Monday – Pembridge – By the River Arrow on Pembridge Green. The sky is grey and it feels rain may not need long coming. The water level is low, the flow passing around shingle banks. A Chiffchaff calls from the trees on the opposite bank. Towards the village over Arrow Bridge, probably early 19th century. Cottages on the south side was a single house, now sub-divided into tenements. The main hall is 14th century with a 17th century cross-wing and 20th century alterations and additions. Glanarrow cottages are 16thcentury. Other houses are probably 17th century and Victorian with a modern estate to the west. On the junction with the A44 are Duppa’s Almshouses; formerly six tenements, now four. Founded in 1661 by Jeffrey Duppa and augmented by his son, Bryan Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, chaplain to the royal family, Royalist and adviser to Charles I.
Across the road and up a short flight of steps is the church of St Mary the Virgin. Three metal statues of sheep lay in the grass. I have previously described the church in July 2010. The building of the church was probably ordered by Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. It is thought his daughter Blanche married Sir Peter Grandison in the new church. This time there is access to the detached bell tower. Huge timbers, dated to the early 13th century have bracing timbers all surrounding a wooden construction containing the clock mechanism by Reed of London, dated 1891. There are five bells, one of which is dated 1658, and also a tiny Sanctus Bell in the very upper part of the belfry which was restored in 1978. Several biers stand around the tower.
Back down the slope to the main road. House Sparrows chatter in the hedges and Swifts sweep across the grey sky. A flock is three dozen Jackdaws fly across. Along the High Street. Many houses are timber-framed. Some are named after their former uses, The Old Forge, The Old Wheelwrights, the Post Office, the Nurse’s Cottage. A War Memorial had been carved from the Verdun Oak that had to be felled due to disease. It was carved by Ed Elliott of Great Malvern. Acorns from the oak have been planted lining the “Straight Mile” to Broxwood. Nearby is the Trafford Almshouses with a plaque reading “This hospital founded by Thomas Trafford Dr in Divinity and Rector of Ye Parish was furnished and endowed according to his design and direction by Alice his relict. Ano Dmi 1686”. It is now raining.
Back along the road. An old AA sign records it is 144 miles to London. The King’s House restaurant was formerly The Greyhound, a pub built in the early 16th century. The former Congregational chapel, was bought by the Methodists and used by the Methodists for the Sunday School, as well as for Guides, Scouts, Youth Club and Women’s Bright Hour. In 1962 the Methodists returned to using only the High Street Chapel and the building is now a gallery. Ye Olde Steppes, dating from the early 16th century is the village shop. Down towards the river. The Old Rectory is, inevitably, one of the largest, if not the largest, house in the village. To the east of the bridge, a conservation area occupies the north bank. A boardwalk crosses a wet woodland where Black Poplars have been planted. A chocolate Labrador comes down to the river to drink and lay in the water. Large areas of the bank are covered in Hemlock, but Himalayan Balsam is encroaching.
Tuesday – Home – Some running repairs are undertaken on the leaf mould frame. It has always been a bit rickety, but the wooden top bar and chicken wire netting has come away on one side, so the wood is replaced and the netting stapled on again. The majority of the rhubarb is picked and seven jars of rhubarb and vanilla jam are made. Peas and broad beans are still producing. A decent number of green tomatoes are developing.
Wednesday – Leominster – A dull, damp, rather cool morning. Along the ginnel by the White Lion. Burdocks are growing beside the hedge. A Class 67 diesel pulls a Manchester train northwards. As I cross the bridge, another, in a completely different livery pulls into the station on its way south. The auxiliary unit has a large advertisement painted on it, in English and Cymraeg, explaining how to stay afloat in water. A Chaffinch sings in the woods. By Butts Bridge, the leaves and stems of a patch of Herb Robert have turned bright red. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen again. Long-tailed Tits trill in the trees. A large briar of Dog Roses had already finished flowering and hips are forming.
Into the Millennium Park. Meadow Cranesbills and Greater Knapweed are in flower. A Chiffchaff calls. The River Kenwater is shallow and slow flowing. The two carriage Holyhead train speeds past, late as usual. On Pinsley Mead, the crops on the plum and greengage both look mediocre. The rain returns. Into the churchyard where a rabbit disappears into a Stinging Nettle bed. Wood Pigeons call. Grey Squirrels chase across the grass. A Robin watches from a twig before dropping down to the grass, grabbing something and retreating into a Holly thicket. Magpies are high in a conifer.
Thursday – Abaty Cwm-Hir, Abbey Cwmhir – After many years of “must go there” we finally visit at this ruined abbey in the Welsh countryside north-east of Rhyader. Cwm Hir means “long valley”, carved by the Clywedog Brook through the hills. The abbey ruins lay in this peaceful, green valley, hills rising all around, sadly disfigured by conifer plantations. A lake lies between the ruins and the river, yellow water lilies flowering by an island. A small stream called the Poeth apparently never freezes, provided water all year round. The abbey’s founding was part of the expansion of the Cistercian Order inspired by St Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century. It was founded by the Welsh Lords of Maelienydd (Radnorshire) descended from the house of Elystan Glodrydd which ruled the area between the Severn and the Wye – Rhwng Gwye a Hafren. Two dates for its founding, 1143 and 1176 are referred to in historical documents although it is now thought the latter is more likely when the powerful Cadwallon ap Madog, was ruler.
The present ruins are from a building from after his murder in 1179. A carved head head discovered in the 19th century suggest an earlier building existed here. It is not clear who commissioned the abbey. Roger Mortimer gave a huge grant of land to the Abbey in 1200 but a Charter does not mention a building. After his death in 1215 Llywelyn Fawr of Gwynedd controlled the area and it has been suggested that he built Cwm-hir as a suitable Cathedral in the centre of Wales to have his son Daffyd crowned as Prince of Wales in 1238. It was indeed a very substantial building, one of the longest Cistercian abbeys in Europe. It was important enough for the last Prince of Wales, Llywelyn ap Gruffud, the only Welsh Prince of Wales to be acknowledged by the King of England, to have been buried here, after his betrayal and beheading near Llanfair-Ym-Muallt in 1282, although evidence of this is uncertain.
Henry III came to destroy the abbey but a payment of 300 marks, the money set aside to build the East End, dissuaded him. Owen Glyndŵr apparently “spoiled and defaced” the abbey. At the Dissolution, in March 1537 the abbey passed through several hands. A series of 13th century arches were removed to the parish church of St Idloes, Llanidloes in 1542. The site was given to the Fowler family in 1565. They built a house on the site. In 1644, during the English Civil War, the house and any surviving monastic structures were wrecked and probably destroyed in the fighting.
Thomas Wilson, a London lawyer, bought the estate in 1824 and built the Hall on a steep south facing slope overlooking the ruined abbey and creating a lake so the village would have water power for the sawmill. The village church of St Mary was rebuilt in the Neo-Byzantine style by Mary Beatrice Philips in 1866. She was a granddaughter of Francis Philips, who purchased the estate in 1837 with money from the cotton trade. It replaced a church built in 1680.
The church was designed by J W Poundley, Montgomeryshire county surveyor, and David Walker, architect of Liverpool. Over the entrance is a tympanum with sculpture of the Ascension in high relief. A chancel arch, on granite shafts, has wooden figures of our Lady and St John along with the crucifix. The floors of the chancel have encaustic and sacariun tiles. There are carved choir stalls. The organ was built in 1884 by J Halmshaw of Birmingham. The reredos is in Caen stone. Glass in the chancel is by Heaton, Butler & Bayne in Pre-Raphaelite style. The west window is by Clayton & Bell. In a corner is a grave slab of around 1200 with foliated cross commemorating “Mabli”, excavated from the abbey in 1824-5. It is thought Mabli or Mabel was likely to be a descendant of Cadwallon ap Maelgwyn and lived at Perth Mabli, now Berthably, near to Castle Hill in Nantmel.
Opposite the church is the early 19th century inn, The Happy Union. Home Farm is 18th century and has some fine red brick buildings. By the church gate is Cross Cottage, built as a National school and school house in 1857 by Francis Aspinall Philips. In 1868 Philips had it converted to a laundry for the Hall and a new school was built further away from the village centre. A short distance along the road is an old petrol pump.
Friday – Home – Up rather early to check the news – and yes, we have a Green Party MP here! We also have a Labour Government with a very large majority. Off to Hereford to have a small lump on my shoulder removed for analysis. We do not stay in the city for any length of time and get the train back. The train is one of the Class 87 hauled five carriage ones. Station and on-board announcements are required to explain that passengers for Leominster need to be in the front three carriages and for Ludlow in the rear three as the train is too long for these stations.
I pick the first sowing broad beans, getting three large double portions for freezing. Summer raspberries are slowing down now. Strawberries have been very poor for some reason. The very large, bolted chard plants are slowly being fed to the hens. The next crop is some months off. A Clay Triple-lines moth, Cyclophora linearia, is on the back door window. It is classified as localised but seems to be getting more common. The cone has been reinstalled on the pole for the bird feeders which is deterring the Grey Squirrels but Jackdaws are a nuisance again.
Sunday – Leominster – The bright sunshine and blue sky of early morning has gone by 8 o’clock. But the dawn “chorus” of Jackdaws and Wood Pigeons continues. House Sparrows nest in the gable end of Victoria Terrace. A Lesser Black-backed Gull stands on the chimney pot, chuntering. Up onto the railway bridge. A rabbit sits up line on the ballast. I wonder if the stones are actually warmer than the grass which is what encourages them stay motionless here. Beside the old track, Teasels and Ragwort are growing high above St John’s Wort, umbellifers here have turned to seed. Onto Butts Bridge. The gravel spit reaches further out into the centre of the river.
The path along Easters Meadow has almost disappeared under the tall grass. A dead Mole lies on the path. Hundreds of bags of grit and some breeze blocks are stacked in the compound. Several Wrens are singing and another one churring an alarm. Common Red Soldier beetles are on umbellifer flowers. A Meadow Brown butterfly is on a Creeping Thistle, the only butterfly to be seen. A Chiffchaff starts to call. A few micro moths flit among the grasses. A Dipper flies up from the confluence of the rivers Kenwater and Lugg. Hemlock towards the end of the path is running to seed. Cheaton Brook is shallow, its banks covered with flowering Himalayan Balsam. Ridgemoor Brook is also shallow, its water crystal clear.
The market is very small, the forecast of rain seems to have frightened everybody away. A Blackcap sings downstream from Ridgemoor Bridge. A Chiffchaff is is in the undergrowth close to the water.
Home – The morning gets cloudier and darker. Thunderstorms now are forecast. The rambling roses by the east wall are sending out long runners over the fruit cage so need cutting back. The long prunings are put through the shredder for composting. Common Bindweed is growing through the roses on the west wall and I pull out as much as possible. In many places it has wrapped around and around the rose stems. More broad beans and peas are picked. Another Home Guard potato plant is dug and the crop is enough for dinner. Annoyingly, Wood Pigeons have got to the young purple sprouting broccoli and nibbles the leaves badly. Another large chard plant that has run to seed is chopped down and given to the hens.
Monday – Leominster – Bright sunshine and fluffy white clouds greet the morning. Down Broad Street to the site where the Pinsley Brook passed under Red Cross Bridge. The brook ran along the side of Brook Hall. On the other side of Pinsley House facing back up Broad Street. Into Vicarage Street past the Orangery and the old Meeting Room. The route of the brook becomes a party where it ran parallel to the River Kenwater. On past modern housing estates. Buddleia flowers but despite being called the Butterfly Bush has it attracted no insects at all.
The path reaches the junction beside Kenelmgaer Bridge. A concrete jetty and piles of large rocks stop the Kenwater from eroding the bank by a housing estate. Over the bridge are the playing fields of the sports centre being patrolled by a large flock of Jackdaws.
Back over the bridge and westwards along the path. A Speckled Wood butterfly is a welcome sight. Up a meadow which still has a large area fenced off, originally to mark out a proposed housing development but that did not seem to be happening, fortunately. Several Meadow Brown butterflies are in the grass. Through a housing estate of faux timber-framed houses, odd but better than the rest which are featureless brick. Into the top of Green Lane and then onto Ginhall Lane.
Blackbirds and Dunnocks disappear into the hedges. Jackdaws are noisy in every direction. A House Martin ford overhead, sadly something of a rarity around here now. A sign points to Waltons Farm and Cat Hotel. Across the fields are the slopes of Cursneh Hill, dotted with large bales of hay. Beside the lane, flower-covered Brambles climb some 20 feet up into the trees. Past the old brickworks and Cursneh Hall.
Groundworks are well underway for a new housing estate at Ebnal. We have opposed this site for years but the developers have won. The bungalows at the end of the field have been demolished. Along Barons Cross Road. A lorry from Seamer passes carrying potatoes for McCains. Great pillows of white cumulus clouds have formed in the sky. On down into Bargates. Swifts sweep over the rooftops.
Wednesday – Leominster – Another grey, cool day. It is hard to believe this is the height of summer. A few Swifts scream overhead. Over the railway and onto Butts Bridge. A Wren sings in the woods. Traveller’s Joy, also called Old Man’s Beard, covers a Hawthorn sapling, barely a leaf of which can be seen. The water level in the River Lugg appears to have risen marginally; slightly less of the gravel bar can be seen above water. A Chiffchaff calls in the trees beside the A49 as it crosses Mosaic Bridge. The small herd of British White cattle lay contentedly on Lammas Meadow.
By the bridge, a thicket of Great Willowherb, Comfrey and Himalayan Balsam is being strangled by Traveller’s Joy. The blustery wind blows clouds of sandy dust off the path under the bridge. The sides of the path beside the river have been strimmed. Snails, Draparnaud’s Glass Snail and White-lipped Snail, are glued to Stinging Nettle stalks that have escaped the strimmer. A large Buddleia with numerous flower spikes has attracted just a single bee. The sun makes a brief appearance. Large Butterbur leaves bounce around on their long stalks in the breeze. A horse and a small, dumpy pony graze one of the paddocks. Half a dozen Red Soldier Beetles, a False Blister Beetle, Oedemera virescens and a tiny all black bee are on an umbellifer flower head. Several Swallows sweep across the longer grass in another paddock. A House Martin joins them. Meadow Brown butterflies are in the grass. A Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly and a Common Hawker dragonfly dart along the edge of the path.
Onto Eaton Bridge. The River Lugg flows much more slowly here. An apple tree outside the farmhouse just down from the bridge is laden with fruit. Onto the old, abandoned part of the A44. Creeping and Spear Thistle rise high with purple flowers. Wild Mignonette, Rosebay Willowherb and Ragwort flower. Teasels are rising to over seven feet, their prickly heads just about to flower. Travellers’ horses are in the thicket again. Another is on the other side of the A49, where there is supposed to be a travellers’ site. A good number of caravans are here but facilities are limited.
The Holyhead train races northwards. Onto the old A44 railway bridge. A toaster has been dumped some way away up the old track; one cannot imagine why. Greenfinches are in the bushes on the far side of the bridge. A rose growing out of the tarmac has a large Bedeguar Gall, Robin’s Pincushion, on its stem. Below the bridge, a line is stopped by a fence the industrial estate. Once it led to a goods shed and cattle pens. A travelling crane ran alongside it.
Into Caswell Crescent. House Martins are nesting on the gable end of one the houses, which is very good news. Privet hedges are in flower giving out that rather acrid scent. Into Sidonia Park. Some of the bushes are disappearing under White Bryony. A juvenile Blackbird scuttles under one.
Thursday – Blaenavon – Blaenavon, meaning “Head of the River” is high on a hillside on the source of the Afon Lwyd. It developed because of the former ironworks in this Welsh town, a world heritage site. The ironworks were of great importance in the development of the ability to use cheap, low quality, high sulphur iron ores worldwide. It was the site of the experiments by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and his cousin Percy Gilchrist that led to “the basic steel process” or “Gilchrist-Thomas process”. These ironworks were the first in Wales to be designed as a multi-furnace site from the outset, with three furnaces, calcining kilns, workers’ accommodation and a company shop. By 1800 Blaenavon Ironworks contributed greatly to South Wales becoming the foremost iron-producing region in the world, only to Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, the largest iron producer in Wales. By 1833 the company owned 430 houses and employed 1000 workers but suffered a periodic boom-and-bust economy that accompanied iron-making with wage cuts and strikes. In 1836, the works was bought by the Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company, financed by Londoner Robert Kennard, later an MP. The profitability of the ironworks remained precarious. The company was relaunched in 1870 as the Blaenavon Iron & Steel Company and was one of only six south Wales ironworks that successfully made the change to steel production. By 1878 the company employed 5,000 people but had greatly overreached itself financially and failed against tough competition. With financial ruin just around the corner, the company was given some respite thanks to the discoveries of Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Carlyle Gilchrist which enabled the use of the previously uneconomic phosphoric iron ore. Their experiments were carried out at Blaenavon between 1877 and 1878. In 1904 the ironworks ceased production completely. Work restarted briefly in 1924 but was commercially unviable.
The site contains the remains of the Cast House and Foundry, the Balance Tower (which utilised a water displacement lift to carry pig iron from the base of the site to the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal system), the three Blast Furnaces, the Chain Store, the Calcining Kilns, a Storage Shed, the Pay Office and Stack Square, a group of workers’ cottages fitted out in different eras and the “truck” shop where wages paid in company tokens could be spent on food and other basics.
The site is hearteningly busy with both adult visitors and school children. In one of the cast houses is an audio-visual display, which includes a rather splendid light-show of molten iron pouring from a furnace and down the hall into channels to form “pigs”. It was these that were shipped around the world. A path climbs to the top of the balance tower. A group of cast-iron ponies are up here. The view from the top is magnificent.
We walk a short distance towards the town. The Beeches was built around 1800 by Samuel Hopkins, son of the first resident manager of the Ironworks and himself proprietor from 1798. The house was used by the directors of the Blaenavon Company as a hunting lodge until 1924. It was then converted into a hospital and became the local medical society, into which the workers paid a subscription, pre-empting the National Health Service. Sadly, it is in terrible condition.
Friday – Tref-Y-Clawdd, Knighton – It has been several years since I have visited “the Town on the Dyke”. There is a glimmer of sunshine through a cloudy sky. Into the town past the sprawling Co-op, part shop, part petrol station and part multi-storey car park. Opposite is the Old Mansion House, a rendered early 17th century timber-framed house, once part of the “Great House” of the Crowther Family (Brian Crowther was High Sheriff of Radnorshire 1639 and 1645). It was originally twice the present size with porch to right side, divided up by early 20th century. Back on the east side, a large building seems to be completely abandoned. It was called Whitehall, a late 16th century stone-built townhouse. Nearby, the former Swan Hotel, now a Chinese restaurant, is a timber-framed building, probably the cross-wing of a larger 17th century house. Opposite, a stone built pair of houses is dated 1896.
The Knighton Hotel, formerly The Norton Arms Hotel, was built by Sir Richard Green Price and opened in 1867. The War Memorial stands in Brookside Square. Wylcwm Brook runs alongside the square. Over it are railings and a lamp post of 1867, probably associated with the opening of the hotel. On along Broad Street which climbs to the clock tower. A former bank has the Prince of Wales feathers on its gable. It was the Midland Bank, built in 1896 on the site of Mr Davies’ Maltings. Next to it is the George and Dragon, dated 1637. Next is a pair of Victorian Romanesque three-storey buildings with patterned brick gable ends set into slope of street. One was the Halifax Building Society and Radnor District Council Offices. Behind them is the Methodist Chapel. The clock tower is dated 1872 designed by Haddon Brothers, Architects of Hereford. Opposite is the former Barclays Bank, built in 1892 in an extravagant style with marble columns by the recessed door and window and a copper cupola.
High Street climbs up from the clock tower. The Old House was a 15th century hall house re-fronted and extended forward to the street in the 17th century. Many shops in the High Street sell tourist tat, a number are empty. Most buildings are 17th century. A large building with frontages stepping downhill was formerly the 17th century Salutation Inn with wine vaults below, once property of (and possibly built by) Duke of Chandos.
Into Castle Road. Behind the houses is a wooded hill top, the site of Knighton castle. William de Braose is recorded as building at the castle in 1193. In 1207 King John gave Knighton temporarily to Roger Mortimer but, for the first part of the 13th century, it was in the hands of the Welsh prince, Llewelyn ab Iorwerth. After Llwewlyn’s death, the Mortimers regained the castle but Llewelyn ap Gruffudd captured and destroyed it in 1292. A lane, Plough Road rises to the fire station. Opposite is The Plough pub on the junction with Market Street. A house was The Harp Inn and before that, the Police Station. A row of rough stone, 18th century cottages, one on the line of Offa’s Dyke leads into Offa’s Road. A narrow house was the Fire Station at the end of the Victorian era. Next to it is an impressive Victorian house. House Sparrows chatter and a large number of Swifts scream overhead. Beside the road is a bank of Great Bindweed, a pretty pink and white striped trumpet introduced from Southern Europe.
Back down Offa’s Road to the town centre. Houses here are 20th century. Beside the road is a bank of Great Bindweed, a pretty pink and white striped trumpet introduced from Southern Europe. Across the valley of the River Teme is Panpunton Hill across which Offa’s Dyke runs. Into West Street. The former primary school was built in 1865 as Knighton National School (for about 360 children) on land donated by Green Price family. Later additions were made in 1911 by William Cadwallader. A large house, probably late Victorian has attic windows with very large overhanging eaves. The Wesleyan Methodist chapel was built in 1869 by Wilson and Willcox. It appears to be abandoned. The old garage is a wholefood shop. A narrow lane leads back up the hillside. A building looks like an old hay store and stable.
Into Church Street. The Manor House is early to mid 18th century. Next to it is a large cottage with a corrugated iron roof. The next cottage is called The Malt House. On the junction of Wylcwm Street is a former warehouse. Alms houses were founded in 1881 by Sir Richard Green Price of Norton, MP for Radnorshire 1880-85, to replace those demolished in Wylcwm Street. They are in the Arts and Crafts style, influenced by Norman Shaw.
At the end of the street is the church of St Edward, visited before. Former council offices between the church and the river were in an early to mid 19th century building, at one time the vicarage. Down Church Road, past the bowling green to Station Road. Ystrad House is a large early 19th century building. Opposite is a substantial stone house with a bricked-up front door which opened on to steep steps down to the road. Another lane house has an arch for a coach in the centre of the façade. It is dated 1880. Opposite is a bridge over Wylcwm Brook. A worn stone plaque states it was erected in 1928. On the other side of the bridge is a workshop, originally an 18th century agricultural building converted into a chapel. Doors, now blocked, led onto footbridges over the brook. Further on down Bowling Green Lane is the livestock market. The Horse and Jockey pub has mediaeval origins with 19th century alterations. Across Station Road is a building with a plaque, RCL&CS Co Est. 1865. The building is 20th century. Station Road comes to Brookside Square.
Sunday – Leominster – The day is warming rapidly as the sun beats down from a near cloudless sky. There is the regular morning chorus of Jackdaws and Wood Pigeons. Onto the railway bridge. Swifts scream from high in the sky. White Melilot stands high with St John’s Wort on the old track route below. Onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen again with more of the shingle spit exposed. Along Easters Meadow. A Ringlet butterfly flits around before resting on a blade of grass. Nearby is a small entirely black spider, possibly Latreilles Zipper, Zelotes latreillei. Dunnocks fly off into the trees. The tall grass is saturated and soon my trouser legs are too. The area beside Brightwell’s compound has been mowed, making it easier to walk but, of course, losing a large number of flowers and plants. Over a dozen supermarket articulated lorry trailers are in the compound. The eleven refuse collection lorries are also still here; less than a year old so I assume that they belonged to a company that lost a contract and are therefore surplus to requirements. Four of the gun-carrying desert Land Rovers are still here. A Chiffchaff calls by the confluence of the Rivers Lugg and Kenwater. Towards the end of the path, Yarrow and Great Willowherb are in flower.
The market is large and busy. At last I find something I really want – a potato fork. It has 10 tines with knobs on the end to stop piercing the potatoes when you dig them. I pay £15; the chap selling it reckons it would be £60 in the shops, however I have never seen one before and have been searching for years.
They are still no Pond Skaters on the water underneath Ridgemoor Bridge. The River Kenwater runs shallow and clear. Bell ringing practice is underway at the Minster. A couple of old chaps with England shirts are sitting in the car park, one with a can of beer, the other a glass of wine, starting early for tonight’s match I guess.
Home – More weeding. Despite netting, the purple sprouting broccoli is suffering from Wood Pigeon damage. Figs on the tree that hangs over from next door are ripening. I thin a few apples from the Herefordshire Russet but there is not a lot of fruit anyway. A row of peas and one of broad beans have finished and are cleared away. French beans are just starting to be large enough to harvest. Courgettes too will be ready in a few days. The tomato plants in the greenhouse are looking good. I pinch out the rogue shoots. A good number of small cucumbers are coming on. The same applies to chillies, although I still have several containers of them in the freezer.
Tuesday – Home – The weather remains very changeable. It has rained today, as it had most days. It cannot be called cold but it certainly is not typical July warm. Of course, one does not miss the constant watering. In the late afternoon, I go into the garden to gather some lettuce leaves and get the eggs. Gulls are screaming overhead, something has upset them – again! As I head back towards the house, there is a beautiful, dark brown Common Buzzard standing on the patio frame. It flies off into the trees next door.
Thursday – Home – The hottest weather for some time. Clouds are still covering a good deal of the sky and there is an intermittent breeze. A row of peas is sown. More weeding is done. Roses on the western wall are sending out long runners which I cut back. Vine runners are also pruned and thrown, en masse, into the chicken run. Much contented clucking ensues. Yesterday I picked some Gladstone apples, boiled them to pulp and put them into a jelly bag. The resulting liquid should be full of pectin. Into bottles and into the freezer.
Blackbirds seem fractious. Several are invisibly rummaging through dead leaves. Others seem to be chasing others away. Wood Pigeons are flapping and crashing about in lust. One juvenile is squeaking for food. Gulls drift this way and that, many in silence, some yelping continuously. Blue and Great Tits visit the peanuts. I have not been filling the seed feeder as Jackdaws hog it and empty it. However, a small amount is poured in to see what happens, which in the time I was watching was not a lot. Butterflies remain very infrequent visitors still, just the occasional Small White.
Friday – Telford – The sky is blue and clear and it is the hottest day of the year. I start out in Aquaduct, a suburb of Telford, consisting of a large area of modern housing. A rough public footpath leads into woods. Trees here are probably all less that 50 years old. This is the southern edge of the former Botony Bay Colliery. The path comes to a large lake, one of several, Castle Pool, Dandy Pool and Wide Waters Pool, collectively Little Dawley Pools. Castle Pool is named after the Manor House originally built in 1316 by William de Moreton, although nothing remains these days. It became known as Dawley Castle during the Civil War. A small garrison of Royalist troops held it briefly against a force of Parliamentary infantry following a skirmish in 1645. Following the Royalist defeat in 1648, the house was pulled down. In the industrial age of exact location was lost under the slag heaps of Castle furnaces. In 1788 iron master William Reynolds proposed to building an extension of the Shropshire Canal into Donnington Wood and southwards to the River Severn. This became the Coalbrook branch of the Shropshire Tub“boat network carrying horse“drawn shroppies as the boats were known from aqueduct to the top of Brierley Hill. Castle Pool was created the feeder reservoir as was the Dandy Pool just downstream.
Carp anglers sit waiting for a bite. A footbridge crosses a narrow strip of water between two areas of the lake. A few Mallard are on the water, the drakes in eclipse. Canada Geese are on a small promontory. A tree stump has been carved to look like a small house. Over several more foot bridges. Between Dandy and Wide Waters is the head of an incline of the tramway which dropped down into the Lightmoor valley, built around 1811 and was used for the transport of pig iron from Castle furnaces until 1932.
The path emerges at Holy Trinity church. Holly Road meets Southall and descends to Southall Road. Up the road a short distance. Collieries are on either side of the road in an area called Dawley Magna. A footpath passes between woodland on one of the colliery sites and a school. Grey Squirrels are everywhere. Blue Tits churr as they flit through the trees. Past a large patch of Buddleia in bright sunshine with barely an insect in sight. A tree stump is covered in honey fungus.
The path comes to a set of steps down to the old L&NWR Coalport Branch railway line now a national trail, the Silkin Way, Bratton to Coalport. This line which replaced the Shropshire canal. Under a railway bridge in fine dressed stone. Just beyond is a recreation of the platform of the former Stirchley station opened in 1861, renamed Stirchley and Dawley station in 1923. It closed for passengers in 1952 and the railway stopped running completely in 1964. I return down the line in the Coalport direction.
Banks of Brambles and Rosebay Willowherb rise high above the railway line now. A Small White butterfly flits along the bank. A stone built wall holds up the bank now covered in mosses ferns and brambles. In places the natural bedrock is exposed with chisel marks.
Up into a modern housing estate then across Southall road and onto a path running below another modern development. This appears to be the route of the canal. Some trees beside the path are older than most I have seen today possibly up to 70 years old. Over a bridge with a path a long way below, the former route of Southall Road. The path diverts down to Castlefields Way. Beyond was the main site of Botony Bay Colliery, now houses. By a path leading to a housing estate is a wooden box on a stand containing books, a mini local library. Through the estates. Different designs, some reasonable, most boring and a few downright bad. Route
Sunday – Leominster – Heavy grey clouds drift eastwards. The forecast is for rain later. It is still reasonably warm. Wood Pigeons are noisy, especially those clattering in the trees. Onto the railway bridge. The woods are mainly quiet, occasionally punctuated by a blast of Wren song. A Great Spotted Woodpecker suddenly starts chipping. There are few flowers in the woods now, just some umbellifers and Herb Robert. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen slightly again.
Easters Meadow looks overblown with grasses turning yellow. An Angelica stands over seven feet tall. Banded Agrion Damselfly passes. Ringlets are in the grass. A small moth is in a bed of Stinging Nettles, landing every time on the underside of a leaf, refusing to show itself. The tops of the river bank are covered in Himalayan Balsam, Stinging Nettles and Bindweed. A Beautiful Demoiselle flies part. A Dipper flies downstream from the confluence of the Kenwater and Lugg.
There seems to be a Mazda sports car rally in the petrol station car park. The market is much the same size as last week. This time I buy nothing. The Pond Skaters are back by Ridgemoor Bridge. However they look small and some are being swept downstream. I wonder if they are newly hatched. The River Kenwater is shallow.
Home – The “greens” bed has a hotchpotch of sheets of chicken wire and nylon netting protecting the greens and lettuces against Wood Pigeons. They are all replaced with a large, single piece of netting, hopefully adaptable enough for the ever taller purple sprouting. Several stones of apples are cleared off the chicken run plastic covering. The Gladstone is extraordinarily productive but the apples are not the most pleasant to eat and a majority have bird damage.
Monday – Home – An overcast morning with the sun making brief appearances. It is warm. I use a grass rake to removed all the dried grass and droppings from the chicken run. Some goes into the compost bins, more straight onto the vegetable beds. Then the grass is cut and the cuttings are scattered around the run. A Speckled Bush Cricket, probably a female as the line down its back is very thin, is on a dahlia flower head.
Tuesday – Home – Overnight rain is welcome. Billowing clouds still pass over, some dark grey, but it seems the rain has moved away. I strim back the Stinging Nettles by the pear and plum trees. Then the grass under them, followed by the other side of the orchard area, cutting back the Ground Elder that unfortunately has become too well established. This followed by the path edges. The noise of the petrol driven strimmer is pretty horrendous. Added to that is several machines in a nearby garden, local traffic with the seemingly regular ambulance “blues and twos” and aircraft overhead. It is so hard to imagine what life was like when noise consisted of maybe the jangle of horses’ harnesses, the lowing and baaing of cows and sheep and the calls of birds. Of course, there are still places where one can get away from all this modern noise, although overhead aircraft can be inescapable, but imagine life being quiet all the time!
Courgettes are suffering from a bit of rot from the flowers and the unwanted attentions of slugs. I remove a few, they can go into tonight’s risotto. Some tomatoes are ripening now. As usual, the greenhouse needs watering. I then sweep up the leaves and Gladstone apples from the paths – six large scoopfuls. A Common Carder Bee is visiting Ivy Leafed Toadflax growing behind the quince in the alley. A black spider appears to investigate but retreats rapidly back into the wall’s holes.
Wednesday – Bodenham Lakes – An overcast muggy morning. I have not visited here for some time and now parking charges have been introduced by the Wildlife Trust. Unsurprisingly, there only a single car in the car park. It is depressing and annoying. If there was adequate public transport it could be justified, but there is not. A chorus of Wood Pigeons and various mutterings from the undergrowth. Seven foot high Teasels’ heads are slowly turning purple. A Green Woodpecker yaffles in the lakeside trees. Dark Mullein is coming into flower. A few drops of rain start to fall. A female Tufted Duck, several Mallard and a Little Egret are the only birds on the boating lake. Water Mint and Angelica are in flower by the boating compound. Four adult Great Crested Grebes and two juveniles are on the meadow bay.
Paths through the orchards are losing definition, indicating the reduced numbers of people using them. There are no apples yet ripe in the dessert apple orchard. Back into the village. Swallows dash over the trees in a meadow.
Thursday – Droitwich – We pay a short visit to this Worcestershire town. I visited in 2018. Reviewing the elements of the name discussed in the earlier entry, “Droit” can also come from the Old English dryht meaning a troop, often used in a general laudatory sense, e.g. grand or great. “Wich” is a Latin loan word, from vicus, a settlement, often a dairy farm.
Past the Post Office, built in 1907 by John Rutherford and still open. Coming to the centre of the town, the Raven Hotel is a terrible state. Obviously closed for a while, it is partly boarded up with a number of broken windows. Outline permission was agreed in 2022 to allow the partial demolition, repair, refurbishment and conversion of the building for a residential, hospitality and leisure scheme. However, like The Royal Oak in Leominster, the development has not started, although it seems that all the necessary permissions are now in place.
We continue down St Andrew’s Street and into St Andrew’s church. Part of the ceiling collapsed after my visit in 2018 and there is still extensive scaffolding throughout the nave. Opposite is the former Town Hall built in 1827. We continue along the High Street. Although there are the typical fast food, beauty or “stuff” shops, there are also more useful premises – furnishings, a butchers, electrical appliances and a cobblers. After refreshments, we visit the small but interesting museum.
Friday – Stourport-on-Severn – Large clouds drift across the sky. It is warm. Houses from the 1850s are surrounded by 20th century dwellings. Holly Road leads to the Bird in Hand pub and the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal. A short row of canal side cottages stand next to the pub. Along the tow-path. Across the canal are Bulrushes backed by Great Willowherbs. A Reed Warbler seeks insects here. A large retaining wall with rings for mooring leads to Mitton Railway Bridge over the canal. A short dock runs alongside the railway, albeit at a lower level. Modern houses have lawns down to the canal. A juvenile Moorhen stands on a lawn flicking its tail and squeaking. A pair of Mute Swans with three cygnets preen on the water just before the modern Upper Mitton Bridge. A number of Mallard are beyond the bridge.
Across the canal is a three storey warehouse, now a residence. On this side, below the tow-path is the River Stour. Flowering Meadowsweet is entangled by Bindweed. Trees now line the canal. An overflow drain runs down to the river. A shoal of small Dace break the surface of the water. House Martins are high in the sky and Common Buzzards are mewing at some distance. The river has moved away to the east and tractor is haymaking on a field below.
Under Bullocks Lane bridge, called Bullock Lane on the other side of the bridge and Bullocklane on the maps. Beyond was an area of sandpits, now scrub. A Gatekeeper butterfly is on Stinging Nettles. To the east is a large area of rough meadow with Wilden Pool in the centre. Comfrey flowers by the tow-path. A mother Mallard leads her ducklings ahead of a canal boat. A bright blue Emperor Dragonfly zig-zags past. Greater Celandine flowers under the hedge by the tow-path. Comma and Small White butterflies pass. Now a Speckled Wood. Chiffchaffs are feeding high in the trees. Squeaking Long-tailed Tits fly along the hedgerow. Beautiful Demoiselles are in the grass. A plum tree with yellow fruit hangs over the water. The canal had been cut through Wildmoor Sandstone Member, formed between 252.2 and 247.1 million years ago during the Triassic period. Above are industrial estates.
The canal comes to Oldington Bridge. I have been here on a walk from Kidderminster. A track crosses the marsh. Some sort of station for gas mains stands by the track. The track, a public bridleway turns into a path. A Green Woodpecker departs. Purple Loosestrife grows profusely in the reeds and grasses. The path is beginning to get overgrown with Stinging Nettles and Brambles. Further on, the marsh is a mass of Ragwort. There are horses in the fields which would seem risky given the quantity of Ragwort which is deadly poisonous to them. A Common Buzzard flies over, with tail feathers missing, being harassed by a gull.
The path turns back into a track. A small flock of Canada geese standing on the short grass. Past a campsite around Wilden Pool and across a bridge over the River Stour. Onto Wilden Lane and into the village of Wilden. A bus stop has been abandoned. Works offices are dated 1900, 1902 and 1907. Behind them is a modern industrial estate on the site of Wilden Iron Works owned by Alfred Baldwin, father of Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister on three occasions. The works closed in 1958 leaving many in the village workless. Opposite are some older houses but the post office is gone. Likewise, along road further the King of Prussia pub has gone. A terrace of houses in black brick are dated 1878. Beyond the village hall and modern school buildings is All Saints church. One of the coping tiles on the boundary wall is impressed, Charles Skelding, Nager’s Field Brick Works, Brierley Hill, which dates it to the 1870s. The church was designed by William Hopkins with funds provided by Alfred Baldwin very close to his own home, Wilden House, demolished in 1939. The church served the Baldwin family and their employees and was consecrated in 1880. The church is locked, which is sad as there is a full set of fourteen Burne-Jones windows within. These windows were installed between 1902 and 1914. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, was Louisa Baldwin’s brother and she commissioned the windows. Opposite is the graveyard with a small brick building with a clock tower inscribed “In grateful memory of Alfred Baldwin. Erected 1910 by friends and neighbours”.
A short distance on a railway bridge crosses the road.The bridge was built 1859-60 by the Severn Valley Railway, engineers John Fowler and Henry Bridgeman. Steps lead up to a fence, which is unhelpful, but I clamber over. The track bed is now a footpath. This line became the GWR Severn Valley Branch, this section closed in 1981. The track bed is now a footpath. This was the GWR Severn Valley Branch. As well as the road, the bridge also crosses the River Stour. Below, a woman is clearing a meadow of Ragweed, horses are in a neighbouring paddock. Great Mullein had almost finished flowering. The railway embankment ruins along at the level of the rooftops of a modern housing estate below. Over another bridge which passed over a lane, now just a track, to Upper Mitton.
The track crosses the canal and ends in a modern housing estate. Steps lead down to the tow-path close to the Bird in Hand pub. Route
Sunday – Leominster – Bright sunshine in a cloudless sky. A pale half moon is overhead. Gulls are yelling as usual but at a distance. Not usual is the absence of Jackdaws. A rabbit bounces into the undergrowth beneath the railway bridge. Jackdaws are here on the roof of the White Lion. A Carrion Crow barks in the trees. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low and the water clear.
Onto Easters Meadow. Good numbers of Gatekeepers are in the grass and on the rampant Himalayan Balsam. Hedge Woundwort still flowers in shadier spots. Micro moths flit out of the grass as I pass. It appears that a couple of the dust carts in Brightwells’ compounds have been sold. There is also an Airstream caravan there. A Wren sings loudly by the confluence of the Kenwater and Lugg.
The market is large and busy. Cheaton and Ridgemoor brooks are both shallow. A young raptor is screeching high in the trees somewhere over the river. There are small fry in the reeds in the River Lugg. The Water Boatman numbers on the other side of the bridge have increased. Into Paradise Walk where a Speckled Wood sunbathes on an Ivy leaf. Bell practice at the Minster is underway although it sounds a little discordant today.
Home – Yet more weeding. The area where the first crop of broad beans is cleared. Another batch of them is planted out next to it. The first dwarf French beans are picked. Leeks that have been in a trough in the greenhouse are planted out. A couple of greengages are ripe enough to eat. Kay picks a tub of blackberries. The hens are laying less regularly now.
Monday – Home – Another hot day under a near cloudless sky. However, there is a slight breeze to make things vaguely cooler. Cucumbers, Chillies and Aubergines in the greenhouse all need watering. Another large number of apples are collected from the chicken run covering. A trug is filled with good ones to make Chilli Jelly with the large numbers of chillies in the freezer from last year. Another tray of lettuces – Little Gems – are sown. The last ones went to seed almost immediately. The cos lettuces are slowly bolting, so it looks like the hope of a continuous supply has been dashed. Some of the red onions are harvested, the rest can wait another week or so.
Leominster – Off down the street. Small groups of Swifts scream overhead, manoeuvring around each other like aerobatic displays. Through Pinsley Mill and into the Millennium Orchard. Cider apples are slowly ripening. The cooker crop looks to be of mixed quantity. In the park, most umbellifers, Black Knapweeds and Meadow Cranesbills have run to seed. Betony is still in flower. The old pond is completely hidden by towering Purple Loosestrife, Meadowsweet, Great Willowherb and Stinging Nettles. A Comma butterfly flits seat from the emerging fruits on a Spindle tree. The bells ring out from the Minster.
Tuesday – Home – Despite some cloud and a breeze it is hot, probably the hottest day of the year so far. Four jars of Apple and Chilli and four of Apple and Mint Jelly are made. Now the wait to see if it really sets!
A couple of rows of potatoes are dug. The crop is not as prolific as I would have liked but the potatoes are a good size. A few Red Current tomatoes are picked for lunch. They are tiny but full of flavour. Courgettes are cropped. As usual there is a small marrow-sized one which I am sure was not there yesterday. Tips of the basil in the greenhouse are pinched out. They will go in the courgette and tomato sauce that I will cook later. Cucumbers keep on coming. Tomatoes are ripening. The first flower has appeared on one of the aubergines. Mange Tout peas and French beans need cropping but they will have to wait until tomorrow.
Wednesday – Home – There is a fair amount of cloud in the sky and the heat is oppressive. I clear the path at the bottom of the garden which is overgrown with Stinging Nettles, Buckler Ferns, Brambles and Bryony. A rogue damson is also removed. There are a reasonable number of fruits on the main damson here. By the time I filled four bags of cuttings, I am saturated with sweat.
Leominster – Down to the Millennium Orchard. The Hogweed here stands eight foot tall with brown seed heads. The large clump of Comfrey that grew by the entrance to the churchyard has been swamped by Stinging Nettles. Into the graveyard. One of the few remaining headstones is simply a large block of stone, partly shaped but mainly just left natural. I try to decipher the writing on it but it is far too badly worn. It is good to see the children’s playground over the wall is very busy with mothers and young children. The Grange, however, is far less used which seems a shame.
Home – Back to the path and more is cleared. A Robin comes down to see what I am disturbing. There is great disappointment when I check the gooseberry bush – five berries in total. There were a decent number last week and I curse the Blackbirds which are in considerable numbers at the moment. The pond is covered in Duckweed. I sometimes net it out but I am not sure whether it is worth it as the weed grows back so rapidly. I slosh water around the greenhouse – it is like a sauna in there. Everything could do with a good soak. Some rain is forecast but who really knows? Darker clouds are moving in from the west and there is the hint of a breeze.
century. Other houses are probably 17th century and Victorian with a modern estate to the west. On the junction with the A44 are Duppa’s Almshouses; formerly six tenements, now four. Founded in 1661 by Jeffrey Duppa and augmented by his son, Bryan Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, chaplain to the royal family, Royalist and adviser to Charles I.
1978. Several biers stand around the tower.
Wheelwrights, the Post Office, the Nurse’s Cottage. A War Memorial had been carved from the Verdun Oak that had to be felled due to disease. It was carved by Ed Elliott of Great Malvern. Acorns from the oak have been planted lining the “Straight Mile” to Broxwood. Nearby is the Trafford Almshouses with a plaque reading “This hospital founded by Thomas Trafford Dr in Divinity and Rector of Ye Parish was furnished and endowed according to his design and direction by Alice his relict. Ano Dmi 1686”. It is now raining.
bridge, another, in a completely different livery pulls into the station on its way south. The auxiliary unit has a large advertisement painted on it, in English and Cymraeg, explaining how to stay afloat in water. A Chaffinch sings in the woods. By Butts Bridge, the leaves and stems of a patch of Herb Robert have turned bright red. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen again. Long-tailed Tits trill in the trees. A large briar of Dog Roses had already finished flowering and hips are forming.
inspired by St Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century. It was founded by the Welsh Lords of Maelienydd (Radnorshire) descended from the house of Elystan Glodrydd which ruled the area between the Severn and the Wye – Rhwng Gwye a Hafren. Two dates for its founding, 1143 and 1176 are referred to in historical documents although it is now thought the latter is more likely when the powerful Cadwallon ap Madog, was ruler.
creating a lake so the village would have water power for the sawmill. The village church of St Mary was rebuilt in the Neo-Byzantine style by Mary Beatrice Philips in 1866. She was a granddaughter of Francis Philips, who purchased the estate in 1837 with money from the cotton trade. It replaced a church built in 1680. 
hauled five carriage ones. Station and on-board announcements are required to explain that passengers for Leominster need to be in the front three carriages and for Ludlow in the rear three as the train is too long for these stations.
Traveller’s Joy, also called Old Man’s Beard, covers a Hawthorn sapling, barely a leaf of which can be seen. The water level in the River Lugg appears to have risen marginally; slightly less of the gravel bar can be seen above water. A Chiffchaff calls in the trees beside the A49 as it crosses Mosaic Bridge. The small herd of British White cattle lay contentedly on Lammas Meadow.
Glass Snail and White-lipped Snail, are glued to Stinging Nettle stalks that have escaped the strimmer. A large Buddleia with numerous flower spikes has attracted just a single bee. The sun makes a brief appearance. Large Butterbur leaves bounce around on their long stalks in the breeze. A horse and a small, dumpy pony graze 
one of the paddocks. Half a dozen Red Soldier Beetles, a False Blister Beetle, Oedemera virescens and a tiny all black bee are on an umbellifer flower head. Several Swallows sweep across the longer grass in another paddock. A House Martin joins them. Meadow Brown butterflies are in the grass. A Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly and a Common Hawker dragonfly dart along the edge of the path.
heritage site. The ironworks were of great importance in the development of the ability to use cheap, low quality, high sulphur iron ores worldwide. It was the site of the experiments by Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and his cousin Percy Gilchrist that led to “the basic steel process” or “Gilchrist-Thomas process”. These ironworks were the first in Wales to be designed as a multi-furnace site from the outset, with three furnaces, calcining kilns, workers’ accommodation and a company shop. By 1800 Blaenavon Ironworks contributed greatly to South Wales becoming the foremost iron-producing region in the world, only to 
Blaenavon Iron and Coal Company, financed by Londoner Robert Kennard, later an MP. The profitability of the ironworks remained precarious. The company was relaunched in 1870 as the Blaenavon Iron & Steel Company and was one of only six south Wales ironworks that successfully made the change to steel production. By 1878 the company employed 5,000 people but had greatly overreached itself financially and failed against tough competition. With financial ruin just around the corner, the company was given some respite thanks to the discoveries of Sidney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Carlyle Gilchrist which enabled the use of the previously uneconomic phosphoric iron ore. Their experiments were carried out at Blaenavon between 1877 and 1878. In 1904 
the ironworks ceased production completely. Work restarted briefly in 1924 but was commercially unviable.
Kilns, a Storage Shed, the Pay Office and Stack Square, a group of workers’ cottages fitted out in different eras and the “truck” shop where wages paid in company tokens could be spent on food and other basics.
houses is dated 1896.
buildings are 17th century. A large building with frontages stepping downhill was formerly the 17th century Salutation Inn with wine vaults below, once property of (and possibly built by) Duke of Chandos.
Richard Green Price of Norton, MP for Radnorshire 1880-85, to replace those demolished in Wylcwm Street. They are in the Arts and Crafts style, influenced by Norman Shaw. 
Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen again with more of the shingle spit exposed. Along Easters Meadow. A Ringlet butterfly flits around before resting on a blade of grass. Nearby is a small entirely black spider, possibly Latreilles Zipper, Zelotes latreillei. Dunnocks fly off into the trees. The tall grass is saturated and soon my trouser legs are too. The area beside Brightwell’s compound has been mowed, making it easier to walk but, of course, losing a large number of flowers and plants. Over a dozen supermarket articulated lorry trailers are in the compound. The eleven refuse collection lorries are also still here; less than a year old so I assume that they belonged to a company that lost a contract and are therefore surplus to requirements. Four of the gun-carrying desert Land Rovers are still here. A Chiffchaff calls by the confluence of the Rivers Lugg and Kenwater. Towards the end of the path, Yarrow and Great Willowherb are in flower.
Road. Up the road a short distance. Collieries are on either side of the road in an area called Dawley Magna. A footpath passes between woodland on one of the colliery sites and a school. Grey Squirrels are everywhere. Blue Tits churr as they flit through the trees. Past a large patch of Buddleia in bright sunshine with barely an insect in sight. A tree stump is covered in honey fungus.
railway stopped running completely in 1964. I return down the line in the Coalport direction.
earlier entry, “Droit” can also come from the Old English dryht meaning a troop, often used in a general laudatory sense, e.g. grand or great. “Wich” is a Latin loan word, from vicus, a settlement, often a dairy farm.
Mitton Railway Bridge over the canal. A short dock runs alongside the railway, albeit at a lower level. Modern houses have lawns down to the canal. A juvenile Moorhen stands on a lawn flicking its tail and squeaking. A pair of Mute Swans with three cygnets preen on the water just before the modern Upper Mitton Bridge. A number of Mallard are beyond the bridge.
yellow fruit hangs over the water. The canal had been cut through Wildmoor Sandstone Member, formed between 252.2 and 247.1 million years ago during the Triassic period. Above are industrial estates.
is gone. Likewise, along road further the King of Prussia pub has gone. A terrace of houses in black brick are dated 1878. Beyond the village hall and modern school buildings is All Saints church. One of the coping tiles on the boundary wall is impressed, Charles Skelding, Nager’s Field Brick Works, Brierley Hill, which dates it to the 1870s. The church was designed by William Hopkins with funds provided by Alfred Baldwin very close to his own home, Wilden House, demolished in 1939. The church served the Baldwin family and their employees and was consecrated in 1880. The church is locked, which is sad as there is a full set of fourteen Burne-Jones windows within. These windows were installed between 1902 and 1914. Sir Edward Burne-Jones, was Louisa Baldwin’s brother and she commissioned the windows. Opposite is the graveyard with a small brick building with a clock tower inscribed “In grateful memory of Alfred Baldwin. Erected 1910 by friends and neighbours”.
undergrowth beneath the railway bridge. Jackdaws are here on the roof of the White Lion. A Carrion Crow barks in the trees. The water level in the River Lugg remains very low and the water clear.
cuttings, I am saturated with sweat.