Part 2 of the Wilderhope YHA trip March 2020 by Nick Holmes. Read Part 1 here
We awoke to a wet morning, so Andy, Jo, Tony and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and plenty of coffee, then the Faffing commenced… Jo couldn’t find the key to his lock, we retraced our steps, still no key, luckily we had a pipe-fitter and a heating engineer, the pipefitter, Tony suggested using shears to cut the lock but first Tony gave Jo a black eye with the shears, before quickly cutting the lock, not one to take chances Jo put his helmet on only to discover the key to the lock attached to the magentic catch on his helmet. It was only 20 past nine so a short but quality Faff !
Wenlock Edge provides a fast rolling ride to the pretty market town of Much Wenlock, home of William Penny Brookes, known for inspiring the modern Olympic games, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penny_Brookes
Taking a small lane to Wyke seemed to be a good diversion, at the low point of the road we hit deep flood water, a minor Faff, and at the high point an 18% gradient.
Out of Benthall we took a left onto Bridge road, a steep road that provides excellent views of the Ironbridge Gorge before spitting you out onto the famous Ironbridge.
Abraham Darby creator of the world’s first ironbridge was famous for being the first person to use Coke instead of charcoal when melting Iron, could this be why so many trees remain in the Gorge? Closer to home Abraham Darby created a cast iron bridge in Manchester “ — This bridge, an elegantly-neat structure of one arch of 122 feet span, opening a desirable communication between Salford and Strangeways, over the river Irwelll,” as well as cast Iron cylinders for the many Watt Boulton steam engines that powered the industrial revolution.
The full influence of Darby can be found here https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Coalbrookdale_Co his foundry finally ceased production of the AGA cooker in 2017.
Like a magnet’s attraction to soft iron, Andy was once more pulled into Ironbrdge’s World famous pork pie shop, before astounding a Black Country lad with tales of Yorkshire, the Black Country lad could hardly believe his encounter.
From the Bridge we made our way up Station road to Coalbrookdale where the church bells peeled signalling it was 11:00, this steep section takes you past Darbys now redundant foundry and elegant house to little wenlock and it’s pretty steep all the way. I was ready for a stop at the pub at the top but Jo persuaded me it was too early !
At this point I was having a minor regret that we didn’t take the route over the Long Mynd rather the route over the Wrekin, when traversing the Wrekin the benefit is that you get an excellent view of the Long Mynd’s Alpine-like peaks. In the Midlands the term “Round the Wrekin” is often used when it takes longer than anticipated to reach an outcome, otherwise known as, “Faffing” Once round the Wrekin we were off to Upton Magna, I was definitely ready for a brew and some eggs.
The next section took us past some impressive Elizabethan ruins at Moreton Corbet near Shawbury.Just before Hodnet the rain started which was a shame as this is an attractive part of the ride, the bridge outside of Audlem was flooded so we all now had wet feet. As we got to the cafe the sun came out. Tony ordered a fish finger sandwich which sounded good and it was.
We were all in, get home mood, Tony offered his wheel as shelter but I was pretty much out of juice, in Sandbach the group split for a time before regrouping at Holmes Chapel Andy and Tony took the A50 while Jo and I cut through to Sudlow lane where Andy and Tony reappeared at the junction of Goostry lane.
The final bit always feels the longest but we made it and all on minor roads, before daylight went, with minor faffing and zero mechnicals, we all remained good friends.Thanks for the pork pie, Andy.
Nick
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