Chesterton, Shropshire

This was our second trip to the West Midlands in our series of Chester walks.  The countryside we were walking through lies between Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth, which is on the Severn.  Usually, myself and BAM (Best Aussie mate) find the nearest long-distance path and follow this, but that wasn't practical this time round, so we invented our own path - a rather circular one, at that - which is more in keeping with the concept of trailblazing! 

It was difficult to know, just by looking at a map, whether our chosen route would be a mucky slog through difficult countryside, or a pleasant stroll through wonderful autumnal colours.  Luckily for us it was mostly the latter!

Lodging and Victuals

The Old House at Hilton

Chesterton is just a small village and the nearest lodging we could find was at a neighbouring village called Hilton, which lies on the A454, the main Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton road.  The nearest train station to access this Chester walk was Wolverhampton, but we were lucky enough to get a lift to Hilton with a lovely lady called Fifi Sharplin, who is the owner of The Old House in Hilton, where we spent the night. 

The Old House is a beautiful building and we stayed in the main ground-floor room in the cottage.  It was an incredibly peaceful place and Fifi gave us a lovely welcome and talked to us about her time spent living overseas, in faraway places like Botswana and Sri Lanka.  She is also a wonderful artist and produces her own floral drawings which can be bought as prints or cards. 

Hilton to Claverley (2 miles/3.2 kilometres)

Hilton view, November morning

We were incredibly lucky with the weather during yesterday's walk and were treated to the most glorious November sunshine, as we set out from Hilton in the direction of Claverley.  Turning right on the main road outside the Old House, we headed back in the direction of Wolverhampton, before crossing the Hilton Brook and turning right through some buildings to follow a public footpath that follows the brook all the way to Hopstone.

The distance from Hilton to Bridgnorth is only 4 miles by road, so we started off walking away from Chesterton, rather than towards it, as otherwise the walk would have been too short and we would have missed out on some amazing countryside.  The path alongside the Hilton Brook is pretty clear and soon brings you to an interesting area of rock formations, known as The Clouds. 

The Clouds, rock formation

Shropshire has a particularly diverse geological make-up and this area, to the east of the River Severn, has a lot of red sandstone rock formations, which date back to the Triassic period, so they are around 240 million years old!  I've certainly not seen rock formations like this before in England and they reminded me of the rocks I saw on a recent trip to Wadi Rum in Jordan.  They give the landscape a very 'romantic' quality, which is more 19th-century Black Forest than 21st century England!

Once we'd passed the rock formations of The Clouds we came out onto a small country road which took us past the hamlet of Hopstone, downhill to the village of Claverley.

Claverley to Ludstone Hall (1 mile/1.6 kilometres)

Claverley

Claverley seemed like a nice village.  I bought some chocolate at the Post Office shop and saw a very touching sign on the village noticeboard about the local Women's Institute, which was forced to close down, after 61 years of continuous existence.  I don't usually get sentimental about change, but you could sense the genuine disappointment of the person who wrote the notice. 

The demise of Claverley's WI was due to falling membership, which could only be turned around by an influx of young members.  The notice was posted in 2008, which also served to give the village an aura of timelessness - I don't think life moves as quickly in Claverley, as it does here in London!

We walked through the village, past the pubs and turned left before the local school, to follow a small path that runs along the back of the village. This eventually brought us to a wider path, where we turned right into a birch coppice, which is more or less on the grounds of Ludstone Hall. 

Path through the Birch coppice

The public path continues to the left of the birch coppice, but we got a bit lost here, going through the trees to a small meadow and some artificial ponds, where we stopped for some chocolate and banana.  There was one magnificant tree by the upper pond, which had turned bright orange, shedding half of its leaves and looking spectacular in the afternoon sun.  Rather than retrace our steps to the right path, we continued across a field to meet a small road, then turned left towards the gates of Ludstone Hall.

Ludstone Hall to Rudge Heath (1.25 miles/2 kilometres)

Ludstone Hall is a fine building and has a long history, having been part of the monastic lands of medieval Bridgnorth.  The current building is Jacobean (ie from the era of James I, early 17th century).  It's privately owned, but is open to the public once a year and has a small museum which is also available for private viewings.  You can find out more on Ludstone Hall's website. 

Ludstone Hall

We continued along the public path to the left of the building, crossing a couple of fields until we came to the B4176, the secondary road between Dudley and Telford.  We didn't cross the road at this point, but backtracked towards Hopstone before turning right onto the Rudge Heath road, a small country lane which passes Rudge Heath farm.  This brought us back to the main Wolverhampton to Bridgnorth road (the A454), which we crossed to access a small lane between a shop and a plant nursery. 

As I'm sure you can imagine, crossing all of these roads was the least intersting part of the walk, but the most convenient way of getting from Ludstone back towards Chesterton. 

Rudge Heath to Chesterton (1 mile/1.6 kilometres)

Meadow near Ludstone

For some reason, we didn't really make good time yesterday.  I guess all the stopping and checking of maps delayed us somewhat, as yesterday's route was a lot more 'involved' than merely following a national or long-distance trail.  Also BAM was a little bit slower than usual, being covered in bruises from a recent kayaking experience! 

Crossing the B4176 at Rudge Heath, we entered a field with some horses and then came to a diversion sign, which was telling us to go up-hill to Littlegain, rather than along a small valley to the Littlegain footbridge, as we had planned.

BAM investigating the footbridge

I'm not sure why the diversion around Littlegain is in place, but I do know that Littlegain is very aptly named, as we lost a lot of time trying to figure out where to go next.  We eventually found the foot bridge via the diverted route, but the sound of gunshots and the sight of birds flying upwards from the forested area at the end of the footbridge put me off following the public footpath to Chesterton.  BAM was much braver than me, as usual, and she was prepared to stick to our original route, but we hadn't factored in 'getting shot' as part of our walking plan, so I managed to convince her to divert back to the dreaded B4176.

We followed the road again to the turn-off for Chesterton, but we never made it to the village.  Time was pushing on and the sun was slowly making its way downwards, so we decided to pick up our route again at the crossroads and avoid an unnecessary diversion to the village itself.

Chesterton to Worfield (1.7 miles/2.7 kilometres)

House near Lowe Bridge

Crossing the road again, we climbed a stile to enter a long field following Stratford Brook, then went uphill across a ploughed field to meet another country lane just outside Bradney.  At the country lane we turned left and continued downhill to a triangular junction, taking the road on the right to reach Lowe Bridge and the edge of Worfield village.  We got a little bit lost here, taking the footpath to Wyken, but we soon realised that we'd taken a wrong turning, so we backtracked to Worfield and found the correct path which led uphill past Davenport House.

Worfield to Rindleford (1.6 miles/2.6 kilometres)

Wheel in the River Worfe

The rest of the walk from Worfield to Bridgnorth was stunningly beautiful.  Davenport House is an example of English Baroque architecture and has a long, winding drive, which we crossed twice on our way to the River Worfe.  The river is crossed by a footbridge and there is an old mill wheel still standing near the footbridge, which was no doubt put to good use during the Industrial revolution. 

The signposting around Burcote House is really good and we often remark that farmers who make sure public footpaths are well-signposted around their land, ultimately have less problems with walkers getting lost and inadvertantly trespassing.  At Burcote, we turned right to follow a narrow path above the River Worfe and alongside the Burcote Rocks.  Like The Clouds over at Hilton, the Burcote Rocks are made of red sandstone and have interesting formations. 

Mist at Rindleford

After about 15 minutes, we crossed the river again, over a footbridge and continued along a small open valley towards the village of Rindleford.  The temperature was dropping at this time of the day and (hopefully) you can see, in the photograph, a wonderful mist over the Rindleford valley. 

Rindleford to Bridgnorth (2.5 miles/4 kilometres)

At Rindleford we crossed the river again and backtracked on a small, sodden path before turning uphill through a fantastic wooded valley towards Batch Lane.  I think this was my favourite part of the whole walk and I've never seen so many pheasants in one place in my entire life!  It's an incredibly secluded valley, which makes it really peaceful and the walking was easy up through Batch lane to a small country road.

Secluded valley

Crossing the small road we took a path uphill past Woodside Farm.  At this stage, it was dark enough to warrant using a headlamp and, as BAM rustled around in her bag, I looked backwards towards distant ridges and the ghostly orange glow of the West Midlands conurbation. 

After Woodside Farm, we entered a steep wood called Hollybush Coppice, picking our way carefully along the top of the ridge, before taking a small path downwards to meet the A442, which is the main Bridgnorth to Telford road.  We stumbled out onto the road by the impressive sight of Fort Pendlestone, an old textile mill, which has been converted into a modern apartment block.

Bridgnorth signpost

It looked quite imposing in the dark and our imaginations were running riot as to the building's fort-like attributes!  From Fort Pendlestone, we had wanted to join a path along the Severn, which leads into Bridgnorth, but it was too dark by the time we got there and a very inviting roadside path became our preferred route into town.

Bridgnorth looks like an interesting place.  We climbed up the Cartway to the High Town, had a wander around the High Street, looked at the Town Hall and made our way back to the Low Town via the Stoneway steps.  I wish we'd had more time to explore Bridgnorth (or at least seen it by day!), but time wasn't on our side yesterday, so it was back to Wolverhampton and our train to London. 

I've calculated that the walk was around 11 miles (17.7 kilometres) in all.  It definitely felt longer than that and, in a way, distance of little relevance during a walk like this, it's the landscape you cover that matters most.

The Stoneway Steps, Bridgnorth

Access for Wheelchair Users

The nature of yesterday's walk meant that it wouldn't be very well suited to wheelchair users.  The walk involved lots of country lanes, which are dangerous because of traffic and climbing over stiles, which would make the walk inaccessible for wheelchair users.  The only accessible bit might be the route from Rindleford to Batch Lane, although, even here, the terrain was  incredibly rough. 

Image credits:

All photos were taken by me - please feel free to reuse these images via the Creative Commons License, Attribution (especially to this blog), Share Alike and Non-commercial.