Acton Scott Historic Working Farm Museum

Acton Scott Historic Working Farm Museum is one of the gems of the Shropshire Hills, close to the market town of Church Stretton, where you can experience every day life on an upland farm at the turn of the last century. Traditional breeds of farm animals populate the fields and farm yard while the Wagoner and his team of heavy horses work the land. There are demonstrations of traditional skills and crafts each day, many offering the chance for visitors to have a go and join in. The busy events programme reflects the changing seasons on the farm and the celebration of the heavy horse  will be a highlight not to be missed.

Boscobel House & The Royal Oak

Bridgnorth

The Library, Listley Street, Bridgnorth,
Shropshire, WV16 4AW.
Email : Click Here
Open all Year : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 9.30am - 5pm In addition April - October Thursday 10am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm.

The remains of Bridgnoth Castle are set on a cliff by the side of the River Severn. Today the castle is little more than a ruin, comprising of a 70 foot tall, 12th century Norman tower and some other small stonework built in the time of Henry II.The tower leans at an alarming angle of 15 degrees, three times greater than that of the leaning tower of Pisa. This is due to an attempt to blow it up during the Civil War.The castle was founded in 1101 by Robert de Belleme, who is reputed to have been a very nasty character. He tortured men and women and even is reported to have gouged his godson’s eyes out with his bare fingernails. He was the son of the French Earl, Roger de Montgomery, and was also a rich and powerful Norman baron who succeeded his father to become the Earl of Shrewsbury.

The museum at Broseley Pipeworks will make 'Church Wardens' of us all, in the pipe-smoking sense that is. The Broseley Pipeworks were abandoned in 1957 closing the door on 350 years of traditional pipe making skills. The site remained abandoned for many years until it was re-opened in 1996 as a part of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums.  Today visitors will find the traditional tools of the job preserved, lying on benches, just as it would have looked when the workers left and the factory closed all those years ago.  At one time, there were three pipe manufacturers in Broseley, making it one of the largest pipe-making areas in the world.  Broseley is the site of the earliest industrial settlements. The museum here acts as a time capsule, preserving the ancient local industry of making clay pipes and other products.

This remarkable funicular railway is the oldest and steepest inland electric cliff railway in the country.Since 1892 it has been transporting residents and visitors alike up and down the 111 ft sandstone cliff between High Town, with its interesting shops, gardens and historic castle grounds, and Low Town with the riverside quay, enjoying the view that Charles I called the finest in his kingdom.The railway operates 2 carriages on parallel tracks. Connected by steel cables, the carriages serve to counterbalance each other. The carriages were originally driven by a system of water balance, each carriage carrying water ballast in a tank beneath the passenger compartment, but since 1943 an electric winding engine has powered the railway.The railway is unique in that it makes its spectacular journey every few minutes throughout the year. The railway is fully accessible to someone with limited mobility and able to walk a few paces and manage 3 steps. A full size wheelchair will need to be folded.

Email:-office@bridgnorthcliffrailway.co.uk
BRIDGNORTH CLIFF
RAILWAY CLICK 

Buildwas Abbey is located along the banks of the river Severn, about 2 miles west of Ironbridge.The Cistercian Abbey of St Mary and St Chad was originally founded in 1135 by Roger de Clinton, bishop of Coventry (1129-48) as a Savignac monastery and was inhabited by a small community of about 6 - 12 monks from Furness who made their income by charging tolls to passing travellers on the bridge over the river Severn.The abbey's location near the border of Wales meant it had a turbulent history. Welsh Princes and their followers would raid the abbey and on one occasion in 1406 raiders from Powys even kidnapped the abbot. Unfortunate perhaps, but not as unfortunate as an incident in 1342 where one of the Buildwas monks, Thomas Tong, murdered his abbot, managing to evade arrest and then audaciously petitioned for re-instatement into the Cistercian order.The abbey was finally closed in 1536 by the order of Henry the Eighth during the dissolution of the monasteries, when the estate was granted to Lord Powys.The abbots house and infirmary were later incorporated into the building of a private house, although the remaining buildings are now in the care of English Heritage and are open to the public, who can view the church which remains largely complete and unaltered since its original construction, although it is now without its roof.The Church remains rank among some of the best preserved twelfth-century examples of a Cistercian church in Britain and a row of original Norman columns still remain, as imposing today as they would have looked during the middle ages.

Medieval traders established its market town status. A weekly Thursday market in the Square keeps the traditional alive, whilst the Stretton Antiques Market in the old Maltings sparked off the current fashion for antique shops in the town. The trend has recently extended to regular "flea markets" in the Square on Tuesdays.

The main street curves gently down to the River Rea. The town is remarkable for the number of its pubs. Even the street names are reminders of vanished inns.A quiet, relaxed and traditional town. Look out for the excellent cakes and pork pies and organic foods Cleobury Mortimer is set on the flanks of the Clee Hills - Titterstone Clee and Brown Clee which has the highest summit south of the Pennines. Surrounded by panoramic views and wonderful walks.Cleobury Church has a crooked spire and walls that lean at an alarming angle.  A quiet, relaxed and traditional town. Look out for the excellent cakes and pork pies and organic foods.

Clun Castle was built in the motte and bailey style around the 1100’s by the Norman, Robert de Say. The original castle would have been built from wooden timbers however, as time progressed these would have been replaced with stone, as was typical with most Norman defensive structures.The position of the Castle may have originally been chosen as a good defensive site, close to the Welsh border where any Welsh troublemakers could be kept under Norman control. The proximity of the confluence between the Rivers Clun and Usk had created a rocky outcrop, which could easily have been used to serve as the motte.It was also in a good position to be able to able to control the movements of people on the Clun-Clee Ridgeway, a historic road where cattle was taken from Wales to markets in the Midlands and London.

The Museum of Iron is adjacent to the original furnace used by Abraham Darby when he first smelted iron ore with coke to produce cheap and plentiful cast iron. The iron produced was then used in the manufacture of cooking pots , rails, wheels and of course the worlds first iron bridge.The pioneering experiments undertaken by generations of the Darby family opened the way for further key developments which made the Gorge the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.The Museum of Iron tells the story of iron smelting up to the Great Exhibition of 1851 where the Coalbrookdale company showed off its finest work.Today the museum houses a collection of particularly fine art casting as a legacy to the great skill and commitment of the Coalbrookdlae Company.The museum has a coffee shop serving tea, coffee, sandwiches and snacks.

Coalport China Museum houses vast displays of two centuries of china, and is home to National collections of Caughley and Coalport porcelain (housed in the original riverside buildings), which were made in the factory from 1796 until 1926 when production moved to the neighbouring county of Staffordshire.Coalport was once one of the country's largest porcelain manufacturers, with a worldwide reputation for fine china. Today the award-winning museum includes a range of exhibits tracing the history of the factory and the lives and working conditions of its workforce.In the old workshops, china painting, clay modelling and china flower making take place regularly and pre-booked one-day courses are available, with expert tuition and museum entry for the enjoyment of children and adults of all ages .visitors can purchase examples of all the fine china from the museum shop.  The slip room cafe serves a variety of refreshments and has a seating capacity of 70 people.

The railway arrived in 1850, other lines in the 1860's and '70's and sheep came in by the tens of thousands for the annual sales. This area is also famous for the beautiful Stokesay Castle. There is now a new reason for stopping: The Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre on the southern edge of the town tells the story of the whole Shropshire Hills landscape.

Picturesque working water mill with 38ft. cast iron waterwheel producing wholemeal flour traditionally. Family owned for 200 years. Guided tours for all visitors.Daniels Mill is set in the idyllic Shropshire countryside, deep in a wooded valley crossed by a 19th Century viaduct carrying the Severn Valley Railway to Bridgnorth. Visitors are taken back in time when the mill wheel turns and a steam train crosses the viaduct at the same time. See whats being turned into flour by the heavy millstones in the traditional way used for centuries and experience the sight and sounds of yesteryear.There is also an exhibition of old country tools and domestic bygones with conducted tours for all visitors to the mill. A gift shop is open and 100% wholemeal flour is available for sale, during weekends and Bank Holidays, tea, coffee and scones made from our own flour mill are available to mill visitors. We are situated near the Severn Valley Railway half a mile from the junction of the Highley (B4555) and Cleobury Mortimer (B4363) roads out of Bridgnorth.Organised parties and schools are welcome by prior appointment throughout the year. Evening parties accepted between May and end of August. Please allow up to 2 hours to visit. Reductions for parties numbering 20 and over. Light refreshments available by arrangment. DUE TO STORM DAMAGE DANIELS MILL IS NOW CLOSED. RE-OPENING DATE TO BE ADVISED.

At the Darby Houses you'll gain an insight into the gracious lifestyle of the Darby family.Rosehill House, was one of the homes of the Darby family and their decendents during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and many of the rooms are lavishly decorated with the original furniture. Adjacent to Rosehill House is Dale House, which includes the original wood-panelled study, where the great Quaker Ironmaster Abraham Darby III finalised his preparations and plans for the construction of the worlds first Iron brige. As you wonder around the Darby Houses, you can read extracts from the personal Darby family papers, giving you further insight into the thoughts of this revolutionary family.

 
Frochas, Welshpool, Shropshire, SY21 9JD
From the junction of the A5/A458 (N) Shrewsbury. Take the A458 to Welshpool turn right on to the A490. Turn left to Dingle nurseries (signposted).
Email:- jill@dinglenurseries.co.uk
DINGLE CLICK  

Late 17th Century mansion with art collection, lakeside garden and estate.The house, with its intimate family rooms contain fine furniture and Dutch Heaver paintings, as well as one of Britain's most important collection of contemporary art in a country house setting. The delightful gardens are a mass of colour in spring and visitors can enjoy walks in the Dingle, a wooded valley, or the popular 'Big Pool' walk. There are also estate walks to and from Hampton Loade.In 1814 Georgiana Wolryche-Whitmore, of Dudmaston married a young mathematician named Charles Babbage. Babbage is thought of as inventing the forerunner of modern computers. He devoted his life to designing large engines capable of undertaking repetitive calculations automatically. He is also known to have invented a code-breaking device, a system of postage and Dudmastons central heating system.

Email:-dudmaston@nationaltrust.org.uk
  NATIONAL TRUST CLICK

Enginuity
Enginuity is the tenth in the series of Ironbridge Gorge Museums and opened in 2002 to acclaim and cries of amazement.Enginuity is a design and technology centre that lets you and your family become apprentice engineers for a while. The museum is split into four 'zones' - Materials, Energy, Design, and Systems & Controls where you can find out how everyday objects by looking inside them. You'll use the latest technology to move a simulated x-ray machine over objects such as an electric guitar, a mobile phone and a teddy bear. You'll experiment with gadgets and gizmos used to design things we see and use everyday. This is your opportnity to fulfil a childhood dream and pull a real 5-ton locomotive. You can even control the flow of water to generate electricity or flood the surrounding villages and you pitch your wits against the speed and accuracy of a robotic arm. The museum also holds an array of weird and wonderful activities throughout the year. Previous events have included puppet designing and constructing and launching rocket-propelled witches! At Enginuity you will discover a wealth of innovative ideas, activities and exhibitions to amuse and challenge all visitors who are young-at-heart.