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Changed; 18-05-2025
This was a lovely, warm week following a very cold previous week from May 9th to 16th. One of HF Holiday's discounted holidays in their newer, very large house, which this week had about 70 guests and 68 rooms. The number of people on guided walks is limited by the number of leaders and the capacity of the large coach. HF bring in an extra walk leader, so there are four leaders to lead two groups on the most popular of three walk levels without one of the groups becoming too large.
I was on a self-guided walk week. I think many stayed a week and 30-40 were on 3 or 4 day breaks. Usually a bigger percentage chose shorter break holidays, I have observed else where.
Arrival day HF have had this house, Long Mynd, 4 years and have spent £4 million on it. I think it had been a hospital at one time.
Walk around the grounds, the swimming pool has been filled in, its energy bill would have been high.
Friday - Arrival Day
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I had coming by train, and had walked up the left side among the trees of this slope.
One of the churches and this pub had nice pictures on the wall
Back after taking the Shuttle Bus to long Mynd & Stripperstones, which was good.
Saturday -- Church Stretton, Staffordshire, has lots of activities for their retired residents. My walk around the town and taking pictures.
Walk up hill yesterday with my rucksack to the house apparently the local taxi's can't be relied on, and the taxi's from Shrewsbury, further away would be expensive.
There is a longer windy route on a narrow lane, but the slope is not so severe, one of the bus stops is just at the bottom of this lane.
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I used a Doro 8030 smartphone to take pictures, they are not as good as if I had used my IXUS but are okay enough.
Sunday -- One of the self-guided walks and HF dinner, vegan desert later. There is a library of walks at each of the houses, they are laminated for protected, have clear instructions and include photos.
One of the few more exotic vegan deserts. You could eat the chocolate tort, sprig of mint, the sweet baked fruit and the marshmallow/cream individually or eat the items together to get something else out of it.
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Ludlow. What is noticeable about Shropshire are the old builds that are liked and used.
The flowing water is lovely.
Monday -- Ludlow - a regular bus ride. Of the places you must see when you visit anywhere, this is one of the best.
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Bus terminus looking towards Shrewsbury rail station.
The closed market, a café stop and the top floor view.
Tuesdays -- Shrewsbury - a regular bus ride but in the other direction. Churches, an Abby and a Cathedral to see, plus a nice park following the River Seven. An old Market and a new market, which I had a coffee and took a rooftop view from.
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The back of the house, where the swimming pool was once. On arrival/free days, coffee and scones were offered. At this house, a vegan scone was also available with jam and spread. The dinning room was lovely with those big windows and mirrors opposite, so everyone had a lovely view. Unfortunate, the common areas are echoe and were very hard on my ears, so with Freshwater Bay I needed to find a quieter place such as my room after a while.
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Wednesday -- Stokesay Castle, house garden and church very beautiful - bus ride and short walk on a footpath by a main road then up a short lane. The bus stop is at the Shrewsbury Discovery Centre, and the road crossing at Craven Arms (is the town's name) is an easier place to cross the road.
If you dare cross the fast part of the main road by the castle, which I did not dare, there is a nicer footpath through a more scenic area, I am told, it comes out at the discovery centre. The path is a little north of where the end of the lane joins the A49, you will see the drop-down to the path the other side of the A49 road.
English Nature lend visitors a machine with recorded descriptions of different parts of your visit you can play as you walk around, it is clearer though of course an impersonal guide. This guide was very good.
Back to Church Stretton which has plenty of cake shops, some have a vegan option. Pubs with nice beers.
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Thursday -- Last day - recreation ground Church Stretton, briefly watching lady's bowling. My permanent sore throat or formerly would have been a runny nose cleared up whilst I had been away from so much vehicle fumes at home.
New Rail Station one side of the bridge and the old station master's home the other side.
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Friday -- the train journey home had some train delays and cancellations but was easily, and I got a seat on each section of the journey. By comparison, the trains coming were all on time and I got seats on all but the last train, which was uncomfortably cramped because of the badly placed seats and tables.
Apparently the trains that stop at Church Stretton are not reliable, so the good provision of bicycle storage is not used, though there are a lot of cyclists who would like to use them, but they are not sure that they can get home with their bikes.
Avanti appear to offer a lot of good bicycle storage, but I am told it is difficult to lift the bike to stand it up and hook it in place. My experience of taking a bicycle on a train is that you need to be sure about the route and the space available for your bicycle. I mostly only put a bicycle on a train in my own region and have tried putting a folding bike on a bus, successfully, but that was hard work.
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