Shropshire’s Border Hills

Shropshire’s border hills occupy the south west corner of the county and must be ranked among England’s most beautiful countryside. This book celebrates them in over 180 pages of photographs taken throughout the seasons. Stiperstones and the Long Mynd attract the most visitors, the former for its dramatic quartzite rocks on the summit and the many legends about the devil and other apparitions, the Long Mynd for the wild moorland plateau and its pretty valleys. Motorists can enjoy the challenge of driving over the hill from each side along a single track road with gradients at the start and the finish that are some of the steepest in the country.

Across the Stretton gap, along which Roman legions marched on what is now the A49, Caer Caradoc’s Iron Age summit fortifications among rocky crags attract those who relish a short steep climb.

Much quieter is the sprawling dome of Clun forest. Here solitude is almost guaranteed for those who visit the two nature reserves or take a stroll along Kerry Ridgeway, following in the steps of countless Welsh drovers who for centuries used the route to drive cattle to English markets. Offa’s Dyke, built in the eighth century to establish England’s border with Wales, enters Clun Forest in the north, heads south over Llanfair Hill which boasts one of the Dyke’s best preserved sections, and leaves England for Powys at Knighton. On it you may encounter walkers intent on completing all 149 miles, coast to coast.

As well as the natural beauty of the hills, the book features the small towns of the area, Church Stretton, Bishops Castle and Clun. Clun has the imposing ruins of a Norman castle and a mediaeval packhorse bridge over the river that bears the town’s name. Clun and Bishops Castle both have fine museums, the former with an astonishing collection of over 6,500 Bronze Age flints, all found locally. Bishops Castle has two museums, one dedicated to the local railway which lasted for 70 years, 69 of them in receivership!

Also in the pages of this book will be found the romantic account of a young woman forced into marriage who escaped with her lover to his hideaway near the Welsh border, and the cruel judge who showed no mercy to a skilful builder on condition that he built the latest fashionable chimneys on his house, but on completion hung the poor man anyway.

Legacy features include Bronze Age Barrows and Cairns, the Acton Scott Historic Working Farm, Welsh drovers and Motte and Bailey castles.