Magpie Hill

A fine November afternoon – a walk in bleak grassy uplands on the slopes of Shropshire’s Clee Hill. The remnants of bygone industry scatter the land – derelict quarry buildings, a line of concrete blocks, the bases of pylons that once carried an aerial ropeway, odd pits and heaps here and there.

The walk starts from the roadside near Craven Cottage (don’t some of those footy chaps play somewhere with a similar name?), climbs to the old workings on Magpie Hill, skirts Random Cottage and arrives at Hoar Edge. Westward views encompass Titterstone Clee, whose modern embellishments are in stark contrast to the ruins on Magpie Hill. The return route, gently downhill all the way, follows hill tracks and roads back to Craven Cottage.

For more on the tree see this Geograph post…

Queenswood

A day of “wall to wall sunshine”, according to the weather forecast. It was, too – a good day for an arboretum visit. The river Lugg goes around it, the railway goes under it, the A49 goes over it – Dinmore Hill, between Leominster and Hereford, home of Queenswood and some beautiful autumn colours. The arboretum is no distance at all from the car park; there are short trails for families and dog walkers, and longer ones which lead away from the showpieces into more traditional woodland. A great spot for such a day!

Beech and pine

A brief exploration of a corner of Mortimer Forest we’d not visited before – Black Pool, just off the Richards Castle road. There’s only one waymarked walk starting from the car park – but others are encountered just a short way into the forest. May be worth a return visit, and a longer walk to take in Mary Knoll valley and High Vinnals.

Steel Sculpture

It’s difficult to know what to expect – bits of scrap metal welded together at random? The “Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture” (one of the Telegraph’s four best sculpture gardens, as I discovered, with the help of Google, after our visit) definitely contains works that give one that impression (I’m sure they were assembled / constructed / welded / sculpted with care and forethought)…

Mechanical Arch (Roy Kitchin)   Bringer of Fertility and Phallic Tree (Roy Kitchin)

Wedges Mills III (Roy Kitchin)   Red thing (not sure which exhibit this is...)

…or something else entirely? Yes – some works did appear to have been forged in one piece from hot metal, some made clear reference to real things – and some were obviously created by an author with a sense of humour.

Cornflake (Peter A Blunsden)   

The museum is one of those places that we’ve passed many times, thinking “I wonder what that’s all about?” (and possibly coming to the wrong conclusions) and “must go there one day and find out”. It’s somewhat off the beaten track, though barely half-a-mile from Darby’s furnace in Coalbrookdale. There are 79 permanent exhibits, set in steep-sloped woodland and grassy open space. The map provided at admission is a must – the site is a fascinating maze with surprises around every corner, and it would be next-to-impossible to find everything without it. We must have spent nearly two hours there – great fun, worth every penny of the £3 admission charge.

Bookish (Lawrence Leaman)   Time Setting Man (Roy Kitchin)

Sun I (Roy Kitchin)

Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture