnorth was loyal to Charles 1st. When the town was attacked in 1646 there was a fierce fight and the Royalists retreated to the castle, using the church as their ammunition store. After the eventually surrendered, Parliament ordered the castle to be demolished. All that remains are the ruins if the Keep, and you can still see damage caused by cannon ball fire in places.
More beautiful views as we walked further around the castle walls walk (and glorious sunshine!) and then we came across the Cliff Railway! My friends face literally lit up as she is very partial to trying strange/unusual things, especially if they look a little dangerous, so on we went!
£1.60 each for a trip down and back up again, but we stopped at the bottom for a rather marvellous G&T in a pub at the end of the (very short) line. Seville orange gin and fever tree tonic, sat next to the river in the sun – fabulous.
Back up the hill on the cliff railway and back to the car to make our way to somewhere nice to eat. We couldn’t find a nice looking pub/restaurant anywhere, but did find the local Indian restaurant in Much Wenlock and enjoyed a nice curry there before driving the short journey to Wenlock Edge.
Wenlock Edge is a narrow limestone escarpment that runs for 18 miles from Craven Arms to Ironbrudge, the National Trust owns 8 miles of this stretch that has a number of pathways you can walk along.
It was close to Dusk so we didn’t want to walk too far, as it was through woodland and getting dark, but we needed to walk off some of the food we’d eaten, so did a quick 20 mins hike and took a couple of photos before heading back to the car.
We went back to the caravan to watch ‘The Exception’ on my friends IPad and then to bed. A lovely day.
Thursday
Woke up today and decided to re-visit somewhere we had been before, Shrewsbury, because last time we visited there, we had a fab breakfast and wanted to have it again! So, we made our way to there and I enjoyed Eggs Benedict (one of my favourites) and my friend enjoyed scrambled eggs on toast and bacon – both with a lovely latte.
We revisited some of the vintage/antique shops we had visited before and also some homeware places, so enjoyed half an hour mooching around in the sunshine.
On to Attingham Park, a National Trust property not too far from the city centre. I dropped my friend off and made a quick return trip to the campsite as I’d forgotten to turn off the heater in the caravan before we had left (it was only on low) and I couldn’t stop worrying about it burning the element out and leaving me with no heating for the rest of the trip! Only a 30 minute round trip and I was back!
We arrived just in time to take part in a ‘Road to Ruin’ tour, led by John and amazing National Trust tour guide (Who I didn’t ask permission to photograph, sorry John if you ever see this).
He was fantastic! He really bought the story of the family who built, and nearly lost the house, to life and had us hooked for an hour. The tour really made the day for me, as I love to hear all about the stories behind the buildings and the people who lived and worked there. Suffice to say, they were quite a few Lords of Berwick who were not good with their money. Luckily, the 5th was a little better and managed to save the house we now see today.
We heard about the Lords through the ages and also the most recent Lord and Lady, who left the property to the National Trust. Fascinating – one of the Lords married a courtesan (she was 17 and he was 41) and made her live alone in the house and a Lady Berwick, who opened the house up to an Adult Education centre, after the Second World War.
Also, my Instagram photo of the door with the statement… ‘Behind Every Closed Door…..’. The answer to this is nothing! During the time the house was built, the fashion was symmetry, so if there was one door, there had to be another directly opposite or next to it. So, most doors led to nowhere, just a brick wall!
There were also servant’s rooms where we found out about their yearly wages (not great) and the hierarchy that was just as strict downstairs as it was upstairs. Loved the kitchens and wandering around the grounds. There was also a fantastic second hand book shop and we enjoyed some a cheese scone each as a snack too:-)
We had spent most of the day here, but had just enough time to go and visit a rather famous landmark around here – The Ironbridge. I have actually been here before on a school trip and LONG time ago, but none of it rang any bells! Unfortunately, English Heritage are currently restoring the bridge, so we had to resort to googling what it looks like!!
We both agreed we would be back once it reopened for a proper look as the area around the bridge was also very pretty.
Quick soft drink each and we shared a big plate of cheesy nachos before heading back to the campsite as my friend was heading home 😦
I’ve had a lovely couple of days and hopefully my friend did too! Now writing this blog and planning my day trips for tomorrow. More on that, um, tomorrow!
Today’s meaning behind the saying;
Servants in big houses usually had an ale allowance each day. This was one pint for men and half a pint for women. If they didn’t want the ale, and chose tea for example instead, they would put their ale allowance on a wagon on the table, hence the saying ‘On the Wagon’.
One (wo)man and her (cara)van 