Minsterley Motors run the bus service between Shrewsbury. The buses are clean, comfortable and punctual
Today we made sure we were at the right bus stop and managed to catch the bus to Bishops castle along with a fairly large party of hikers who left us at Pontesford and were walking over to Craven Arms.
Just after Minsterley the bus entered a dark tunnel of trees and went along a narrow valley for several miles. Once out of the trees the area is heavily into sheep farming with cattle and some horses as well.
There is a small square above the town hall which always has a couple of cats. This one ignored us and continued its bath.
Small flowers growing on a stone wall
This octagonal building is at the Bowls Club. It is a listed building - even the central wooden pillar is octagonal
The colours and variety of the wildflowers were astounding
We went up the main street and into the countryside above. We sat for some time in a plethora of flowers and were deafened by the noise of the birds. It was cloudy but it was quite warm and very pleasant.
Roses are in full bloom at present
Five Three Tuns cask ales avaiable
We had lunch as usual at the Three Tuns pub which is right next to the brewery - the oldest licensed brewery in England. It was pretty good. As expected the fish and chips was excellent although a little too much. Mary tried a different gin favored with rhubarb. It was pretty good but a little sweet.
We had plenty of time to wait for the bus back and had a look around the lower town.
This is the Six Bells, the other brewery in town
This house is opposite to the bus stop but is frequently difficult to photograph because of cars parked in front.
As expected the bus arrived almost ten minutes early to our stop to allow the school kids time to jump out and visit the sweet shop across the street. The driver knew when they had all returned and everyone ignored the sign on the bus about no drinks or food allowed. Some of these school kids have a long ride into school at Bishops Castle and three or four were met by a parent in a mini van to take them to their homes. I assume they all live on farms.
The weather brightened up this afternoon and we had a very enjoyable day. What strikes us here is the incredibly peaceful atmosphere, even though the birds make a lot of noise.
We had planned to go to Bishops Castle today but waited at the wrong bus stop so we decided to visit the old flax mill at Ditherington. This is a short distance out of the centre in a run down part of town. https://historicengland.org.uk/get-involved/visit/shrewsbury-flax-mill/
The flax mill is a set of large buildings the original one being the first to be built with cast iron. It is therefore billed as the world's first sky scraper. It was first used to make linen and then became a malting which closed in 1989. The building has now been taken over by a Historic England and is being restored. It was built to be fireproof with no open woodwork. When completed it will be an extraordinary building with great potential.
The building is not open to the public and the visitor centre is only open at weekends but the man in the office kindly opened the centre for us and ran the introductory video presentation which was excellent. It will be worth a return in a couple of years.
We walked back into town along the Shrewsbury Canal Footpath, no canal at present but there are plans to restore it. Along the path were many large growths of wild roses
We had lunch at the Armoury to use up some coupons.
There were some longhorn cattle grazing in the fields alongside the river by the boathouses. With warm sunny weather the walk was very pleasant indeed.
The River Festival was held today in the Quarry, It was very busy but because of the space available it didn't feel over crowded. There were lots of food and drink stands and public service institutions were well represented. The kids loved putting on a police helmet and pretending to drive a police car.
These were very popular with the small kids who could but others around
Amazing paint job
There was a hand built raft race which was enjoyed by everyone, The rafts were followed carefully to ensure there were no mishaps.
The swans and ducks got out of the way, the swans by flying low downstream.
The event was well attended and families had a great time.
This evening we walked in the area to the other side of the Kingsland bridge. The houses are all large and well looked after, a little bit like Rockcliffe but without the embassies.
This is the object of my journey, a Vale of Rheidol two foot gauge steam locomotive at Devils Bridge.
The rain storm must have been pretty severe last night as there were sand bags on shop latch as well as lots of pieces of moss which had been uprooted by the rain and came down the drain pipes.
The train to Aberystwyth was supposed to have gone from platform 3 but finished up leaving from platform 5. OK for me but a climb and a walk for a couple with small children.
Good view of the largest mechanical interlocking box in the world
One curious feature of the signals in Shrewsbury - this puddle jumper from Crewe comes into the station under a lower quadrant GWR signal.
The same train, on its way back leaves under an upper quadrant LMS signal
The trip was made on time through the beautiful mid Wales countryside. Lots of sheep and some purebred horses. It was enlivened by a party f large women who were going to Borth to celebrate a 60th birthday and had the balloons to prove it. We climbed up to Talerddig and then the was the long down slope through to Machynlleth. An Osprey was sitting on the nest at Dovey Junction
To prepare myself for the trip I had a beer and a Shropshire cheese pork pie at the Weatherspoons pub in the station. The seating area was completely sealed with wire netting - not sure whether this was to keep the pigeons out or the drinkers in
There was plenty of time to buy my ticket and still too much time to look around the town. Aberystwyth can really only be described as scumbag central. There was lots of large ladies who had grown copious amounts of skin for their tattoos. They were accompanied by equally large, loud men with lots of noisy kids who were using ice cream cones for face painting and lethal weapons.
Someone said that a donkey had escaped and was wandering around the town. It would be difficult to spot among the other scabrous inhabitants
This reminded me about the rock shop owner who was put out of business by a disgruntled employee. He finished up with a quarter of a mile of rock with "Bugger Off" written through t.
Treacke tart - the nearest treacle mine would be at Wem in Shropshire
The earlier train from Devils Bridge arrived at Aberystwyth
The engine ran round its train, took coal and water and coupled on to the other end
I was surprised to see a second train running today. This was returning empty after rnning a private wedding train up to Devils Bridge
Nicely polished copper cap to the chimney/stack
On the climb up to Devils Bridge the engine was working hard. The beats were clean and it sounded square.
At Devils Bridge I didn't feel like walking along the narrow road to the falls so I just wandered around
A great feature of all GWR engines was the varnished hardwood handles to the steam valves which could be turned by hand as they didn't get hot and there was no need to hit them with the coal pick as frequently happened on other engines
Lots of purple rhododendrons in full bloom
I was interested to see they still use corks to stopper the oil cellars
GWR insignias on the carriages
On the way back, two red kites were circling the valley looking for small animals.
The narrow gauge came in a little early, we passed a cricket match on the outskirts of town - the players all stopped to wave at the train. The journey back was full but relatively uneventful. Four people sat opposite around a table with a large retriever sitting on the table. The light was beautiful and I enjoyed the climb up to Talerddig - we went up as fast as we had come down this morning. The steam engines had quite a job to get up here.
It was a great day and it seems both Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury managed to dodge the heavy storms moving across the country.
I thought I would see what the camera on my cell phone will do. This is the moss on the bedroom window sill - about half an inch high
The river was calm again this morning,
There was a solitary wood duck among the mallards
The English Bridge
After a drink at the Three Fishes we made our way towards home wondering what to have for lunch - and then stumbled upon the Farmers Market in the old market square which is held on the first Friday of each month. There was a hog roast.
Lunch problem solved
It rained very heavily this afternoon which justified our decision not to go to Bishops Castle because the weather forecast was for heavy rain.
