Author Topic: Walks at Aston-on-Clun, Shropshire (Coach out and return from Brum)  (Read 1494 times)

David Sutton

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SUNDAY 24th JUNE. Coach pick-up 8.30 am, Colmore Row, Birmingham.  

 
Put down your car keys and your map and let our excellent walk leaders take you on a well- designed and reconnoitred ramble through some of England’s finest countryside, starting and ending with a stress-free coach journey. Celebrating and supporting Birmingham Ramblers on another fine Sunday, this week in Shropshire. £10 buys you a return coach trip from the city for a full day’s walk with a pub stop.  
 
Three levels of walk, approximately 12, 10 and 7 miles offered, with Birmingham Ramblers group leaders. Join us and enjoy a great day of social walking with our friendly members... Reply if you would like to join us or require further information.    

barewirewalker

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This a fine part of Shropshire for a walk. The Burrow Iron Age fort is perhaps the most spectacular in the county, locals walk to it but many visitors pass it by, as there are no rights of Way that point to it's being on the access network. Using righteous ways and casting out to Sibden Castle from Aston, then turning west on the Shropshire Way over Hopesay Hill to Hopesay is a beautiful stretch of high quality way. Hopesay Church is particularly picturesque.
The SW continues west over a ridge till Beeches Hollow, where a footpath leads south under the lea of Burrow Hill, there have never been any Waymarks, to indicate to the visitor that it is OK to walk to the top via the forestry tracks, but it is well worth it to enter the Hill Fort from the North, spend a while exploring and wondering if Wild Edric used this place. I once met a couple from Yorkshire walking the Wild Edric's Way organised by a holiday company, they had walked right past the Burrow Fort with not a mention in their itinerary. Very sad but is that a sign of the access network not being able to show the way to a real gem?

If the fort is entered from the north then the steep descent from the south makes a short return to Aston, and the Kangaroo Inn, fond memories from my young farming days, the Craven Arms branch were a lively bunch.
This would be a fine day out and well worth the £10. It is worth noting that Broome station is close by to Aston. On the South Wales line it is a request stop, so few of those around today.
« Last Edit: 07:33:30, 16/06/18 by barewirewalker »
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

adalard

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Does the landowner provide access to the fort, BWW?


There is concessionary access to the barrows on Minninglow here in Derbyshire, although nothing shows on the OS map and I wondered if the situation is along those lines.

barewirewalker

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The short answer to that is I don't know, but given that access is provided under sufferance in much of Shropshire, as the guidelines of the landowners national body suggests,  I expect that a minimal level is overlooked and the usual disclaimers have appeared in that area and stay for the life time of an A4 pocket.
At the risk of highjacking the OP's topic I will say no more.

This is a beautiful area of the county, well worth the visit from Birmingham. One of my abiding memories of the pathways from Aston to Sibden was the proliferation of Dog and Apple Rose, but perhaps this year it may be a tad early for the full impact of this beauty.

If one of their walks reaches Hopton Castle, there is an interesting bit of Civil War history explained on the visitor information boards.

Why is it good walking country? I think much of south Shropshire together with mid Wales is deceptive. It provides much rolling countryside, with ever revealing views without the long hard climbs of steep hills. Choice of route can exploit this property of the terrain. A work colleague of Mrs BWW's, claimed to have a limit of 3miles walking, was sitting with us on the ramparts of the Burrow, drinking coffee, when I explained we had just walked 5 and a half miles, through a haze of atomised coffee, I was told that she could only walk three miles.

Later in the Kangaroo, I bit on my tongue, when I nearly told the full distance we had walked for fear of a more solid expression.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

adalard

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The short answer to that is I don't know, but given that access is provided under sufferance in much of Shropshire, as the guidelines of the landowners national body suggests,  I expect that a minimal level is overlooked and the usual disclaimers have appeared in that area and stay for the life time of an A4 pocket.


Thanks, BWW.  O0

barewirewalker

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Thanks, BWW.  O0
Your welcome. I fear those, who claim to be our champions, fail to read the signs. By being blind to them understanding and learning cannot be advanced.
« Last Edit: 13:37:51, 20/06/18 by barewirewalker »
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

 

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