War Walks on the Home Front: Much Wenlock

Walk directions

1. Start

   From The Square, with the clock behind you and the museum on your right, go up the High Street until you come to the Gaskell Arms Hotel. Cross Smithfield Road and go along an elevated pavement until you come to a large stone bridge abutment on the left.

2. Step 2

   Turn right into Southfield Road and on your right is where the single line track bed once ran, but is now developed into the Pinefields housing estate. After 200 metres you will come to a bridge on your right.

3. Step 3

   Continue along Southfield Road.

   Here the goods yard and loco shed would be on your right . In 1914 this would have been bustling with the movement of animals and agricultural produce.

4. Step 4

   Keep going straight on and into a narrow alley, and at the far end is Sheinton Street. Cross over and go to the right where another stone bridge abutment exists. Cross Station Road to read the information board entitled ‘The Embankment’.

5. Step 5

   Now go into Station Road and turn right up the steps onto the embankment. You are now on the railway track bed. Turn left and walk along it until faced with a hedge. A gap to the right reveals the railway station.

6. Step 6

   Go back onto Station Road and turn right past the old station and though the gates commemorating the Wenlock Olympian Games, into an avenue of lime trees planted by Dr William Penny Brookes, the founder of the Games. After 20 metres, turn right at a gate and down the bank onto the track bed, and then turn left to walk along it. Follow the track bed for about 400m and then veer left onto a footpath which ramps up from the track bed. The path emerges close to the Gaskell Field, next to the avenue of lime trees. Bear to the right for 50m, following the path along the foot of Windmill Hill and at the gateway, bear right up the hill and go to the fence at the top where you overlook the quarry.

7. Step 7

   Follow the line of the fence past the windmill tower, and go through a kissing gate, down through the copse to the main road. Turn right onto the pavement, and after about 150 metres cross the road into a lane. Go past Windmill Cottage, ignoring the stile on the left adjacent to it, and after 30 metres along the lane look for another stile in the hedge on the left without a bottom step, and go over it.

8. Step 8

   Keep following the path until you meet another path and go right until you come out onto a lane. Turn left and walk on past a waymarked stile on the right until you come to a second stile on your right. Go over into the woods and follow the path for 200m until you catch a glimpse of Farley Quarry. In 1914 this was known as Gleedon Quarry.

9. Step 9

   Retrace your steps to the lane and back over the stile turning left. Follow the lane, and when you come to a fork bear right and back to the main road. Cross the road to regain the pavement and go right heading towards the town. Go past the school on your left, when you will see a sign across the road announcing Lady Forester and Foresters Court. Cross the road into the hospital grounds.

10. Step 10

    Regain the path on the main road and head back into the town. On reaching the bridge abutment, bear left along Sheinton Street back to The Square.