Hollins, or, as it used to be called, Lynches Lane, runs between Merrington and Myddle with to one side Myddle Wood, and to the other side the former Parklands of Myddle Castle. The castle fell into ruin when Humphrey Kynaston was Constable. It collapsed, following an earthquake in 1688. Just one tall section of wall with a doorway now remains.
On the left of the lane by Myddle Wood is an old thatched cottage mentioned in Gough’s ‘History of Myddle’. Looping south around the 24 acre Fenemere Pool, the lane passes through the farming hamlet of Eyton, where just to the north, above Birchgrove Pool, lies The Berth Pool with its ancient earthworks and causeway. We leave the lane, turning south, opposite to where a bridleway led north to the station, and follow the old Dyas Lane.
To visit Baschurch you can take the bridleway west from Dyas Lane exiting to the main road by where the Smithy used to stand. No sound of hammer on anvil now, instead a Garage mends cars and a Spar Shop serves customers. Baschurch, the Welsh name is Eglwyssau Bassa – Churches of Bassa. It is believed that the current church, much altered by Thomas Telford in the 1790s, replaced a wooden one which was burnt down. It was down Worlds End Lane, west of the church, that the vicar rode to Ruyton, and people travelled to the Palm Sunday Wakes, at Eas Well, a spring just east of the River Perry.
Just off Nobold Lane lies an old coffin stone where the bearers could rest the coffin when carrying it across the fields from Walford. We travel east across Walford College lands to Old Woods and back to Merrington Green Common.
Hanmer’s Cottage, Myddlewood
Mentioned by Gough in his ‘History of Myddle’, as Daniel Hanmer’s, it was built by John Hughes in the 1580s and enlarged by the Hanmers.
Old Woods
The small hamlet of Old Woods, named for woodland lying just to the east, once had its own brick and pipe works, and Oldwoods Halt, opened in 1933, on the Shrewsbury to Chester Line. The Railway Tavern, renamed the Romping Cat, stands nearby. All quiet now.