After a number of years I have returned to exploring the North East of Shropshire on the Staffordshire border. Basing a walk on the Wharf Tavern, Goldstone Quay, we decided to walk north up the canal towards Market Drayton, because there are two very high bridges, which had impressed us a couple of weeks earlier. That day the weather was rather dull and overcast, but this day was clear blue skies and when we entered the 2 mile long cutting, through the areas underlying bed of Sandstone. The sunlight was slicing through the tree canopy and playing on the magnificently towering arch of
High Bridge. We passed under it, I was harbouring a strong desire to visit the top but the steep cutting sides made this a foolish notion. We walked on for quarter of a mile and when I pointed out a break in the cutting, Mrs BWW immediately understood. Aided by a few strongly rooted saplings, we gained the top of the cutting, but the spoil heap went further back from the field margin than I had anticipated, thick vegetation and a screen of bramble, then a deep but dry ditch started to erode my determination but despite the briars interlacing a 5 strand wire fence, Mrs BWW was undaunted, so I forged on. Eventually wriggling through the lower strands of the fence, we rolled out into a lovely, sun blest pasture to the surprise of a small herd of dairy followers, two septuagenarians giggling like teenagers.
It was an easy walk back to
High Bridge , a field gate conveniently placed, we walked the field / canal boundary back to the track that led over the bridge, Mrs BWW immediatly brought out the coffee flask, as the first barge we had seen that day passed a 100 or so feet below us, just visible through the tree canopy. If you have clicked on the hyper link, you might notice that we were, then, off the righteous way. It was not my intention to give up the line of the canal, as there is another high bridge further north, looking at the map, I though it likely we would find a farm boundary fence on the west side, so we set off along the field boundary on the east side, this led us to a wet ditch, but an overgrown sleeper bridge was found a little way into the field, we crossed from a grass field into a wall of Elephant grass, but as the sleeper bridge, we had just crossed suggested that this was a shooting estate, the 10m field boundaries boosting the SFS earnings to £97 per acre, suggest unhindered passage around the field. My portion of tax and that of the fellow non landowners that goes towards this mitigates any guilt I might feel of straying off the righteous way.
We soon came to the other high bridge that seems to join land divided by the canal cutting at a farm called The Hollings, probable originally part of the Cheswardine Estate, which seems to have been sold up in the 1930's, though by the spread of elephant grass, the land ownership is large scale. Elephant grass is a 2 year growing cycle, I believe, good for large estates not so interested in more intensive agricultural management.
The Hollings bridge seemed to be used more frequently than High Bridge, we lingered a while on top and enjoyed the sensation offered by this structure, I pondered an anomaly the map shows, a footpath (RoW) that ends some 100yds or so short of this bridge at the county boundary. Anyone interested enough to look at the map shown by the link, will see the anomaly. I thought the footpath might have been a route to the canal towpath but the 1880 and 1900 OS 6inch per mile maps show a clear way to the top of the bridge.
We walked south on the east side from the Hollings Farm Bridge and at the field boundary found a Shrophire CC post, waymark, even a style pointing away from the canal, all quite new furniture, hoping others had used this way to link into the canal, we tried to rejoin the towpath.
We did not find a clear route through, though we landed in a muddy heap on the towpath after a broken branch, 4 ft slide and 6ft drop, Mrs BWW had my body to break her impact and fortunately no passing barges to witness our embarrassment.
Are these two bridges wasted infrastructure?
They are certainly a legacy, magnificent historical archaeology serving a very minor role in linking agricultural holdings, which probably use the highway network to move their heavy equipment around.
Taking a broader look at maps beyond the scope of Explorer and Landranger might lead to some interesting thinking, perhaps I will add to this later, my keyboard needs a rest or is it my brain.