Shrewsbury to Warwick (Part 1)

13th May 2019

Part One:  Shrewsbury to Birmingham

With this project still being confined to what can be done in a day from Lancaster it was impractical to try and get from Shrewsbury to Warwick in one day and to follow an interesting route in the process.  As I hadn't seen very much of Shropshire on the way from Stafford I devised a convoluted route to take in much of the south-east of the county and particularly the towns of Ironbridge and Bridgnorth.  Although my next county town was Warwick, Shropshire has no boundary with Warwickshire and I had the choice of travelling through either Worcestershire or re-entering Staffordshire. I decided Worcestershire could wait and I'd follow the more northerly route. However, I also wanted to take in Dudley.  At one time the English county boundaries were full of anomalies that had grown up over the centuries usually involving land ownership and often the church.  Dudley was one such - prior to 1966 it was in Worcestershire (shown in blue) despite being entirely surrounded by Staffordshire (brown). In 1974 the whole lot became part of the West Midlands, but this trip is based on the historic counties that continue to exist despite that legislation.

Dudley, Stourbridge, Halesowen and Oldbury were all in Worcestershire
whilst Brierley Hill, Rowley Regis, Tipton, Coseley and Sedgley were
all in Staffordshire. An expanded Dudley Borough became part of
Staffordshire in 1966.

This was the first of these boundary curiosities that I'd encountered on the trip, although there will be others that I'll be designing the route to include.

As well as boundary curiosities I also wanted to take in the transport curiosities of the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway and the Midland Metro (only in the UK could a modern tram system be considered a curiosity) and the longer route meant I would have to make this section of the journey in two parts and would only be going to Birmingham today.

Along the Severn

After an early train from Lancaster that gave me time to have a late breakfast in Shrewsbury I restarted the journey on Arriva service 19 to Ironbridge.  I knew I had to look for a bus bound for Telford, but the 10.50 departure confused me slightly by displaying "Lightmoor" on the indicator, presumably to deter passengers who wanted to go all the way to Telford on the faster X4 from boarding. The route left Shrewsbury along the old A5 "London to Holyhead Road"  (now the B4380) and crossed the River Severn by the newer (1929) of two fine bridges at Atcham, then following it all the way to Ironbridge.  

Thomas Telford's Iron Bridge at Ironbridge

I was confused again at Ironbridge when the number 19 made an unexpected left turn before reaching the centre of town causing me to made a sharp exit at the next stop and to walk the rest of the way.

Fortunately my next bus on to Bridgnorth left from very near to the bridge, giving me time to admire it and take a few photos.

Bridgnorth

The number 8 that I needed to get to Bridgnorth follows a slow and convoluted route out of Ironbridge (at one time buses crossed the bridge itself, but no longer) and Traveline tells you that it's quicker to walk to the nearby village of Broseley and catch it there! I wasn't having any of that, but by the time we'd reached the village and ridden round just about every road in the place I was beginning to wonder.  Although Bridgnorth is also on the Severn the bus followed an upland route some distance away and there was no sight of the river until we reached Bridgnorth itself.

I allowed  myself an extended stay in the town to include a lunch break and to take in the Cliff Railway as part of my onward journey. But first I had to get my head round the concept of a public toilet that accepted payment in "card only". A lot of places impose a minimum charge for accepting cards, because of bank fees but presumably the local council has negotiated a favourable rate. I don't actually know how much it costs because there wasn't a sign and a friendly local showed me how to get in via the exit gate anyway!

Ready to depart from the top

I encountered a number of funicular railways on my way "Around the Edge of England" but this is

Passing the uphill car

                                                View from the top

the only inland one I can think of. It claims to be both the shortest and the steepest being just 61 metres long and rising at a gradient of 64%. (The new Stoos funicular in Switzerland that I rode on in 2018 has a maximum gradient of 110%!)  The line opened in 1892 and has been in service ever since, very much as an everyday form of transport for the locals, who are otherwise faced via a walk up a long, steep hill.  To avoid passengers riding up the hill and walking back down to save the fare only return tickets are available so I had to pay £1.60 just to ride down to the bottom station.

From the station at Low Town I was able to cross the river by yet another fine bridge and the one after which the town is named; it being farther north than an earlier bridge, which helps to explain why the locals pronounce the town's name with the emphasis on the second syllable (Bridge North) rather than the expected (Bridge North)

Either way, what I needed now was my third Arriva bus of the day, a number 9 to Wolverhampton. This was much busier than the first two I'd caught, but still had plenty of seats to spare as we sped along the main road, running virtually non stop from the outskirts of Bridgnorth to Compton, just outside Wolverhampton and where we crossed the Shropshire Union Canal near the village moorings where I often tied up on my narrowboat Starcross. On the way we crossed the county boundary between Rudge Heath and Trescott and re-entered Staffordshire.

The Black Country

Arriva's number 9 after dropping me off in Wolverhampton

If the journey so far had been almost entirely rural the rest of the day would be the complete opposite, with hardly a blade of grass to be seen. 

 I spent longer than intended in Wolverhampton because I decided to get off the bus at the edge of the centre and walk through town to the bus station, passing the site of a new open market on the way. It wasn't trading (perhaps Monday isn't market day) but it was good to see some investment in a traditional street market when so many others are suffering.  I also just missed a bus by popping into Wetherspoons for a pee - the only reason I go into one of their pubs these days since discovering the owner's views on Brexit!  Of course, as usual in those establishments the toilets are as far away from the bar as they can possibly be, so a quick visit isn't possible, hence the missed bus!

But service 1 on to Dudley runs every 10 minutes so I hadn't long to wait. Many years

ago this used to be a trolleybus route. Wolverhampton Corporation was one of only a few municipal trolleybus operators that ran longer-distance services outside the borough boundary but there's little sign of the operation left nowadays.  Because of the longer than planned stop I was now running late and afternoon traffic was beginning to build up so I didn't hang around and jumped on my next bus straight away. As planned, this was a service 74 heading for Birmingham. The 74 is the slowest and least direct of all buses between Dudley and Brum taking over 80 minutes, but I was heading only to West Bromwich, which was just as well as the driver was obviously in no hurry and even that 5.5 kilometres took us 35 minutes including passing over the BCN Old Main Line canal and then under the New Main Line at Ryland Aqueduct at Dudley Port.

The 74 was still scheduled to take over 45 minutes to reach Birmingham, so instead I hopped off at Carter's Green and as I was in the Black Country enjoyed a pint of Holden's Mild in The Wheatsheaf before waking down to Dartmouth Street tram stop on the Midland Metro and catching a tram through to New Street Station, arriving at the same time as I'd have got there on the bus!

Midland Metro tram approaching Dartmouth Street stop

I think trams still count as a curiosity in Britain as they are confined to a relatively few large cities (plus Blackpool). The Midland Metro epitomises the UK's approach to light rail having been built mainly on the route of a disused railway line (in this case part of  the GWR's line from London to Birkenhead) so it goes where it was easiest to build, rather than where the passengers are likely to want to go.  In mainland Europe it would have almost certainly run down  the main street in West Bromwich and possibly have picked me up outside The Wheatsheaf!  Only in Birmingham city centre did it take to the streets (or at least the pedestrianised ones) and behave as a continental tram would have done.

Nevertheless, it got me to New Street station in good time for my train back to Lancaster, with another stretch of the trip complete and just before reaching Winson Green and almost in the city centre we crossed the county boundary into Warwickshire.

Stafford to Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury to Warwick (Part 2)