Scenes from the walled garden at Attingham Park (and a walk around the park afterwards).
Category: Photography
Just photos – no particular theme
Stiperstones – foxgloves, bilberries and kites
July on the Stiperstones: we were up here around this time last year, and nearly melted. Today the sky was blue, with some white fluffy cloud – and it was pleasantly cool, a great afternoon for a walk. The bilberries need a little longer, though they’re ripening nicely. The foxgloves – great clumps of them in places – are in their prime. A red kite crossed the sky, high up, with never a flap – and returned a few minutes later, performing one large circle and then away. Too far away for the camera, but good to see.
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=336400&Y=297876&A=Y&Z=120
July at Blists Hill
A showery day – perhaps not ideal for a long walk. How about Blists Hill? – we haven’t been there for a while, and there’s plenty of shelter if it rains. (It didn’t…)
Ryedale Ruins
Sunday afternoon: we’re visiting Rievaulx Abbey, in the quiet valley just a couple of miles from the summer bustle of Helmsley. There’s some dark cloud around, and the chance of a shower – if we carry the brolly we won’t need it. I’d been here before, many years ago, but had forgotten just how substantial and extensive these ruins are – as were the cakes and scones at the cafe…
Rievaulx Abbey (English Heritage)
No, we didn’t need the brolly…
Large and little
It was a busy weekend – on Saturday, we were booked for a brake-van trip around Scunthorpe steel works – and we had “the works” too – a 5-hour trip around the site, taking in the main lines, branches, spurs and sidings. Great fun!
– and then on Sunday, we paid a brief visit to Gilling East, home of the Ryedale Society of Model Engineers. At the other end of the scale from Scunthorpe, it was fun too. We need to go again to do justice to it.
For more on both trips, visit “Appleby Frodingham” and “Gilling East” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
Pyramids
Orchids – little conical-topped ones – dozens and dozens of them. And one solitary (greater?) butterfly orchid (they’re not common). We’re walking on Wenlock Edge, the same route we followed on a misty day in February (see “A hazy day on Wenlock Edge“). It’s virtually midsummer now – no mist today, instead there’s warm sunshine, and it’s pleasant in the cool shade under the trees.
The map below is the one used in February:
today we walked clockwise – out below the edge, back along it.
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=359285&Y=298596&A=Y&Z=120
Coal Trains
We’ve been to Chasewater this afternoon, for their “Coal Trains Day” event (what better way to celebrate the solstice?). Red (No 2), green (Colin McAndrew) and blue (Holly Bank No 3) steam locos in action on the self-styled “Colliery Line” – great fun! For more on the day’s activities – and more pictures – visit “Coal Trains Day” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries.
Sheinton to Harley, Wigwig and Homer
Life under the edge
There’s many a double-take by passing motorists on the Shrewsbury – Wenlock road – “Did that sign really point the way to Wigwig and Homer?”. Yes, a hamlet and a small village well-hidden, despite the sign, beneath the northern end of the Wenlock Edge. This was a very pleasant circuit, starting from Sheinton, following farm lanes and tracks past Belswardyne Hall to Harley. “Look at that – the sun’s got a halo”. There’s no need to enter quiet Harley village, and it means crossing the busy A458 twice – but it saves walking beside the noisy road. The lane to Wigwig crosses what was once a ford, and probably still is in very wet weather. In Homer, we leave the road and take to fields of sheep, followed by attractive woodland beside Sheinton brook, then more fields of sheep – and we’re back in Sheinton.
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=361005&Y=302661&A=Y&Z=120
New town park
Monday – a walk into Telford Town Park. We started from the southernmost tip, close by the aqueduct, to walk nearly two miles mostly along and beside the old Coalport railway trackbed to the town centre. The paths are well made (there was a lot of rain on Saturday…), many and varied – quite a maze as we near the offices, shops and restaurants. The railway followed the route of an old canal, still evident in places, providing a pleasant and varied landscape in the “wild” park. It’s much tamer close by the town centre, and there are many more people. It’s good to turn and head back past the tall Stirchley chimney to the relative quiet of the railway cutting, a long cool hollow on this warm afternoon.
View OS map on Streetmap http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=369850&Y=307441&A=Y&Z=120
Canal Central
That’s a misleading, though accurate, title. A 7¼” gauge railway has recently been constructed at Canal Central, beside the Montgomery Canal at Maesbury Marsh. It’s not open to the public yet – this was a private visit on a perfect summer’s evening. For more pictures and video, visit “Canal Central” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
Canal Central Tearoom, shop, Post Office, etc.
