Adstone Hill

Inspired by the website Shropshire & Beyond, we drove to Bridges (SO 393965) to walk up Adstone Hill and the first thing we saw – anyone sees – was/is the pub (#1).  Drovers’ Inn?  Of course, why else was it there?  And it was heaving with folk, happy and on holiday.  We joined them.

After a refreshing pint of Ginger Beer shandy, we went up the hill to the south of the pub until we found a gate, after which we took the middle path of three – and found a bite of paradise (#2).  Not a house, not a sound except the bleating of protest from the sheep all around us.  (Btw, the white squares on the right in #2 are thistles, not corralled sheep.  Thistles in squares?  Beats me.)

On and up, until we reached the double row of hawthorns (#3) the writer of Shropshire & Beyond salivated so much about that we caught his/her enthusiasm and came far out of our way to see.  What a majestic old hedge and what a marvellous plant is the hawthorn: drought- and flood-resistant, it will grow anywhere – and so thick (no longer in this case!) that no sheep or bullock would even dream of taking it on.  These oldies must be 250-y-o, planted when droving was in its infancy.  One must even query why a hedge was needed at all on a hill in the midst of nowhere, but cattle stray.  They are contrary creatures.  DJ Williams tells of a farmer who took a week to recover his lost beasts after a stampede.

All good things come to an end, and this end was tarmac (#4).  Good view south, though, but I’m not sure most drovers saw it; we think most droves across Adstone Hill were moving north to Shrewsbury, the reason for that being the pines in #5, used surely to indicate the inn ahead?  Shrewsbury was an important railhead for drovers from Montgomery and Mid-Wales…

However, I stand to be corrected.  If the pines, as we think, were way-markers, the inn below would need the marker, not the hill behind…  Let me know your thoughts!