… via Jackfield. Not quite a circular walk – more like three oddly-shaped sausages, on whose links we retrace our footsteps briefly. Yesterday’s forecast for today wasn’t optimistic: the bright sunshine and deep blue sky are a bonus, and the clouds are no worse than expected. We seem to have avoided the showers.
Sadly, the season’s over at Coalport for weekday walks – the café is now only open at weekends. We’ll have to make do with the chocolate in the camera bag (it’s what they’re for, surely?)

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…are the lanes we’re walking along this morning – down Scots Lane as far as Bould Lane, which we descend to Linley Brook. Britons Lane then takes us to – an innominate lane, the far side of our wander, past the pools and to the top of Bould Lane. It’s fine and sunny, but rain is promised for later in the day. Signs of the season abound – summer is long gone.

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Summer’s gone and the schools are back – it’s quiet along the Wharfage in Ironbridge, and the view upriver has changed since the last time we walked this way. Coalbrookdale is quiet too – the ironworks is closed, so is the museum (on Mondays and Tuesdays). No danger of getting run over as we shelter under the railway arch, its entrance, during a brief shower of rain.

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Quiet wandering through fields and woods, beside the Severn and along the old railway line, where there’s plenty of increasingly-autumnal colour on a grey afternoon.

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A circular from the centre of Much Wenlock. In the field opposite the school are highland cattle, and there are more by Newtown Farm. At the other end of the scale, there are numerous butterflies flitting about and occasionally resting conveniently on vegetation beside our path. They’re all speckled woods. Brown cattle and brown butterflies – it must be the time of year.

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They’re the two summits of Brown Clee – Abdon Burf and Clee Burf. It’s a beautiful day – bright and sunny, cool clear air – perfect for the hills. We’ll take a picnic lunch and aim for that bench above the Five Springs. Sadly, someone else has got there first – that never happens! So our dining chairs will be dining rocks, just beyond the top of Clee Burf, facing an extensive panorama of hills through an arc from the south east, through Titterstone Clee, to the south west. Pen y Fan, the highest point of the Brecon Beacons, is just visible on the far horizon, some 55 miles distant.

The views from our return route, east of the ridge, are not to the same standard – but the blue of Boyne Water, where dragonflies flit. provides a pleasant backdrop for a second (very small!) lunch…

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A circular walk on a pleasant afternoon, through the fields to Wyke, then the woods of Benthall Edge. We’ll look down on the site of Ironbridge power station – it’s gone!

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A walk down to Coalport, where a couple of slices of cake are just the thing to keep us going on the walk back home – it’s uphill all the way…

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Red kites (and lots of buzzards) near Harnage; red berries and leaves (just a few) in the hedgerows near Kenley. And sunshine!

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