UK Travel Search: England: Shropshire, Staffordshire & Derbyshire: Wedgewood, Alton Towers, Jane Austen, Ruyard Kipling


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Shropshire is divided by the River Severn and the best scenery is to the south. It's excellent and uncrowded for walkers and cyclists (you can hire bikes in Church Stretton, Ludlow, Ironbridge and Telford). Staffordshire has a famous cathedral in Lichfield, porcelain and pottery in Stoke-on-Trent and the country's most popular theme park, Alton Towers. Derbyshire has many stately homes and the Peak District, a wild and extremely beautiful national park. The Peak District also encompasses parts of Staffordshire and Cheshire.

Click on the headings to find out more:

Shrewsbury is a large and curious town full of oddly shaped, Tudor buildings and winding medieval streets. Shrewsbury Abbey dating back to 1083 is worth a visit. A memorial to Wilfred Owen, the WWI poet who was killed a week before the war ended, is in the churchyard.

The village of Ironbridge is named after a local bridge that happens to be the oldest iron bridge in the world (cast in 1778). See, not all English villages have imaginative names. Excellent museums here in industrial archeology.

The village of Church Stretton (the area around here was known by the Victorians as Little Switzerland) is a good base for people wanting to walk some of the best hills in Shropshire (The Long Mynd). You won't find a castle at Bishop's Castle, but the Three Tuns pub still brews its own beer. You will however find a fine old ruined castle at Clun (6 miles south and a few miles east of Offa's Dyke).

Ludlow Castle has a fair bit of history in its walls. Built around 1090, it was turned into a palace in the 1300's by Roger Mortimer (whose mistress was King Edward II's wife, Queen Isabella). The two young princes who were murdered in the Tower of London in 1483 lived there, as did Henry VIII's older brother, Prince Arthur with his child bride, Catherine of Aragon. She was 16, he was 15 and apparently they lived liked sister and brother in the bridal chamber at Ludlow for five months until his death from plague in 1502. The Elizabethan poet and soldier Sir Sydney Ludlow also grew up there.

While you're there, nearby Castle Lodge is also worth a visit. Stokestay Castle (7 miles north-west of Ludlow) is a glorious 13th century manor house. Lichfield in Staffordshire is home to a great cathedral and was where the scholar and wit, Samuel Johnson was born in 1709. A few quotes:

'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel...
He who praises everybody, praises nobody...
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully...
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk...
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life...
When two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather... '

Stoke on Trent - No matter what the weather, if you're interested in porcelain, Stoke-on-Trent is where you'll find the houses of Wedgwood and Royal Doulton. Stoke is actually six towns, collectively known as The Potteries. At nearby Burton-on-Trent, the Bass Museum and Visitors Centre is interesting for those who don't mind an ale. Bass is the country's biggest brewer and a tour here includes a glass of beer.

Alton Towers, a theme park, is one of the most visited tourist attraction in Britain. It has more than 100 rides and is open from mid-March to the end of October. A great payback day for kids who are 'castled-out'. Derby ('Darby') is an industrial town with few major tourist attractions although the cathedral is worth a visit. Nearby though there are magnificent mansions like Kedleston Hall (5 miles north-west). Chesterfield is famous for the twisted spire of St Mary's and All Saints Church (it has a 3 metre lean). Hardwick Hall is a delightful reminder of 16th Century opulence.

Chatsworth House (8 miles west of Chesterfield) is one of the grandest stately homes (with gardens to match) in Britain. Nearby is the interesting town of Bakewell. The Rutland Arms is where Jane Austen stayed while she was writing Pride and Prejudice and where the hotel chef made an unintentional error in a recipe which resulted in the famous Bakewell tarts (1860). While they are tarts, you'll see them appear on menus as Bakewell Pudding.

Walkers to the Peak District might like to tackle the 26 mile Limestone Way. There are lots of little villages (and pubs!) along the way. Monsal Trail (8½ miles) runs along the deep valley of the River Wye. The High Peak and Tissington Trails are made for cyclists and bicycles can be hired at Parsley Hay, Middleton Top or Mapleton Lane.

In the southwest corner of the park, there's a colony of wild Tasmanian wallabies, descendants of a few that escaped from a private zoo some 50 years ago. The main towns in the area are: Buxton, a spa in Roman times and a popular resort in the 1700's when most of the present buildings were constructed; Leek, an ancient pre-Roman town where Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed in 1745 and French prisoners were kept during the Napoleonic War; Flash (yes it is the name of a town) is meant to be the highest village in England (463 metres); and Rudyard, a pretty village where a Mr and Mrs Kipling courted and named their son after it.

You can almost feel history in the little village of Eyam ('ee-em'). In 1665 some cloth was brought back from London by a local tailor and with it, unwittingly, the Black Death. The plague spread through Eyam and it was decided that the villagers would quarantine themselves off from the rest of civilisation to protect nearby villages. In a year, 250 of the 350 residents were dead. The box that contained the cloth is now a cupboard in the Church of St Lawrence and there are poignant graves around the village. Emotions of sadness and 'how lucky you are' mix when you read of people like Mrs Hancock, who buried all seven of her family, one by one.





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