18th July 2024: Melverley (mod+)

I had planned to follow a route last done in February 2020, when Steve Haywood took us down to The Royal Inn on the banks of the River Severn between Pentre and Melverly. The mod+ group would comprise of Clive, Steve Hu, Alan, Nick, Steve T and new member Kevin. (Welcome Kevin, it’s good to have you with us).

We set off down the hill from Chirk and, having negotiated the busy A5 roundabout, we soon got onto quieter lanes heading towards HIndford. Between there and Welsh Frankton, these can be very muddy when it’s wet, but they were not too bad today even after all the rain we had last week and over the weekend.

As we approached Lower Frankton, a Land Rover came along the narrow lane and passed me just as I got to a large pothole which I couldn’t avoid. So I came off into the grass banking at the side of me, fortunately without any injury, but losing the mirror from the left side of my handlebars.

The ride continued without incident until just after we’d left West Felton when I sensed a lack of air in my rear tyre. We stopped and pumped it up, but had to stop again shortly afterwards to put more air in. The plan was to sort it out properly at the lunch stop, which we reached having passed the radio telescope at Knockin.

We ordered our food and then basked in the sunshine at a table outside. Setting about fixing the ‘puncture’ turned out to be difficult as no thorn, nail, tack or other penetrating object could  be found and the inner tube showed not obvious sign of leakage. A new inner was to be the solution, but I had to scrounge one from Alan as the one from my saddlebag refused to let any air in!

Lunch soon came with the ham egg and chips proving the most popular choice, and the Three Tuns beer also popular. Before leaving we persuaded a pub customer to take the group photo.

We headed west for a couple of miles to the village of Melverley and stopped to look at St Peter’s Church, built using a timber frame, wattle and daub and held together by pegs rather than nails.

Photo by SHu

There has been a place of Christian worship in Melverley for about 1000 years. In 1141 Ordericus Vitalis mentions a ‘wooden chapel on the banks of the river above Shrewsbury’. In 1401 this church was burnt by the Welsh chieftain Owain Glyndwr. It was rebuilt in 1406 from local oak.  In the early 1990’s a major effort succeeded in protecting it from falling into the River Vyrnwy.  As a result, Melverley was given a “most motivated village” award. A plaque recording this is at the gate to the church. If you look at the CER blog for February 6^th 2020, you can find more photos of the church.

Our route back took us through Maesbrook,  Maesbury Marsh and Whittington, past the Orthopaedic Hospital at Gobowen.  We then climbed up to Weston Rhyn before plunging down into the Ceiriog valley followed by the climb up into Chirk.

42 miles covered at a respectable 14.3 mph on a fine, dry and very warm (24°C) day. I apologise if much of this report has been about me, but most of the issues seemed revolve around me today. I’m hoping for a quieter week next week!

ST

See route map and/or gpx file download