7th October 2010: Ludlow

Seven of us (Liz and Martin, Bryan, Ivan, Dave H, Jim and Clive) gathered in Church Stretton at Flinders Café at 0900 for a 0930 start.  It was marginally chilly but given it is early October, the rest of the day did not disappoint at all.  Taking the B road out to Little Stretton, we were soon into the narrow and rather mucky lanes that characterised the majority of the riding for the day.  Although about 3 miles out we were still not warmed up sufficiently for the short single chevroned hill in Minton.  The largely downhill run to Horderley did not really warm us up either for the coming long hill by Ridgeway Hill up to Edgton.  We were certainly warm after it though!  A left and right took us down the quiet Hopesay valley to Ashton upon Clun.

Photographs by Ivan Davenport

Pausing to read about the ancient tree in the village, we were off via Beambridge towards Twitchen but going off-piste by taking the much wooded (debris on the tarmac that is) and narrow Clunbury “bypass”.  At Hopton, we stopped briefly to look at the castle ruin sheathed in scaffolding and plastic sheeting as it was in the process of being restored thanks to lottery money – it has featured on Time Team in 2009 (see http://www.hoptoncastle.org.uk/).  Up the lane to Bedstone, we came upon the cyclist nemesis – a tractor trimming the hedges!  Squeezing past, we pedalled the next mile slowly in trepidation of picking up a puncture; but thankfully the whole ride was incident free.  Taking Jay Lane out of Bedstone, we crossed the river Clun valley into Leintwardine.  Keeping to the north of the river into Pipe Aston, we had a pleasant run as the sun came out from behind the mist.  From here to Ludlow is 4 miles and 400ft of slow climb up followed by an exhilarating long run down to the viewpoint overlooking Ludlow Castle.

Arriving a little earlier than I expected with 29 miles completed, we took a turn around picturesque Ludlow before arriving at the Charlton Arms by the bridge over river Teme. The Charlton Arms did us proud with wholesome food and beer promptly served at reasonable prices – we even had a table already laid for us.  The next 18 miles to the Wenlock Edge pub at Hill Top, right on the Wenlock Edge road, was extremely pleasant with the warm wind behind us and the sun shining.  This route up Corvedale winds through hamlet after hamlet, and despite a couple of route queries from the SatMap users, we ended up at the pub without mishap.

Dave and Jim decided to take the direct route back to Church Stretton along the ridge; so we said goodbye to them as we had our afternoon drink. Setting off for Church Stretton, we dived off the Edge down towards Longville in the Dale crossing the disused railway line that forms part of the Jack Mytton long distance footpath.  It is named after Jack Mytton (1796–1834) a Shropshire landowner, MP, horseman, foxhunter, gambler and Regency rake who was also known as Mad Jack.  It typically takes a week to ride on horseback.  Enough of Wikipedia: after Cardington, there were just a couple of hills to get over to enable us to get around Caer Caradoc (459m) that looms majestically over Church Stretton.  Arriving back at 1615pm after 58 miles, we set out to find Dave and Jim whose car was still in the car park.  They were found at Acorn Café, were we all decided on an end of day tea and cake at this quirky whole food café before the journey back to Chester.  Being the last Special Ride of 2010, this ride complemented the other Special Rides this year in the finest traditions of CER.

See route map and/or gpx file download.

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