Blog 157 Ludlow and surrounds plus my 67th birthday

Motorhome trip No 46 : Sept 12th- 17th 2021

NOTTS->Ludlow Touring Park, Ludlow, Shropshire ->NOTTS 382 miles

A KeefH Web Designs Travel Blog

The newly restored Van is running so well at the moment, it’s a joy to drive, 52k+ miles now on the clock.

This 5 day trip was part of my 67th birthday fun. Hadn’t realised what a lovely historic town Ludlow is. It is positioned right on the edge really of 3 counties – Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

History wise

Arthur Plantagenet (Henry 8th elder brother) died 1502, married to Catherine of Aragon, aged 15 at Ludlow Castle....Lucien Boneparte (Boneys younger brother was held prisoner in Ludlow) 1810-11 ....King Edward 5th was also there before he was murdered 1483 back in London....this place is steeped in history #fact 86days as King... Edward V, one of the 2 princes murdered in the tower allegedly by Dick3 of Leicester, the battle of Ludford Bridge , Henry VI and Richard Castle after Richard Neville, Lord Protector...😁🤔 oh and there are George 2nd alms houses built 1758, here endeth the history lesson

We left home at about 11 and used the truck nav. to take us the quickest route, bit of motorway then outskirts of Kidderminster, past Hagley Hall and then into the nice Worcestershire countryside, thru Little Hereford and onto the site. All very rural and lovely with its yellow brown fields painting the canvas of farms.

Settled in nicely on pitch 3, very close to all facilities. Set up my new one man tent (my insomnia cure, well maybe – I used it twice whilst we were away so not too bad!). Set up in a motorhome takes 5 mins, always amazes me how long a caravan takes in comparison. Anyhow after coffee we then went and had a walk around the site, thought we could get across to the River Teme side from the site map but it is fenced off as an area of “scientific interest” oh well nice views anyhow. Found a lovely plant (later identified by friends on faceache as mullein). Collected a load of seed so gonna give that a whirl sometime.

Next day after a bit of overnight rain got to use my OAP bus pass (sorry being politically correct senior citizen 😉 ) Caught the 490 into Ludlow which stopped at the the Assembly room near the Castle. What an amazing town Ludlow is, we both loved it. Not so the bus company though, they only ran 3 buses back we waited over 45 mins, it never turned up so we had to walk back, Ludlow is very steep and pained poor Annie’s arthritic knees. I did the gentlemanly thing and rang the bus company my “heartfelt feedback”, they promised to investigate and get back to me, they haven’t. We met a couple who had had the same experience with missing buses on their last trip to this site. Moral of the story…. Don’t use Lugg Valley Travel!

had a lovely walk around what is a superb historical town

See the full images slideshows below, main is 18 mins but with fab music by the Allman Brothers and the one on Ludlow with text ( 109 images, 9 mins) to get a feel of what we experienced, there are 4 in all, one especially for train buffs, thanks for looking.

The surrounding areas included had a loose base of family research for Annie’s rellies but afforded us the opportunity to visit quite a lot of villages and some of the bigger towns, not exclusively but some we saw were Richard Castle, Tenbury Wells (lovely, fairport convention on at the regal, lorry on bridge fun not) , Cleobury Mortimer (great church , high road and washing pond), Onibury (wonderful St Michael’s church and old GWR train station, font usedf to christen Annie’s rellies), Neen Savage (st marys church and whatmore gravestones), Bewdley (Severn Valley Railway – also at Bridgnorth), Leominster, Far & Wyre Forest, Bitterley (narrow road and definitely don’t travel at school chuck out time or you will be bitter ) , Flowers everywhere, Craven Arms (not interesting), Much Wenlock (fab priory and old town, victorian dr william penny brookes – refounder of the town Olympics, milburga the nun), Wenlock edge (great views), Bridgnorth (just wonderful especially the high street, annies rellies at 51 high street and 6 high street, it all starts by north gate at no 1 high street and goes up the left hand side, then back down the right hand side, took us a while to find them, St Mary Magdelene church on top of the hill was too steep for Annie so we gave it a miss )…. Managed free parking everywhere but had to run in front of yellow peril in Bridgnorth as only allowed 40 mins. Found out at Much Wenlock priory that the Barclays premier English Heritage arrangements (i.e free entry) ended in Mar 2020 (boo!) – covid driven. Note also history wise re Much Wenlock - Victorian doctor, William Penny Brookes (1809-1895), is known as the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Brookes established the Wenlock Olympian Games in 1861. The Games are still held each year and provided the inspiration for Pierre de Coubertin and the Olympic movement. The Brookes family graves are in the churchyard and are decorated with Olympian wreaths.

There are 121 images (approx. 10 mins) to look at with text and Allman Bros music in the “around Ludlow” slideshow, thanks again for looking

selfie on my birthday

All in all a fab relaxing 5 days, great site, great food & drinks, great 67th birfday, great exploring… I think we will be back to this area of the country again at some time.