Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Clun Bridge


After having bored my mother for 20 years by telling her how wonderful Shropshire is, I took her there for a short holiday last week.

One of the places we visited was Clun in its lovely green valley. According to Malcolm Saville in The Secret of Grey Walls, there is an old saying that "those who go over Clun bridge come back sharper than they went". I can't vouch for that, but it is a Medieval packhorse bridge with refuges for pedestrians and still used by traffic today. The photograph above shows it and the BBC has a panoramic view of the scene.

There were a pleasingly motley collection of ducks and geese in the river. The white ducks had topknots, and what appeared to be exotic green ducks turned out on closer inspection to have a large part of mallard in them. There were also some hardy children paddling on the way home from primary school.

When in Clun you should also visit the castle (another panorama from the BBC), and John Osborne's grave is just up the road from the bridge.

1 comment:

Martin S said...

Shropshire is a lovely county. Not many miles from Clun is the ancient market town of Wellington. Scene of the Wellington Deceleration by Charles I.

It was in Wellington's Market Square (still there) where King Charles in effect declared the Civil War 'open for business.'

Not much to see in Wellington. Though there are some half-timbered buildings, a fine old GWR railway station with a new service to London Marylebone and what is described as the best market in Shropshire.