Shropshire buses in 1967

Before my New York interlude I was working through my summer holiday for you on this blog. I had got as far as White Grit on the way to The Bog and the Stiperstones Inn.

Soon I will resume that journey, but in the mean time a reader - who knows what I like - has kindly sent me an article from an issue of the magazine Buses Extra (published around 1981) which recalls a two-day wander around Shropshire that the author, Tony Moyes, took in 1967.

Discussing the route along the main road from Shrewsbury to Bishop's Castle, Moyes writes:

For the first eight miles through pleasant lowland countryside, the route was accompanied by three others: most importantly Midland Red's hourly, almost suburban offering along the A488 as far as Plox Green, beyond Minsterley. Indeed, and S14 was at Plox Green as we passed.

Secondly, A.J. Evans' Minsterley Motors' thinnish service would head off southwards from Plox Green into the hills, through the waste from the Snailbeach lead mines whose white tips could be seen glinting from the main road; then it would corkscrew high up into the tor-crested Stiperstones to a terminus at The Bog, as the blind on its OB coach would have it.

Thirdly, though diving off in a loop to serve the hamlet of Asterley on the way, Lewis of Pennerley's SB coach would then head south west from Minsterley to incorporate remote Rorrington and Priestweston on its four sorties per week to Churchstoke.

Sheer poetry.

These days the only company left is Minsterley Motors, which runs the Bishop's Castle to Shrewsbury service. But it still possible to reach remote places like Pennerley, Shelve and Bentlawnt if you arm yourself with a timetable.

You can even get to The Bog, where this photograph was taken a couple of hours after I was at White Grit.