Bank Holiday Monday – here’s somewhere we haven’t been before, and with luck we’ll be driving in the opposite direction to everyone else… A most enjoyable little outing to a most enjoyable little railway. Visit “Little Hay” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries for more photos, and a video trip around the lines.
Author: geoffspages
Shrewsbury steam
A selection of pictures and video (see below) from yesterday’s outing:
The steam rally revisited
Last time we went, it was the Bishop’s Castle traction engine rally – shame on you, did I hear? That could be around 30 years ago! It’s been held at Onslow Park, near Shrewsbury, in recent times. We’ve often thought about going, but seem to be tied up elsewhere at the end of August. Today – we made it. What a show! There’s so much to see, and so much going on, that it’s almost impossible to take it all in. We’ll have to go again next year.
More photos will appear in due course; in the meantime, here’s a taster. “Rusty Nuts” is in Herefordshire County Council livery, and bears the Herefordshire registration CJ 9720. In 1972 I met – and photographed – its sister engine CJ 4526 – working for Herefordshire County Council. It was the only steam roller I ever saw in normal service.
Belswardyne blackberries
A walk from Sheinton to Harley and back – out by Homer and Wigwig, back past Belswardyne. The blackberries weren’t the object of the exercise, but when we saw them beside the hedge (well away from the roads) – big, juicy and ripe – we had to stop and pick a few (still had the bags with us from Tuesday’s abortive sortie). They seem to be ready early this year – as will be the bramble jelly!
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=360605&Y=302751&A=Y&Z=120
Perkley
A short wander at the northern end of the Wenlock Edge, on a grey but warm and humid afternoon. The blackberries are ripening nicely at present – perhaps we’ll pick a few. That hedge near the end of the walk was well-covered last September… Yes, and it probably will be this September – today there are banks of very unripe berries. Earlier on the walk, we’d passed by some nicely ripe ones (checked, of course, by sampling), but we’d have to carry them with us, so we’ll keep going… It was inevitable, wasn’t it?
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=361420&Y=298936&A=Y&Z=120
Steam at Blists Hill
Just published to Geoff’s Rail Diaries – photos and a brief account of our visit this afternoon to Blists Hill, to see lots of fascinating steam-powered machinery in action. Go to “Blists Hill in steam” – now!
Old Iron
Shropshire is well-known for its role in the industrial revolution, with the iron bridge at – er – Ironbridge being both world-renowned and a very popular venue for tourists and others. That bridge was built in 1779, the first iron bridge in the world. Seventeen years later, Thomas Telford completed what is now the oldest iron aqueduct in the world (a much smaller aqueduct, completed just a month earlier on for the Derby canal, no longer exists). The aqueduct at Longden-on-Tern carried the Shrewsbury canal over the river Tern. It continues to cross the Tern to this day, though the canal is long-gone, and is both a scheduled ancient monument and a grade I listed building. Shame to say that, though we’ve lived in this area for more than 40 years, and driven past many times, we’d never taken a closer look. Until last Sunday, that is, killing time before seeing the Duchess (previous post – yes, we’re out of sync again…). Unlike Ironbridge, we were alone.
Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct on Engineering Timelines website
The aqueduct…
…over the river Tern
Boat’s eye view
Boatman’s view of the Tern
Iron trough and towpath
Last look, back across the fields
The Duchess in Shropshire
46233 “Duchess of Sutherland”, that is, hauling the return “Cathedrals Express” from Crewe, via Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton, back to London. There haven’t been many Duchess pacifics in Shropshire recently. Sister locomotive 46229 “Duchess of Hamilton” was active in the area perhaps 30 or more years ago, and 46233 has been to the Severn Valley, but I don’t think there can have many occasions – ever – when one of these Stanier locomotives has pulled a train along this line. Shame about the weather… and the exhaust. The train was heavy enough – eleven and a diesel at the back – but the Duchess had shut off steam when it passed us, already running a minute or two early.
Catherton Common
Sunday 6 August: we’ve parked here before, but always headed upwards onto Magpie Hill and beyond. Today, we’ll walk in the other direction, to explore the common lands of Silvington and Catherton. At the lowest point (but certainly not the nadir) of our wander, we cross the stream at Cramer Gutter, before heading back past colourful heather and ling. It’s a very absorbing little bit of countryside – scattered cottages, patches of heather and bracken, small stands of birch, clumps of gorse and one particularly fine blackberry bush, which delayed our onward progress for a minute or two…
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=363110&Y=278621&A=Y&Z=120
Jaws (the Pocklington version)
Saturday 5 August: a necessarily very gentle amble around the gardens and lake at Burnby Hall, Pocklington, in Yorkshire’s East Riding. The lake is noted for its nationally-significant collection of water lilies. To thousands of small children (and their anxious parents, trying to prevent them from falling in), the lake is more memorable as the home of hundreds of giant carp, which gather round the water’s edge, hoping for a tasty titbit (sold for the purpose in the small shop at the entrance).
Photographic note: We’re travelling light today, so I’m using the camera built into the phone. Tricky – the half-second delay means the shutter opens at the precise moment the fish close their mouths…
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