UK Tourist & Leisure Attractions

The weather looked good so we thought we'd start our Shropshire holiday with a walk along part of Offa's Dyke path.  This shot's outside the excellent and helpful visitor centre at Knighton.
 

Knighton is on the Shropshire / Welsh border and soon after starting along the Offa's Dyke path we came across this sign to remind us.  As you can see the scenery is, well, wonderful!

Although the Offa's Dyke trail was well waymarked, we came across several uncleared fallen trees blocking the path in places, but got through to see...

...the gorgeous view by the River Teme.  The river was pretty fast flowing after the heavy rains of recent weeks.  Links to Offa's Dyke on our tourist links page.
 

Unfortunately the weather turned pretty nasty, but we made it to the top of Panpunton Hill as far as this monument before turning back to Knighton.  We must have walked, oh, all of 4 miles of the 177 mile Offa's Dyke path!

Next day we visited historic Ironbridge, birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.  The old tollhouse on the left is now a visitor centre and museum with the Ironbridge history display.  Belinda is walking over the Iron Bridge, hey, wait up!
 

The graceful arches of Ironbridge, built in 1781 after Abraham Darby perfected the process of using coke to smelt iron.  See our tourist links for related websites.
 

After visiting some of the 10 museums in Ironbridge, including the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, we headed for Blists Hill Victorian Town.

The High Street at Blists Hill has shops presented just as they were in the early 1900s.  We could feel we were back in Victorian England, especially Mike as he must remember it well!

All the shop staff were in character costume, dressed as they would have been in Victorian times as seen here in the chemist's shop.  Others included a bank, butcher's, printer's and sweet shop.
 

Grrr, unfortunately Blists Hill was plagued with school parties on the day of our visit, here Belinda took a picture of the Victorian pub, the New Inn, as the local horse-drawn transport trundled past.  We then moved on to...

...the Wrought Ironworks, just one example of Victorian industry at Blists Hill.
 

After looking at the Victorian school and fairground (where Belinda won a coconut!), we came across this Squatter cottage complete with a Victorian woman going about her Victorian chores.
 

  Beside the Shropshire Canal at Blists Hill is a canal-side mine, winding engine and a half-model reconstruction of the Ironbridge just visible on the far right.

Many of the industrial sections at Blists Hill were there originally, including the brick and tile works seen here and also the old blast furnaces.  Fascinating stuff, at least Mike thought so!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Ironbridge and Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire.  The only bummer was the difficult to follow black and white piece of paper passing for the Blists Hill guide.

The cost of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums passport, giving entrance to all 10 museums including Blists Hill, was a rather hefty £14.

Now please advance to the next page of our Shropshire holiday visit where we enjoy a meal out, visit some castles, Ludlow town and see Mike serve up breakfast in the holiday cottage!  Yummy!