Telford, The Wrekin & Ironbridge – Ep 11

I’m back on the bike and ready to explore in Shropshire. Using a variety of former railways and country lanes, I check out the centre of the New Town of Telford before heading out in to the beautiful Shropshire countryside. After a few challenging climbs and a trip All Around The Wrekin (literally!), I descend to the Ironbridge Gorge, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and popular tourist destination. But can I avoid the crowds and find somewhere to relax and eat my sausage roll in peace!?

good morning everyone it’s Dave here welcome back to the channel and for another cycling Adventure but before I tell you where I am and what I’m up to today I just want to say firstly thank you very much for everyone who has subscribed to the channel so far I’ve now made it to over 100 subscribers which uh I never thought possible really I didn’t think anyone would be interested in watching me ride my bike around but uh thanks very much for all your continued support secondly sorry there hasn’t been a video for a while the combination of the Great British weather and also my bike going in for service has meant that uh I haven’t been riding as much as i’ light recently but we’re going to change that today I’ll hop on the bike and I’ll tell you where I am and I’ll tell you today’s plan let’s go [Music] so you joined me this morning in the Shropshire town of midley which is one of the constituent towns of tford and the plan today is to explore the area around tford and the Ironbridge Gorge it’s going to be a ride of about 20 or so Miles and uh starting here in midley I’m going to head north into the town center of uh talford from there I’m then going to start to head West out into the Shropshire Countryside making my way up to the pretty Village of little wilock now if you’re not from the West Midlands region you may not have heard of the expression all around the ring now when we say all around the rcking we mean you know taking the long way round to somewhere or going all around the houses so uh on a lot of my bike rides I do go all around the rcking but literally today I will be going all around the rickin the Rin if you don’t know what I’m talking about is a prominent Hill overlooking uh tford and uh the Shropshire Countryside it’s quite a local landmark and today’s plan once I’ve left little wilock is to circumnavigate the rcking and uh take in some of the beautiful shopshire countryside the plan then is to leave little wilock in a southeasterly direction and uh enjoy a descent into the valley of the river 7 where I’ll be passing through to the UNESCO world heritage site of the Iron Bridge Gorge which is uh one of the most important places in the history of the Industrial Revolution in England I’ll be crossing the famous Iron Bridge and then making my way Downstream along the river 7 before turning off back towards midley to complete the loop right let’s get going on a drizzly morning although I’m hoping the sun will come out at some [Music] point okay so the first section of ride today is along an Old Railway line and this is the silken way which connects the seven Valley with Telford Town Center so I’m approaching the uh Center of tford now where I should find the town park and uh I’m actually looking forward to the Trail opening out a little bit uh it’s uh a lovely Railway Old Railway line along here it’s a great surface and it’s very leafy but uh the majority of it seems to be in a cutting so so uh you don’t really get much of a view and I’m feeling a little bit closed in so uh looking forward to it hopefully opening out in a few miles well it’s still a little bit drizzly and uh the sun is trying to come out as I’ve made it as far as Telford Town Center I’ve left the silken way behind now and entered the town park now incidentally the silkin way is so called because it’s named after the labor Minister Lis silin who was responsible for the post-war construction of new towns in England and Telford is one of those Telford is a new town it uh only came into being in the 1960s before that there were four separate uh towns in this area midley where we started a ride dly Oak Gates and Wellington and uh the postwar requirement for housing for people from the West Midlands Birmingham wolver Hampton area led to the construction of a number of New Towns of which Telford is one so those four towns were Amalgamated into the larger town of Telford right for me I’m going to head along this track I’ve got to push my back up a set of steps here which I didn’t realize and then I’ll be heading through the town of Dy and out into the shopshire countryside proper where I’ll Ascend towards Little wilock let’s go right let’s get riding again [Music] good so as I leave tford behind now and I head out into the countryside I’m passing through the village of horse ha and that is home to the tford steam Railway which is this cool place behind me they actually uh have one of the locomotives in Steam at the moment which is pretty cool check it out now as much as I’d uh love to just stand and watch steam trains all day unfortunately I need to face the fact that I have quite a climb ahead of me up to the Village of little windlock but the sun is coming out so uh let’s go and let’s grind it out so I made it up quite a steep hill there and I’m now in the village of little wendlock and I’m just going to take a minute in this uh beautiful uh shelter stroke uh community library and uh I’m going to sit on this bench and I’m going to get my breath back for a sec so little wilock sits high on a hill overlooking the river 7 and The Seven Valley to the South and the rickin to the West now I could just head south towards uh Ironbridge Gorge but uh the sun’s coming out it’s a beautiful day so uh there’s no excuse not to go all around the ricking go the long way around and uh enjoy this beautiful part of shupure so now I’m going to head down to the base of the rickin around the for side and then come back up to the Village along uh a small Lane called spout Lane which looks like quite an incline but uh try not to think about that bit yet so going to enjoy the next phase come on wow so the path behind me there is uh the track which leads all the way up through the woods to the summit of the ricking some 1,300 ft above sea level and with some spectacular views of the shopshire countryside and Beyond and you can see from this uh line of cars here just how popular it is at weekends no Summit for me today I’ll be heading around the far side of the Rick along a road known as the course and then I’ll be joining spout Lane as I Ascend back towards Little windlock oh here’s spout Lane and here’s the incline right it’s uphill all the way now back to little windlock so uh just going to put it in a low gear take my time and grind it out see you at the top well that was a killer of a climb up spout Lane I didn’t uh film too much of it I uh I was busy trying to grind it out and finally I’ve made it to the top and I’m back in the village of little wilock so the for the next stage of the ride is to leave little windlock and head towards the river 7 and it’s going to be a nice flowing downhill as we head through the village of C Brookdale to uh enter the Iron Bridge Gorge there be so I whisked through C Brookdale and uh I’m now in the village of Ironbridge which of course is famous for the Iron Bridge it’s a bit of a tourist trap so uh I might just grab some refreshments quickly and find somewhere quiet to uh replenish before I carry on the ride I’ll turn for what a great downhill that was from uh little windlock down through C Brookdale to Ironbridge and wh through the village and I didn’t even have a chance to tell you anything about its history so uh while I sit and recover I’ll give you a little bit of insight into uh the history of uh this beautiful location here in the heart of Shropshire so the Ironbridge Gorge and C Brookdale in particular were really important locations during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain the valley here has an abundance of raw materials perfect for industry uh coal iron ore Limestone and clay in the 1700s this is where a Abraham dby was the first person to uh smelt iron ore from cing coal which uh helped drive forward the Industrial Revolution as it meant bigger and better iron structures could be built case in point the Iron Bridge here which uh was actually built by Abraham Derby III grandson of the original Abraham Derby in 1779 so 200 odd years later it’s still standing still going strong today I’ve used that bridge to cross over to the South Bank of the river 7 and now I’ve haded my sausage roll and I’ve had my can of pop and I’m going to continue riding Downstream as I complete the loop back towards midley we’re now following another Railway track bed this is actually the seven valy Railway the section between Bridge North and shrewbury is disused and this bit has been converted into a trail the river 7 is on my left but uh is obscured at the moment by undergrowth hoping to get a bit of a view of it further along oh that’s cool the M looks like a trees come down can still get through though so I’ve crossed the jackfield bridge and I’m now back on the North Bank of the river 7 and I just need to find my way back now to the silken Trail which uh seemed ages ago since we were riding on that this morning um that will take us back up out of the valley towards the end point at midley where are we going ah and there we go back on the silken way which will lead me all the way back to the [Music] Finish oh well I made it back to my car in one piece that uh final climb that final mile or so out of the uh seven Valley on the silkin way it’s uh quite a gradient it’s uh a bit of a killer on the legs I’m just uh having a minute in my car sitting in the shade before heading home I hope you enjoyed this ride as much as I did uh really enjoyed uh exploring this part of shopia that I don’t really know too well see you soon for the next one hope you’ll uh hope you’ll join me hope you’ll uh like the video leave me a comment subscribe to the channel and I’ll see you soon for another cycling Adventure here at Smiles per hour I’m Dave and from a very sunny Shropshire see you soon [Music]