Friday 27 February 2009

Deer Park Walk.

Today walk will take us through our local Deer park at Attingham Park Near ShrewsBury in Shropshire. The walk through the park is mostly on good woodland parkways which had been build by staff at Attingham park with help from The National Trust.


Attingham Park is west of Telford on the old A5 (Roman Road called whiting street) in the small village of Atchum. Nearby there is the Town of shrewsbury with its museums, Theatres, Abbey, shops. Shrewsbury is The birth place of Charles Darwin.


Also nearby the the village of Wroxeter where there is an vineyard growing and producing wine as well as a old Roman village which is well worth visiting.


The cost of entry into the hall and grounds of Attingham Park is £3.80 with family tickets around £4-5 .

The park opens at 10am and closed at 5pm although there is planned longer opening hours in the summer months.

Our walk today starts in the courtyard of this House build for lord Berwick who's ashes are buried in the Deer park.

Walking though the archway we follow a tarmac path right as it swings around the walled garden of the great hall until we are at the front of the house under the arches of the front door theses arches are a grand example of stone work as indeed is the hall itself.

While from here you will have grandstand views over the parkland with the Wrekin in the distance and the River Steven not far way. Going on to our left we move down hill towards the deer park and the River Tern on the sides of the path there is a few very old trees planted by lord Berwick theses are Atlas Pines, Beech and oak with under planting of Snowdrops and other spring flowers Primrose, Bluebell.

Passing the tree we cross over the River Tern and walk toward the gate leading into the deer park ( please if you got dogs put them on leads while in the deer park) There is a good size herd of fellow deer in the park and you all have a good chance of see them. the best time to visit at the weekends and during school holidays when they feed the deer in the park at 2pm every day.

Walking up hill over grassland we are now walking in the deer park, if we go forwards we meet another path running right to left we turn left and walk along the top with an wood area on our right ( we could have gone right but its only gos so far then we would have had to turn back) While walking along here we get a smashing view of the hall and ground from the deer park while over head we could see buzzards swirling on the warm air as they eye the countryside looking for a meal. To the left there is a small pool, here you can find the deer drinking during the late summer evening while during the day dragonflies and Damselfly's can be seen including some rare ones.

Passing the pool we meet a path going off to the right, although we could carry on straight ahead we turn here a take a short walk though some woodland with chestnut, oak,sliver birch, fir,beech being the main trees seen. Here during the autumn you can find many fungi growing in the woodland and if you wanted you could join one of the many fungi walks that take place at Attingham during October early November.

Walking through the woods we circle around and meet the same path we were on earlier passing at the same time the last resting place of lord Berwick which is to our right under the fir trees in a little clearing. Turning right onto the path again we walk until we meet the gate (we are now leaving the deer enclose) passing through the gate we enter woodland again (Here dogs can be let off the leads) we now follow the woodland path as it cuts through the woods which in spring is covered with millions of Snowdrops, following theses we get Bluebells and other woodland plants but its during late February and early March when you really see the beauty in theses woods

We follow the path until its turn left at the wooden carving and walk under the trees in the shade of beech, oak, chestnut, and ash while listening to the sounds of wood warblers and other woodland animals during the summer soon the path turns a corner while in front of us is the rope bridge across the River Tern crossing this we follow the pathway as it swings right and left through the trees along side the garden here we find hazelnut trees and sliver birch mixed with the beech,oak,chestnut and ash along with others shrubs as we find oursefts following the path around the meadow were longhorn cattle can be seen until we pass the house and are back at the Hall.

The walk is about 3/4 mile over fairly even ground and would take about 1-1.5 hours.

Sunday 15 February 2009

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.