Walking the Edge - near Much Wenlock

Location, location, location is said to be everything when buying a property, and this premise surely has to be central when making a booking for a holiday cottage.

At Woodhey Hall, near Nantwich, people are guaranteed an excellent situation not just for stunning and far-reaching views, but for wining and dining, sight-seeing and outdoors activities such as running, walking and cycling.

With Cheshire bordering at least six other counties, people will undoubtedly be spoilt for choice when deciding on a day out to a town, city or village.

With Faddiley being a few miles from the Shropshire border, people can also take advantage of this pastoral paradise and seek some quiet, secluded corner for a pleasant, leisurely walk.

Shropshire's Hills have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially areas such as the Long Myndd, the Stiperstones and the enchanting Caer Caradoc.

However, what's perhaps particularly appealing is that there are still many secret enclaves which few people know about and are well worth seeking out for a short ramble or substantially longer trek.

A more than ideal location for such a walk just has to be the Wenlock Edge - a limestone escarpment that was formed around 420 million years ago, some several miles south of the equator.

It's an area now not just famed for quarrying and its exceptional aesthetic appeal, but also for its abundance of fossilised materials that date back to the Silurian age.

During this geological era, Shropshire was in a latitude equivalent to what is now the Seychelles; and the Wenlock Edge comprised a shallow sea where coral and other sea creatures and plant life such as trilobytes, brachiopods and crinoids thrived.

Over the course of time, their calcified remains formed the limestone bedrock which runs some 30 kilometres from Ironbridge southwards to the renowned Shropshire Hills' town of Craven Arms.

And today, walkers won't have to travel far to see rock rich in fossilised deposits, crinoids (small tube-like pieces) being among the most popular.

Supposedly, visible from space, the Wenlock Edge can be accessed by several designated routeways and car parks. A trail leads directly out of the nearby town of Much Wenlock and another can be found in the mid-section of this escarpment which is part-managed by the National Trust.

And reportedly since 1982, the trust has been acquiring large swathes of the land mass here in a bid to preserve the natural habitat and allow it to remain as a conservation area for the general public to seek out and enjoy.

Currently, it has managed to buy up around 12 miles of the edge, and on this section of walk has been working with its volunteers and Bardon Aggregates, a local quarry group, to preserve the limestone grassland. The trust warns that, since 1950 at least 98% of the local grassland has been lost due to modern farming methods and land management.

By encouraging Hebridean Sheep in this area, which eat scrub and other vegetation such as brambles, their collective stategies and plans have allowed wild flowers such as cowslips and wild orchids to prosper and flourish once again.

From the National Trust car park, off the B4371 and a mile or two from the village of Stretton Westwood, people then need to follow the Presthope waymarked trail, that is on the left of the edge, leading uphill (towards the Wrekin). It follows a well defined trackway into some enchanting woodland for about 10 minutes of the initial part of this walk.

What's perhaps interesting is that this very landscape and its enchanting valleys and dales such as Hope Dale and Ape Dale have inspired countless artists, authors and poets.

Among them have been no less than JS Lowry himself who drew a picture of the Wenlock Edge during his lifetime.

A turn of the 20th century artist who perhaps encapsulates with his words, and painting, the area best would be one Walter Crane who said: this is 'a magic world of romance and pictured poetry .... a twilight world of dark mysterious woodlands, haunted streams, meads of deep green starred with burning flowers, veiled in a dim and mystic light'.

Gaps in the tree lined route afford excellent views of this 'magic world' and soon lead to an opening by a quarry. Some local artists have dedicated works that they believe embody the spirit of Wenlock Edge.

The first is an imaginative replica of a lime kiln, which were plentiful during centuries past, where limestone was burnt to create quicklime for industry and agricultural uses.

The next is a series of wooden structures, that seem to lead to some kind of door, perhaps signifying a window in to the area's past. From this open section, people can clearly see all the quarrying that has gone on and is used largely in road surfacing, among other things.

Indeed the Wenlock Edge has been a major source of building material for nearby towns and villages since Roman times and especially the Dark Ages.

During this era, a priory was built at what became the village of Much Wenlock, whose name is said to mean Great White Place or Church.

Milburga the daugther of Mercian king, Penda set up a priory here in 682 and the town grew around this. However the existing ruins of a priory here were ones built by Roger de Montgomerie after the Norman conquest.

And people in search of a longer trek can make the route to Much Wenlock and back if they so wish. However, this route takes a shorter turn but does take in much of the wonderful series of rolling hills which were said to have inspired none other than JR Tolkein himself, the other of the Hobbit and other such works.

Apparently he lived in Shropshire and local hill the Wrekin was said to have been the inspiration for Middle Earth in his Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

In any event, as people traverse the trail, they will soon spy a vantage point which gives excellent views of this hill.

Originally settled as an Iron Age hillfort, it would certainly be worth a visit or trek in its own right, and was supposedly created in times long past, accordingly to folklore, by a disgruntled giant.

Of Welsh origin, Gwendol Wrekin ap Shenkin ap Mynyddmawr, had for some reason a grudge against the mid-Shropshire town of Shrewsbury and set out one day to destroy it.

His chosen method was a large giant-size handful of earth, with which he hoped to cause the flooding of the River Severn and the resultant flooding of the town.

However, as he was on his way to do his dastardly deed, a cobbler from the town managed to dissuade him. Gwendol asked how far it was to Shrewsbury, and when the cobbler learnt of his plans, he showed him all the shoes he had with him that were in need of repair. He insisted it would take far too long to be reached, as he'd worn out all these shoes on his trip from there.

At that Gwendol threw his handful of earth down and thus the Wrekin was formed.

Now back to the walk: people should continue along the treelined pathway and then reach its mid-point (near where there are two logs set down for resting), people should then retrace their footsteps until they reach the modern artwork area again.

However this time they want to follow the Lime Kiln routeway on the righthand side of the edge and soon will come to see a wonderful example of a former limestone kiln.

After this, people can then see the remains of the Knowle Quarry, where close inspection lets people see many different kinds of fossil remains. Among the fossilized rock is said to be parts of algal or coral reefs containing halysites and favosites. Sea creatures such as gastropods and brachiopods would in times past have lived off these, and their remains can also be spotted too.

Next, a fairly steep wooden series of steps leads up to the pathway again. This needs to be followed for several minutes back to the National Trust car park.

From here, people can then either head up to Much Wenlock to try some of the country inns or tea rooms there, or go further northwards to Ironbridge or perhaps Shrewsbury. Alternatively , turning southwards people can head for either Ludlow or Leominster, or westwards towards Church Stretton and the Long Myndd and other pubs and cafes there.

Directions: From Faddiley, turn off the A534 on to the A49, southwards towards Shrewsbury. Eventually, pass by Shrewsbury on the A5 ringroad, and turn off at the A458 southwards towards Much Wenlock. Then from here take the B4371 to Stretton Westwood, and a few miles after this village, people will find the National Trust car park from where they can join the abovementioned walking routes. Journey time should be under 1 hr 20 minutes (by car).

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