My “Things to Do” series is carrying on, this time with Church Stretton.
Church Stretton is the only town in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, all the hills surrounding are included within the designation.
Carding Mill Valley is walking distance from the town and is owned by the National Trust along with Long Mynd. Parking in Carding Mill Valley is pay and display.
Carding Mill Valley is a great place from which to start your walks over Long Mynd. It is also a lovely place for a picnic, bird watching and pond dipping or paddling in the stream.
The Chalet Pavilion along Carding Mill Valley has a tea room, shop and second hand bookshop.
The Long Mynd, above Church Stretton, is historic upland heath. It is made up of some of the oldest rocks in Britain, pushed up from the Church Stretton Fault. It is open access, so great walking with archaeological sites from Bronze and Iron Age and Medieval times to explore.
Long Mynd is a designated Dark Sky Discovery site with four locations across the Mynd where you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye.
As Long Mynd has open access you can stargaze wherever and whenever you feel the urge.
You can walk or drive up onto Long Mynd.
The Midland Gliding Club where you can watch gliders, paragliding and hang gliding. It is also possible to book a flight for a fee and they also run courses and will teach you to fly/glide.
St Lawrence’s Church in Church Stretton, is a Norman Church with some of its Anglo Saxon origins still visible. See if you can find the Sheela na gig: a fertility symbol carved in stone.
Caer Caradoc, on the eastern side of the A49 has an impressive Iron Age Hillfort and there is also a cave below it. But be careful.
There are lots of hills to explore around Church Stretton, Ragleth, Lawley and Bowdler.
Church Stretton Golf Course is the oldest eighteen hole course in Salop.
Church Stretton has some interesting shops, one of my favourite Wool Shops is here. There is an antique centre and interesting food shops.
The photograpeh used in the header of this blog post was taken from half way up Ragleth Hill, and is from Wikipedia. It is is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
