Author Topic: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail  (Read 2486 times)

fernman

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4528
New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« on: 19:58:24, 16/01/17 »
There is news today of a proposed 129 miles walking trail between South Wales and Shropshire
http://betternews.co.uk/swansea-shrewsbury-heart-of-wales-line-walking-route-plan
It is going to follow the Heart of Wales line.
Not sure I would want to walk beside a railway line for most of the way.
What do others think?

Mel

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10936
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #1 on: 20:20:46, 16/01/17 »
Anything that gives us a bit more meandering space is a good thing in my mind.  It being near a railway would make it great for accessibility.
 
I wonder if there will be any shorter day walks looping off it.
 
 

Dovegirl

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2588
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #2 on: 21:18:28, 16/01/17 »
I welcome an initiative that facilitates linear walks and accessing walks by public transport.  I've walked near railways and generally haven't found that they detract from the walk.

John Walker

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 240
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #3 on: 21:40:57, 18/01/17 »
Oh, I'm really interested in this.  I don't have a car so rely on public transport to get to and from walks and it will be good to have another long distance trail with train access. (Not a very frequent timetable on the Heart of Wales line but maybe the trail will promote more users and the timetable will have more trains :-\ ).  I have walked a bit around Knighton (Offa's Dyke etc.) and that area is really great.  I'm looking forward to hearing more about it.
http://www.greenlives.org.uk/walk.html
National Trails completed: SWCP, Thames, SDW and NDW

barewirewalker

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4226
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #4 on: 17:19:10, 19/01/17 »
Its a great area to walk, the section between Craven Arms and Llandod has been an area, which has given Mrs BWW and I great pleasure. Big problem is the connectivity with the stations (reqest stops), all to often one gets dumped on a nasty section of B road, you have a traffic experience, which blows the whole pleasure of the day.


Once tried a Country Walking route, where the author of the route thought that a length of the B4356 was suitable for leisure walking. A perfect recipe for missing the train connection at Llangunllo station, a free ride to the nearest mortuary slab would be more likely. I met a German lady on the nearby Black Mountain, she was walking Glyndwr's Way, she asked me for comments on the route and I pointed out that there were some better sections though they were not served by rights of way. Her reply was "vat are zey (landowners) afraid offf, zat I vill take zere land back to Bavaria".


A little bit of trespass is all that is needed to correct some anomalies, sadly I do not think this project will be bold enough do more than cobble together a route out of existing RoW's and bits of highway, here's hoping they have more sense than country walking magazine, who published their route a few months after Open Access came into existence and a perfect and safe alternative was possible.


There is sadly a downside, those who want such pre-prepared route may be lulled into thinking that they have walked that area, whereas they will have only touched a small part of an area even the locals can get lost in.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

Mel

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10936
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #5 on: 19:17:54, 19/01/17 »

There is sadly a downside, those who want such pre-prepared route may be lulled into thinking that they have walked that area, whereas they will have only touched a small part of an area even the locals can get lost in.

Hey! Don't knock it!  I'm counting my 8 mile meander round the Stiperstones as "bagging" Shropshire for my County Bagging Project  O0   :D

barewirewalker

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4226
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #6 on: 08:48:17, 20/01/17 »

Hey! Don't knock it!  I'm counting my 8 mile meander round the Stiperstones as "bagging" Shropshire for my County Bagging Project  O0   :D


Mel, you will have to come back. You missed the second county in Shropshire, North Shropshire looks on South Shropshire as a totally separate county.  ;D
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

Mel

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10936
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #7 on: 18:44:28, 20/01/17 »
Is that in the same vein as "Shrooosberry" versus "Shrowsbury"?  ;D

barewirewalker

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4226
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #8 on: 19:37:56, 20/01/17 »
Is that in the same vein as "Shrooosberry" versus "Shrowsbury"?  ;D
Have to have been around the county a while to recognise the difference between north and south. I am North though I am told that I am an honorary member of a South family, Mrs BWW included. I have a great, great, grandfather buried in a Shropshire graveyard, Mrs BWW goes way back past that and we both pronounce Shrowsbury, it was embedded before we could even read. The Shroooosbury or Shrew(a small mammal)sbury, came from the incomers as industry grew from the first world war, they pronounced it as they read it from the railway timetables as they came to the town. In recent years this has been compounded by those reading football timetables, without realising that there is a local pronunciation, say like Gloster, Lemster or Lester.


On your 8 miles in South Shropshire you may have passed close by to Ratchup, or perhaps you saw Ratlinghope on your map, confusing innit. ;)


The reason why the old pronunciation has not been accepted is those pronounced as read, claimed that it was 'posh people' who pronounced the town by using the OW, actually the countryside workers would never say Shrewsbury, they always called the town Salop. so they had been 'upsalop', if they had been to the county town.
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

Mel

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10936
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #9 on: 19:57:23, 20/01/17 »
I was told the Shrooosberry / Shrowsbury pronunciation was all to do with what side of the river you hailed from.
 
PS. I already knew about the Ratchup (Ratlinghope) pronunciation and, indeed, we stopped and had a pint in Bridges then walked along the river to Ratlinghope before wending our way to the northern end of the Stiperstones for a return loop back to The Bog.  The heather was out and it was absolutely gorgeous  :)   
 

barewirewalker

  • Veteran Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4226
Re: New Swansea - Shrewsbury trail
« Reply #10 on: 23:23:55, 20/01/17 »
I lived at the Bog for 5 years, heard more tall stories whilst I lived there than anywhere else. Something to do with the radium found in the pitchblende they dug up from the Bog Mine and Pennerley Mine. No wonder you got such a story about which side of the river, most Salopians don't know which side of the river they live on, it takes so many turns they can't be bothered to work it out.


Last sighting of Wild Edric, proved to be false because the witness said he had a head, "but he must have been a ghost because it was pitch dark and I saw him quite clearly" the witness said.
All locals knew you could see 'Old Bob' the last surviving worker from the Pennerley Mine, because he glowed in the dark as he rode his atomic bike back from the Stiperstones Inn.  ;)
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

 

Terms of Use     Privacy Policy