“the former opencast pits have only recently been restored to green fields”
A long day. Half the day is spent getting here. My bus ride before 7am into Preston was interesting. No delays as it is school holidays and for a change there were no roadworks. At one stop, I witnessed a simple fraud carried out by a couple of lads. The first gets on the bus, buys a ticket, and promptly out of sight of the driver throws it out of an open window for his mate to board the bus with! Would never have thought of that. Of course, it won’t work if an inspector appears, but when did you last see one of those.
Preston is not joined up transport wise. It is a 15min walk to the rail station from the bus station, but I try to factor that into my planning and have time for a coffee. Usually works. Change at Crewe. “Oh, Mr. Porter, what am I going to do?” always springs to mind. Another change at Shrewsbury, and I’m on a Welsh speaking train. It’s only one stop to Wellington where there is a distinct Midlands’ accent as soon as you step out of the station.
I immediately take the wrong turning and am lost, it is easily done in towns. It’s best to rethink and slow down, I head back into the centre and into a little Eastern café for a coffee, a bargain these days for £1. The food looked and smelt good. I may try it when I’m back here in a few days on my circular route.
Refreshed, I find my way across town, whose Medieval buildings will have to wait until I’m back. I do however pass the site of a former Chad Valley Toys building, I remember those. A little further and there is a blue plaque to the painter Cecil Lawson – I had to look him up.
At last I’m on Limekiln Lane, which gives a clue as to past industries hereabouts. Limestone was mined and quarried in the 18th and 19th centuries and used as a flux in early iron making. I’m probably following the old tramway taking lime and stone to Wellington, situated on the important Watling Street.
At some stage before going under the motorway, my first Telford T50 roundel appears, I have probably missed some in town. These red, or are they pink or purple, waymarks thankfully become a regular guide to the walk.
I find that within the first few pages of a written guide, one either likes and trusts the writer’s style or one resorts to the map and intuition. So far, it’s early days, but Anne Suffolk seems to be on the mark in both general information and directions. The maps in the guide are too small a scale to be useful for serious navigation, but they give a general idea of the route. I have downloaded the route map onto my OS app on my phone for when I’m lost. This is the first time I’ve employed this system, I’m slowly getting up to speed with modern technology. The app map hasn’t been needed in earnest yet.
This an easy lane to drive up and dump rubbish.
The limekilns would have been used to produce quicklime for mortar, lime wash, and soil fertility. Charcoal used first from the abundant woodlands and then coal from nearby provided the high heat necessary. Once into the woods I can I peer down into the tops of several kilns in amongst the trees, the brick work still clearly visible. It would have been interesting to see the kilns from below. There must be a track down there somewhere. The woods and open glades, being on limestone, are rich habitat for orchids in season, which, of course it isn’t, Yellow ragwort seems to be everywhere this year.
Onwards and forever upwards, I hadn’t read the contours. The next stretch is more open, and the site of old bell pits and shallow shafts for the coal seams lying close to the surface. Coal mining here continued even into this century, but all is greenery now. Some of the open cast areas can just be made out.
An old tramway.
Spoil heap next to track.
Recent open cast remains.
?an old flooded bell pit.
After getting on for two hours of steady climbing, I reach a minor road at New Works. ‘New’ relating to the the C18th Darby family development of the area for coal to supply their furnaces at Coalbrookdale. No doubt more of this later in the walk, there is so much historical information in the guide book, on the many interpretation boards I’ve already come across and on the internet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalbrookdale#Industrial_Revolution
Now there is only a collection of modern bungalows with good views over Shropshire and no doubt beyond. My route takes me on to the ‘Trundle’, not an expression I have come across relating to paths. Anyhow, a good wide surface takes me down through the woods to emerge onto the main road through Dawley/Lawley.
The new builds here appear well constructed and interesting architecturally. All these suburbs are part of Telford new town, which started in 1968 trying to preserve some of the green networks and industrial areas. The Telford T50 was designed to reflect these and was to commemorate the 50 years since the start of the works. There is a prominent Mormon Church here and I get all the local information I need from one of the many dog walkers. Until now I hadn’t met anybody on the trail.
As usual, a golf course appears on a long-distance walk, and this is where I go wrong for a while. Waymarks disappear, and I feel I’m trespassing, but with persistence, I emerge unscathed. It looks like a challenging course for the golfer as well as the walker.
I walk around peaceful Horsehay Lake, the pond for the iron furnaces and foundries. The lake remains, but the rest has mostly disappeared. What does remain, though, are the rows of workers’ cottages. Delightful Old,1750, and New,1830. I could live in one of those.
And what is on the corner? A fish and chip shop. I can’t refuse the chance of a chippy lunch sitting looking over the lake. The ducks get my scraps.
The Telford Steam Railway looks a jumble, lots of work for the dedicated volunteers to get stuck into. I’m sure on a weekend when Steam is running it will be more exciting.
The way forward coincides with The Ironstone Way, there seem to be lots of well-used trails in the area. I’m supposed to be walking alongside Lawley Common, but new developments have taken over. Many obviously, since the guidebook was published in 2019.
The speed at which we devour the countryside is frightening.
I find myself in Morrison’s café for a cup of tea. Those chips were salty. I had thought of going on a few miles or so, but it looked like suburbia all the way, maybe I am wrong, but I’ve had enough, 7 miles this afternoon, and call it a day.I seek out the bus stop reputably adjacent to Morrison’s. There is a bus in 5 minutes, obviously nobody seems to know where from. Why would they, they have all driven here. As I get onto the main road, my bus goes sailing past to stop a couple of hundred metres farther on, but too far for me to catch it.
Am I in Dawley or Lawley? I seek help from a lovely Indian man running a takeaway grill on the street. He phones for a taxi, and while waiting, we put the world to right. Should give his café a shout-out, but I didn’t get its name.
I was soon transported to my lodgings for the night, only two miles away – the Ramada in the centre of Telford.
A very comfy room and a deep bath. With eating those chips mid afternoon, I settle for a pint of Camden Town pale ale and some crisps in the bar.
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