Name: Much Wenlock, Shropshire Sunday Coach walk on 26 October
Start: 2025-10-26T09:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-10-26T18:00:00+00:00
Location: Meet at layby outside St Chad's Catholic Cathedral

Much Wenlock, Shropshire Sunday Coach walk on 26 October

This is a Sunday Coach walk around the Much Wenlock area
About this Event

P LEASE NOTE THAT THE DURATION OF THIS EVENT SHOWN ABOVE IS ONLY APPROXIMATE AND CANNOT BE GUARANTEED; IT WILL DEPEND ON FACTORS SUCH AS THE WEATHER AND THE WALKING PACE OF THE GROUP.

Our Sunday rambles usually have three levels of walk, strenuous (A), moderate (B) or leisurely (C), led by Birmingham Ramblers group leaders. Join us and enjoy a great day of social walking with our friendly members.

Please note: Our walks are often on rough tracks and rights of way through fields, woodland and hills. Walkers should preferably wear walking boots and other clothing suitable for the weather. Unless otherwise described, please bring a packed lunch and refreshments for the day.

This Sunday walk has 3 levels of walk:

A Walk: ~12 miles, ~1250 ft total ascent.
B Walk: ~9.7 miles, ~1050 ft total ascent.
C Walk: 7.5 miles; one climb of 400 ft over 4.5 miles, 820 ft climb overall. One stile!

Walk leaders:

A Walk: Peter Searle
B Walk: Nora Veszpremi
C Walk: Eva Hyde

Walk details:

A Walk: "On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble;His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;The gale, it plies the saplings double,And thick on Severn snow the leaves.” Or so wrote the poet A.E. Housman in ‘A Shropshire Lad’! Hopefully we will have better weather. From the coachpark by The Edge Arts Centre we will cross fields, a small wood and the A458 to reach the brow of Wenlock Edge, the remains of an ancient coral reef. The steep northwest-facing slope is densely wooded (hopefully with attractive autumn colours in October), and for a while we will walk near the crest between the woods and disused quarries, with occasional views towards the Wrekin and the hills around Church Stretton, before descending to walk at a lower level through the woods on the Jack Mytton Way. We then join the Cross Britain Way and follow a minor road to the village of Easthope, for our picnic lunch by the small church. The return to Much Wenlock is largely through fields, crossing the hills to the east of Wenlock Edge to pass through the village of Bourton, then more fields back to Much Wenlock. This half of the walk provides extensive views, initially towards the west and subsequently to the east, including Brown Clee Hill. Reaching Much Wenlock, we will pass through the old town with its many historic buildings, and if time permits patronise one of the pubs before returning to the coach.
B Walk: Starting from the coach park by The Edge Arts Centre, we follow paths southwards, passing by a ruined windmill and the ruins of St Milburga’s Priory. We cross the centre of Much Wenlock and take the Jack Mytton Way to Wenlock Edge. We follow the Cross Britain Way and the Shropshire Way along the crest of this ancient coral reef, stopping to take in the spectacular views towards the Wrekin. Having passed Major’s Leap, we enter the woods and descend slightly down the slope, taking the Jack Mytton Way back to where we had ascended onto Wenlock Edge. From here, our path leads by quarries and across fields. We walk along Edge Wood and then turn south-west onto a path that takes us back to Much Wenlock and offers some fine views. Having arrived back at our starting point, we make another loop northwards, around Shadwell Quarry and by Bradley Farm, finally taking the Shropshire Way back into Much Wenlock. Here we will have time to visit the town’s historic sites and pubs before we head back to our coach.
C Walk: Starting at a school just outside Much Wenlock, we go around fields, some at the edge of woods, with occasional glimpses of the Wrekin. There is a short section of woodland, followed by more fields until we reach the Cross Britain way at a part of the Wenlock edge escarpment. We follow this for about 1 mile and then return on a lower route, the Jack Mytton Way, in woodland. There are occasional fine views over the surrounding hills and plain. We then pass through further fields to arrive at the attractive village of Much Wenlock which has several interesting medieval buildings and also pubs. We return to the school via Windmill Hill and a small park.

There are a limited number of total places for the walks, which is set by the capacity of the coach. Whilst we hope that everyone will be able to be accommodated on their walk of choice, the allocation of places for each walk will have to be done on the day. No-one will be expected to walk at a higher grade than they prefer - thus, for example, if you prefer the B walk you will not be asked to join the A walk but may be asked to join the C walk. The booking form allows you to specify your preferred walk.

Joining instructions

It will only be possible to join the walk by coach, which will be picking up at 09.00 at the layby at the side of St. Chad’s Cathedral, Queensway, Birmingham B4 6EU. Note that this is not the Cathedral car park in Shadwell Street, which has postcode B4 6EY.

The coach fare will be £15 with 3 options for payment:

Cash on the day in an envelope with your name and the date of the walk. We are unable to give change for cash payments
Cheque on the day, made payable to COBRA, in an envelope with your name and the date of the walk.
Bank transfer in advance of the walk

For payment by bank transfer the walk coordinator will contact you about a week in advance of the walk with bank details. For payments on the day, please put the exact fare in an envelope with your name and date of the walk on it, which will be collected on the coach - unfortunately we are unable to give change for the coach fare.

Note that you cannot pay the coach fare through our Eventbrite account. Your booking for the walk will still show £0.00 but you do have to pay the £15 coach fare on or before the day of the walk

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If you have a confirmed ticket:

Shortly after bookings have closed the walk coordinator will contact you by email to confirm that you will still be joining us on this walk; this is needed since there are limited seats on the coach and we like to release any unused places to others who may be on a waiting list. The coordinator will also give you our bank details if you have chosen to pay the coach fare by bank transfer. Please check your email, including Spam and/or Junk folders, shortly after bookings have closed for this walk and reply to let us know whether or not you will be still joining the walk.

If you have a waiting list ticket:

The walk coordinator will contact you by email shortly before the walk date to let you know if we are able to offer you a place. Please check your email, including Spam and/or Junk folders, shortly before the walk date and, if we are able to offer you a place, reply to let us know whether or not you will be joining the walk.

If you find that you are unable to join us after booking a ticket it would be helpful if you let us know by - this will be passed on to the walk leader and will prevent any delay to the start of the walk should the leader be waiting for you. Please note that some walks have a waiting list so tickets are NOT TRANSFERABLE; if you are unable to join us then please cancel your place to free it up for someone who may be on the waiting list rather than sending someone else in your place.

Bookings for this walk will close at 06.00 on Monday 20 October. If you would like to join this walk after the bookings have closed please to enquire about any late availability for the walk.

General Information

This is one of several walks and activities offered by the Birmingham Ramblers. If you have found this page through a web search or other means and would like to find out more about the group then please visit the Birmingham Ramblers web site; new members are always welcome.