Author: janet

Day 42 started damp and drizzly at Camp Cross Roads where it was a two mile walk to The Shroppie, the nickname given to the Shropshire Union Canal. I started at bridge 48 and began walking towards Market Drayton. Bob began further along at bridge 56 and walked towards me.
I like walking along canals. They are quiet traffic free green corridors that usually take a fairly direct route. There are often lots of wildflowers and birds to enjoy: a grey wagtail, some cygnets and ducklings today.
This particular canal was built through several fern lined cuttings and in other places along embankments to maintain the height of the contour. The first locks I saw were at Tyrley where the wharf has been restored.

Bob walked back to me again from the Victoria Wharf and we had a canalside picnic with some tasty items he’d bought in town. That left a few post lunch miles to Adderley bridge number 69. By the end of the walk today my total had increased to over 400 miles.

On the way back we took a brief ride via the Wrekin. Back at the campsite, in the evening light, six fallow deer visited the camp. It had been another lovely day.

From Psalm 42

As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, God: I am thirsty for the living One. 

On the waterways, as the scenery slips by,
Where the waterfowl nurture their young,
So you restore me.
I am made new by each step;
Each sight refreshes me;
I am remade by the Maker through the beauty of creation.

God, grant now a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 17.05.2019. Day 42 of the End to End from Camp Cross Roads to bridge 69  on the Shropshire Union Canal 

(Sorry for lack of photos due to poor signal)

From Psalm 19:

How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory!
How plainly it shows what God has done!
Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.
No speech or words are used, no sound is heard;
Yet their message is conveyed to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth.

Day 41 of the End to End began where yesterday’s walk finished: Leegomery Methodist Church near the end of the Ironbridge Way. I started there again around 10am as has become our usual pattern. There are now 80 days left to get to John O’Groats (although I think someone did once go round the world in that time, they weren’t walking). This morning Bob read me the news of someone who is trying to break the LEJOG running record. I’m just walking.
Today was a day of joining up one route with another: from the Ironbridge Way I’m heading for the Shropshire Union Canal (although I won’t get there until tomorrow).
Everyday is different and each has its own encounters and wonderful things. Here are some from today.
Tree of the Day:
It was Bob who introduced this idea when he walked End to End sixteen years ago. Today there were lots of trees that would have made an excellent Tree of the Day. Most were Oaks, which with beeches are my joint favourite trees. Some were individual trees but there were also some lovely stretches of woodland. Here’s a sample of some of the contenders.

 (above is the Horse Chestnut Lane and below one oddly shaped tree)

Trees in the Chetwynd and Pulestone area

Creatures great and small:
Orange-tip Butterflies were back, my favourite butterfly. I didn’t see any yesterday and they do have a relatively short flying season so I was glad to see several today. But creature of the day was the male cuckoo or in this case cuckoos. Today was the day we heard the greatest number of cuckoos calling in one day. During the course of the walk I heard at least four.
Venue of the Day:
There were two joint winners today. The first was the Kynnersley Barrow, a small roadside Barrow and shed near Kynnersley Lane, which sold excellent ice cream. I carried one several hundred yards for Bob without it loosing its integrity. Kynnersley Lane was a good place to eat ice cream as it is lined with horse chestnut trees currently in flower.
The other joint winner in the venue category was St Peter’s Church, Edgmond, a lovely Parish church with Norman origins. We ate our picnic in the churchyard, and later met Anne, the church warden inside. There are some notable fittings: the Norman font and the new millennium window were the two I particularly admired. The church has a great reputation for music and is currently looking for an organist and music director, blog readers please note.

Kynnersley Barrow and Edgmond font

Oddest thing of the day: Was certainly the two telegraph poles with these drawing pins on them. Why do these poles have these patterns?

The walk continued via Chetwynd and Pulestone Common where there were lots of beautiful trees. It ended at Camp Cross Roads on a Roman Road: an example of just one of the things the Romans did for us. I then made a brief visit to Buildwas Abbey, the ruins of a Cistercian foundation. And all of this happened on another day walking.

God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 16.05.2019
Day 41 of the End to End from Leegomery Methodist Church to Camp Cross Roads

Thirteen days after joining the Severn Way on Day 27, today I left it at Ironbridge on Day 40. The Severn Way goes on to the source of the river in the Welsh Mountains. We’re not going that way on this journey but we hope to return in the future and complete the Severn Way.

Meanwhile I needed to go north from Ironbridge and for that purpose I chose the Ironbridge Way, an 8 mile path which goes from Ironbridge to Leegomery. The LDWA website describes it as including ‘open spaces, old railway lines, newly created paths and a lost village’ although I’m not sure I found that (https://www.ldwa.org.uk/ldp/members/show_path.php?path_name=Ironbridge+Way).
It sounded ideal although the initial path up from the Ironbridge was via some very step steps.

These lead to St Luke’s church, a very welcoming place with free cold drinks and gingerbread people biscuits.

The way was on the whole very well marked with its distinguishing letters, IBW. It curved up through the old town and then became a green ribbon that linked together various housing areas, nature reserves, playing fields and the old railway line of the Telford Steam Railway.

Bob met me there and we had a picnic lunch. It was another hot day. The second part of the walk was through both new and old housing areas each with its own character. There were schools and local shops. The Sikh Gurdwara at Hadley was a first for this End to End.

Day 40 marked a third of the days to be walked and it ended today near Leegomery Methodist Church. As it was very hot we took the car back to a pub I’d passed earlier, the Grazing Cow, and enjoyed a long cool drink and sat down for a rest.

Come to me all you who labour…

We come to you, Jesus,
Living Way and true guide;
Giving thanks for the satisfaction of daily progress,
The beauty of the trees and plants lining the path,
For places to rest and the refreshment
That 40 days of walking has been.
We come to you, seeking the full life you promise:

For today, grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 15.05.2019
Day 40 of the End to End, Ironbridge to Leegomery Methodist Church, marking one third of the days to be walked altogether.

Today we had to move the campervan, Bambo, as well as do a walk that involved meeting up with three men and a dog. This is the first dog of the blog and is called Cilla. More about this later!
After leaving the car in a car park near the Ironbridge we went back to Bridgenorth for me to start walking. There were plenty of potential distractions in Bridgenorth. I tried out the Cliff Railway because it’s good to have unusual firms of transport on the End to End. It is the steepest and shortest in Britain at a 1 in 1.8 gradient. There are great views from the top.

I was soon back on the Severn Way negotiating the golf course before joining the Sustrans route 45 which was my main route to Ironbridge. It actually runs alongside the Severn Way but because it is a disused railway line it is flatter, wider and has a smoother walking surface. It is now named the Mercian Way and I have used sections of it before including yesterday. It is a continuation of the Severn Valley line we’d travelled on but this part is disused. Some signs of the railway still exist in cuttings and a station.

It was a beautiful green shaded route and I was glad I’d chosen it. Just in time for lunch my walking companions appeared around a bend and we stopped for a picnic.

Chris, Alain and Eric are members of the Lay Community of St Benedict and I have often met them in Wolverhampton for regional meetings. As Wolverhampton didn’t seem that far away I invited them to join in today and they happily accepted along with Cilla, blog dog number 1.

As we sat on a stile eating our sandwiches Bob came by so now with a full compliment of walkers and full tummies we set off for Ironbridge.
On the way into Ironbridge we visited St Mary’s church Jackfield where we read about how a large section of the village had fallen into the River Severn in 1952 after a significant landslip.

Arriving at the iron bridge itself we crossed over for some refreshments on the north side of the river to mark the end of a hot but companionable days walking.

Nunc dimitiss

Holy God, now let your weary servants go in peace.
Your promise to see the hope and love you have prepared for us has been kept.
It is wonderful indeed.
Like a light: glorious in every way to those who embrace your kindom.
Glory, Glory, Glory
Creator, Son and Spirit,
Amen, Amen, Amen.

JAL 14.05.2019
Day 39 of the End to End, Bridgenorth to Ironbridge on the Mercian Way

Day 38 was our second of two days with the Severn Valley Railway. We parked at Bewdley station and sampled the bacon sandwiches before leaving on the first train north of the day.
We got off at Highley station, the point we’d reached yesterday, ready to start walking to Bridgenorth. Unfortunately, although the bee swarm on the footbridge was cleared yesterday, a few renegade bees were still flying around. One of them stung Bob on the head as we walked to the engine shed. Fortunately swift action meant no adverse reaction and after 20 minutes monitoring to see he was OK, we were able to set off anyway.

Trains came and went as we plodded up the Severn Way. Hampton Lode station provided a picnic spot, and then around the corner The Unicorn, a riverside pub for a cold drink. There were some large hot, sunny fields to walk round and some cooling copses in between.

At one stage we swapped the Severn Way for Sustrans route 45 on a lineside track. A helpful way marker informed me that I’m now only 88 miles from Chester.

We made it to Bridgenorth station in good time for our chosen train back to Bewdley.
Heritage is now a well worn and much loved industry. It may be Monday but there were plenty of passengers. Volunteers are encouraged and many excellent cakes are baked and eaten.

Co operation is crucial to community,

From the local to the global on our planet.

Co operation runs a railway, a campsite or a pub:

Bees also know a lot about co operation.

As day turns to night and evening comes on,

May we be refreshed and ready for the co operative activities of tomorrow.

God grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 13.05.2019
Day 38 of the End to End from Highley station to Bridgenorth station in the Severn Valley 

I’m an armchair football fan. I’ve only ever attended one match and that was because I got given free tickets. I pick up bits of football news and so I know some stuff but my involvement is really minimal.
Walking isn’t like that. You either are walking, or you’re not. You may be interested in walking or like watching other people walk or read books about walking but only by walking along can you claim to be doing a walk.
I’ve now been doing the walk for 37 days which is astonishing. Most days, Bob does walk with me for a short distance but a walk supporter has a lot to do, like shopping and stuff, so we rarely get to walk together. The Severn Valley Railway presented an opportunity to change this. Today, Day 37 of the walk, I would not walk alone, for the most part.

I started at Stourport on Severn Canal Basin and Bob met me on my way to Bewdley. The Severn slipped gently by and the path was trouble free except for a small detour round a building site. We picked up some picnic items in Bewdley and rejoined the Severn Way which runs fairly close to the Severn Valley Railway all the way to Highley which was our end point today.
A few trains chuffed by and the path was a good one. The wild garlic gave the route a particular aroma and we stopped at Upper Arley for tea and cakes.

Friends of mine from Wakefield, Nicky and Hilary, had texted to say they would park at Highley and walk towards us. Sure enough we soon spotted them lurking behind a tree. 

We walked together for a couple of miles back to Highley station. On arrival there was some excitement over a swarm of bees on the footbridge across the line. This was a potentially dodgy position with two bee allergic members of our group. A bee man came and took them away (the bees, not Bob and Nicky).

All too soon our train to Bewdley was pulling into the station and we were waving to them and wishing them both a safe return to Wakefield through the train window. Bob looked up the end of season football results on his phone. And one young man asked us how Wolves had got on. As for me, well it’s obvious really, on today of all days, ‘You’ll never walk alone’ even though I’m a Spurs supporter.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart…

God grant us companions for the journey, a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 12.05.2019
Day 37 of the End to End, Stourport on Severn to Highley station.

My River runs to thee… My River wait reply
(Emily Dickinson)

Today was another walk along the Severn Way. No rain and the sun coming through the trees made patterns on the path, which was on the whole dry. The river itself was running at least a foot higher than usual after the recent rain, I was informed by one riverside resident.
I started at Grimley Church with Bob. This section had been a trying one for Hannah 7 years ago. Muddy with poorly marked paths and misdirections it was one of the ‘there be dragons’ sections of the Severn Way. Bob’s phone app would help us to get round any recurrence of that problem, we hoped. Having negotiated that section we were glad to see that a community cafe had opened in the intervening years and was serving delicious breakfast sandwiches.

Next door was the office of Faith at Work in Worcestershire, the local workplace chaplaincy. It’s good to know there is still such a multidimensional chaplaincy in this area.

I called into St Martin’s Church Holt before getting to Holt Bridge and crossing over to the path on the other bank of the river. The Spring is not yet over but Summer is coming on and so the bluebells are nearly finished here whilst the wild garlic is at its pongy-ist best. There are still lambs in some fields and in another a groups of Shetland ponies. But it is mostly green: every possible green.

I met a few people walking in the other direction and eventually one of those was Bob. We stopped at Lincomb Lock for a picnic and from there the stroll into Stourport on Severn was easy enough. The town is well know for its locks and basins of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal built at the end of the 18th century.

As the river glides by there are many signs of its earlier activity:
The debris caught in roots and branches,
The rock cliffs and muddy paths,
The locks of the canal builders still working today.
Walking through the green,
I pray for the people who draw life from the river, for both work and leisure;
God, grant us a quiet night and a peaceful end.
JAL 11.05.2019
Day 36 of the End to End, Grimley Church to Stourport on Severn.

May the good angel of the Lord accompany you
(Prayer for Pilgrims seen in Worcester Cathedral)

From Church Street in Kempsey to the Church at Grimley, a summary of Day 35 of the End to End. We were a bit delayed getting started due to heavy traffic on the Worcester ring road. On arrival in Kempsey I knew about the footpath diversion, which went onto the A38 instead, familiar from yesterday. Today’s section of that road, due to various road works, was just two miles to the Worcester ring road. If this report is beginning to sound a bit circular that’s a common feature of ring roads.

I crossed into the city and found my way via the canal basin at Diglis Top Lock on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, back to the Severn Way. On the way into the city I’d been wondering what it might have been like to have been a pilgrim walking into Worcester before the Reformation. I later saw the place in the Cathedral where the body of a 15th century pilgrim had been found in the 20th century.

We had some lunch at the cafe in the cloister before visiting the cathedral. Amongst the memorials I was glad to see there was one to Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, also known as Woodbine Willie, a Chaplain to the forces in WW1. He had served as a priest in a church in the Worcester diocese before the war.

Bob accompanied me out of the city to the footbridge that enables the Severn Way to cross to the other bank. It was a good path on the whole, close to the river, through small patches of woodland and lined with wild flowers but nowhere near as wet as the last two days.

Bob met me at a riverside pub beside the river and we had a drink before continuing by road to Grimley church to rejoin the Severn Way there again tomorrow.

Walter Raleigh’s Pilgrim Prayer

Give me my scallop shell of of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,
My gown of glory, hope’s true gauge,
And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage.

JAL 10.05.2019
Day 35 of the End to End, Kempsey to Grimley Church via Worcester cathedral

And the rains came down and the floods came up,
But the rock built house stood firm

The rain is nowhere near enough to cause a flood yet. But another day of walking along the Severn Way through very wet foliage didn’t really appeal. A second plan was made with minimal wet Severn Way and as it was Bambo moving on Day, we drove up to the end point at Kempsey church to leave the car there for me to pick up at the end of the walk.
Whilst doing this is became obvious that there could be a third plan with no Severn Way today, and that would be via the A38 as it had a footway all of its length from Upton upon Severn.

At this point I should explain that Bob had already expressed the view that some local A roads can be good routes because of this feature. I had said I’d prefer paths as road walking is not really my thing. But then on Day 34 when a wet path did not seem such a good option, I chose the A38.
On a wet day there’s not so much to see anyway. Even the Malvern Hills were largely obscured. But there were purple green winged orchids on the verge and many other flowering plants. The cow parsley was as high as a bovine’s eye in places.

There were also old milestones marking the route to Worcester, although somewhat inconsistently.
My first stop was St Deny’s church at Severn Stoke which has weathered more than its share of floods in the past. It is concerning that the flood years come closer together: 2007, 2012, 2013. In all three of these years the church was flooded to a height of well over 30 inches in the Nave. It still stands and offers regular services. I seem to remember there was work going on with the flood defenses when we came this way on Hannah’s walk in 2012.
I met another walker coming towards me also avoiding the wet Severn Way but in the other direction. He was walking the three Choirs Way which is another lovely route in this area.
A butty van called Wendy’s kitchen provided a welcome drink of hot chocolate about lunchtime. And soon after that a farm shop selling local asparagus provided a distraction.
My car was parked in Church Lane, Kempsey, also known for flooding. Before I set off I found out that the footpath for tomorrow has been detoured along the A38 to Worcester due to various bits of work going on.

For all the saints, who honour small villages with their names and faith stories;
We give thanks.
For all the saints who labour in all weathers to mend roads, control floods or bring in the harvest;
We give thanks.
For all the saints who staff small shops, campsites and takeaways feeding passers-by and locals;
We give thanks.
For all the saints, that they may rest from their labours;

Grant us all a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 09.05.2019
Day 34 of the End to End, Upton upon Severn to Kempsey via the A38.

They shall find a little Saxon Chapel there
(from a poem by RA Hopwood).

Today’s walk was the longest so far and probably also the wettest. It began outside the Red Lion at Wainlode Hill and rain soon made its mark. There was also some mud as overnight rain had made a difference to the path in places. I decided to use the road to Apperley rather than the Severn Way path to avoid the wet foliage on that path. Bob caught me up and we walked to Odda’s Chapel, a small Anglo-Saxon Chapel at Deerhurst. It is a simple building built in 1056, to remember the brother of Earl Odda, a local Saxon landowner. It is now maintained by English Heritage.

From there I rejoined the Severn Way and walked into Tewkesbury. In 2012 Hannah had come this way on a very hot day and my Dad and I had waited in the Abbey which was lovely and cool. Today was very different but shelter was still very welcome. The Abbey is a wonderful Norman building, originally a Benedictine Foundation. I particularly appreciated the small square stone corner made to remind us of the Tomb of Jesus On Easter Morning: empty and simple. I had a long conversation with two volunteers in the Abbey Shop about LEJOG while I bought some chocolate (I later ate some of it under the M50 bridge).

The Park was an ideal location for a wet picnic. Then we followed the Severn Way out of town via Avon Lock. The Severn Way swaps to the left bank of the river for the path to Upton upon Severn. This was the wettest part because, as I predicted, the long grass, nettles, docks and cow parsley were very wet and I was soon soaked from the knees down.

The rest of the route, including under the M50, which was a dry bit, was fairly uneventful. Bob came back for me and we walked to Upton upon Severn together.
After we finished walking, the late afternoon was drier and overall the best part of the day weather-wise. However from the orchids at Corse Lawn in the morning, to the little Saxon Chapel of Odda and the Norman Abbey Church at Tewkesbury later in the day, this long walk through the quiet Severn Valley had its high spots, even if it also had quite a lot of wet ones too.

The green grass, the brown earth, the grey skies:
Signs of the rain we need.
The flood gates and water height indicators:
Signs of the conflict between humanity and environment.
For centuries human industry and the flow of the river
Have striven to keep pace here.
In our generation we need the wisdom
To maintain a healthy balance for all creation.

In your mercy, empower us to make mindful decisions for a sustainable world.

JAL 08.05.2019
Day 33 of the End to End from Red Lion Wainlode Hill to Upton upon Severn via Odda’s Chapel and Tewkesbury Abbey.