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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3072 |
6th June 2018 Hiking - Walking: Explore Coalbrookdale Watercourses (Ironbridge) Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny and warm Max Speed: Distance Covered: 6.64 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Wednesday 6th June – walk ***** Explore Coalbrookdale Watercourses (Ironbridge) sunny and warm. Needn’t have worried as had one of the best night’s sleep of this trip, nice and quiet with no drunken oafs heading home from the pub as predicted by our ladies last night! :) Woke to a sunny, blue sky day but Mag had a headache so had a walk to the shops in lower Bridgnorth for some strong painkillers. Footpath by the van quiet too this morning and most people were very friendly especially an old boy on sticks who wished us a ‘good morning campers’ and stopped for a chat:) Had a late breakfast before heading north on the B road to Ironbridge knowing full well that Telford’s famous bridge was covered in scaffold! It is very pretty rolling hills here in Shropshire before turning down into Ironbridge Gorge. It is a pretty place but disappointing not to be able to see the bridge. It hadn’t stopped people coming to have a look but we found a place to park fairly easily and walked back for a closer look. There was a really bad smell and we noticed a fly covered dead sheep floating in the Severn:( They had erected a footbridge to the side of the bridge so you could cross, look through big round windows and watch the restoration work. Part of the upper bridge had been left so you could cross back. You can’t drive over the bridge even when open as it is blocked off with bollards. As we returned to the van a large inflatable boat was giving four tourists a guided tour. It seemed like too much chat and not enough action for me! We spotted several brightly painted ducks about the town on a similar theme to the pigs of Ipswich but there are only ten. I needed the loo and found one in the carpark for the Museum of the Gorge and noticed a walk up away from the river through many old iron and steel furnaces and forges. It is hard to believe that this tranquil and very scenic spot was a hive of industrial activity in the 1700 and 1800 century’s billowing black smoke out! Although the walk was called the Coalbrookdale Watercourses Walk there were no signs for the start and the girl in the museum was less than helpful:( We managed to find the starting carpark at Dale End Park and lucky for us new pay machines are being installed but they are not working yet so managed to find a shaded place by a noisy stream and although there is a sign on the entrance saying no overnight parking I think we will ignore that! Mag made a salad, I set the GPS going and we set off just before one by walking down to the Severn first for a pic with the huge cooling towers of the nearby power station. Signs for the walk are non-existent at the start but I had taken a pic of the notice board and discovered that a lot of the walk was on small roads. The road was closed and we saw why as a large gang of tree surgeons were working high above us with noisy chain saws! Turning steeply up Station Street we passed the Green Wood Centre, but then came to a Heritage Trail sign that looked far more interesting. We were soon climbing through beautiful woodland high above the town on a well-worn path although we only saw two other walkers the whole time! We got to the top of Cinder Hill on wooden steps then down again to the walled Quaker Cemetery coming out at the impressive Dale House - home to the Darby family who apparently were the first to make iron using coke blast furnaces. We actually knew where we were now as we took the Rope walk path up past wild pastures just full of buttercups, orchids and dog daisy’s just stunning against the blue sky:) We ended up past the Shropshire Way in a Fallow deer enclose, sadly we didn’t see any so turned back and had our picnic near a small stream that still smelled of wild garlic and would have looked amazing with the white flowers a few weeks back. Then it was down to Loamhole Dingle which followed the brook all the way back to the Upper Furnace pool with a large railway viaduct crossing it. We later learned that this was a disused line and would make a fantastic cycle route if the tracks were removed! We turned up to see the New pool, these pools were made to provide water for the furnaces in hope they could be used all year round. Then it was back through the many old factories, turned into museums and we managed to get a look at Darby’s blast furnace. We passed a large factory home to Aga manufacture - we will have to tell Mary as she is a huge fan of her Aga. Getting our six-mile legs we needed a cuppa but instead of following the road we took what we thought was a shortcut through the woods ending up in a scramble up to the disused railway line but managed to find a way back to the park having been out for 3 hours covering 6.64 miles! We made a cuppa and had a pleasant hour sitting by the River with our feet cooling in the fast-flowing water reading our books:) We can’t believe how like France Shropshire is!! Sitting by the river with our feet in the water and the cooling towers with stone cottages in the village was very Averyon! Then it was a quick trip to the nearby Co-op for a desert and home for curry. As it was a lovely evening we had a last walk along the river to the rowing club but sadly there were several groups of noisy teenagers who are not averse to leaving litter:( We picked up and binned what we could see had been left. As darkness falls in Ironbrige the park as gone quiet with the groups of keep fitter, families picnicking and dog walkers all headed for home, so fingers crossed for a good night with no-one telling us to move on! Photo Gallery Here |
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