The Shropshire Way

Today's walk will take us along part of the Shropshire Way that's runs through the valley of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire.

The walk will be over 2-3 hours and takes in some of the most beautiful sights seen in this world Heritage site.

We start the walk on the Broseley side of the river parking in the car park of the Station Inn in Ironbridge ( Theres a charge for parking add Machine set at £2.00 per day) Disabled is free.

In Front of us is the worlds Famous Ironbridge( which give its name to the town) This was build by Abraham Darby 111 in 1779 after he successfully melted Iron using Coke at his furnace in nearby Coalbrookdale.

We start by walking along the old railway line ( going right) and heading up stream, this railway line was part of a network of steam railways that linked the gorge with Shrewsbury,Bridgenorth,with other links to the main networks taking goods,people to London and other parts of the uk.

The Bridgenorth based StevenValley Railway is trying to reopen this line from Bridgenorth to Ironbridge for visitors again.

Passing under the brick bridge we walk along a bridleway, this is the Shropshire Way on the right we got the River Steven while on our left we got Benthall Woods along the sides of the Bridleway grows many wildflowers such as Ramsons, Lords-and-Ladies, Bellflower, Campion as well as Orchids, ferns and Mosses with Oak,Ash, Chestnut and Beech Trees making up most of the tree cover.

There is lots of wildlife in the area and as you walk along you could find yourself face to face with Deer, Foxes and Badgers during early morning or late evening walks, while most of the time you can see many different species of Birds, Butterflies, Moths,and Bats, indeed during the 1970s this area was the last place in Shropshire where a Nightindale ( Luscina Megarhynchos) was heard and Nested, Althrough there has been a few reported sightings since theses sighting have never been confirmed.

While walking along looking to our right over the river we look at Linton Hill and the Rounda why its called the Rounda i'll never know, but its been called that for many years so the name kind of shuck.

Now we are coming up to the end of the Bridleway and in front of us we should see through the trees the cooling Towers of the Buildwas Power Station this is the ( new) station build in the 1920s to help with demand and to replace the old power station that was knocked down in the 90s The towers are over 100 feet height and can be seen from miles around, Here we turn left and walk up a woodland path for about 50 yards until coming to a patch in front of a gate, We can continue along this pathway( Shropshire Way) or pass though the gate and turn right onto an old part of the Shropshire Way ( which is what we are doing) in front of us on our left we should see a number of steps( we will be coming down theses later on) keeping right we now walk up a little incline on old woodland pathways, this is infact a incline used by horses to transport coal, clay and other goods down to the river to be loaded onto Ferries to be transported to the big city's like London, Birmingham and the world, after a while the pathway starts to get a little overgrown and Narrower this is because we are walking on the old footpath where others don't go, the path is also a little steep here also but the quietness, and loneliness more then makes up for it as you walk along with only the sounds of the birds to be heard.

We push on pass the back of the power station following the pathway until the path meets another path going left to right ( this is the New Shropshire way marked path) joining this path we follow it for about 300 yards until we come out onto a wider path, here we can choose weather to go right and walk towards Benthall Hall or turn left and walk along the private Driveway ( you are allowed to do this) which is the way we are going today, Please keep any Dogs of their leads here as there may be Deer in this area.

We are now joining the path we walked before and will pass the little white cottage in the wood on our right after about 300-400 yards, turning left we now walk down a winding path under the power lines that comes up the gorge from the Buildwas power station which you should now be over looking on our left, along the pathway heading toward Benthall we pass under towering beech trees and come to a pathway going off to your left with a gate in front of you, Here we turn left and walk along the rocky pathway with limestone working on our right following the pathway( new Shropshire way) until we top out overlooking the Ironbridge Gorge again while below us is the old Quarry in Benthall woods to the left here is a path follow this and we should come to the wooden steps go down theses ( there is alot of them) until at the bottom where you'll find yourseft back in the patch of wood where you were early on.

How we turn right and still on the Shropshire Way we walk along the top of the woods over looking both the old bridleway below us on our left and the River Steven here you'll find lots of Hazelnut Trees as indeed there is in other parts of the woods, keep on this path and you meet a few more steps leading down hill and at the bottom you pass though a Sile and find yourseft in Hodge Bower, This is were many of the boat used to ferry goods down river were build and moored we now rejoin the bridgeway walking back towards Ironbridge until we again end up back at the start in the station Inn carpark.