Today we were joined by Daniel and Barney (who left his rucksack at home!) for our walk to Leominster.
Today was the last “shorter” day of the adventure (apart from the very last day) so we left Church Stretton after a more leisurely breakfast. Church Stretton was nicknamed Little Switzerland in the late Victorian and Edwardian period for its landscape and the way houses hugged the hills, and became a health resort. The local geology includes some of the oldest rocks in England and a notable fault is named after the town.
The next few hours were a lovely walk down quiet roads as we made our way towards Ludlow. A few steepish hills to walk up (and down) but nothing too strenuous – we even met a couple of lads on a tandem were riding up to John O’Groats.
We walked into Ludlow and our lunch break. Ludlow has nearly 500 listed buildings including examples of medieval and Tudor-style half-timbered buildings. The town was described by Sir John Betjeman as “probably the loveliest town in England”. The placename “Lodelowe” was in use for this site before 1138 and comes from the Old English “hlud-hlǣw”. At the time this section of the River Teme contained rapids, and so the hlud of Ludlow came from “the loud waters”, while hlǣw meant “hill” or tumulus – thus the name Ludlow describes a place on a hill by the loud waters.
As we continued our way to Leominster (pronounced Lemster) the sun continued to shine and we moved from Shropshire into Herefordshire.
Our route took us through Liston and some more lovely old houses – on the way up the hill out of town, Paul managed to flag down a passing Mr Whippy van – the ice creams were very welcome. Not too long after we arrived in Leominster.
This was a long week – we have walked for 7 days straight, covered nearly 210 miles (333 km) in a journey from Carlisle to Leominster. Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day and then we have a mega week before our final rest day.
Huge thanks to Daniel and Barney for their company and for taking the time out to join us on our walk.
And finally, thanks to Utilize_Plc for sponsoring todays leg.
