Route 22 The Wharf at Whitchurch, c1955 Brown Moss Nature Reserve to Whitchurch &

The new Way Copyright Francis Frith Collection The original route of the north of Wem went in a straight No one quite knows whence its name a wartime bomber airbase. If you like line up to Grindley Brook. Though derives. There are three options, so take seriously big all-day breakfasts don’t direct, it bypassed such jewels as the your pick. From the old English: Wamm – miss the truck stop cafés. butterfly haven of Heath, uniquely a stain (marshy ground); Wenn – swelling juxtaposed with its wonderful truck or wart (a small hill); Hwemm – corner. Whitchurch – mystery with stop cafes, the floating bogs of wild yet Perhaps the first settlement was in a chemistry accessible Brown Moss and the market corner of a marsh on slight rise. town delights of Whitchurch. Whitchurch lays claim to be the site Leaving Wem heading north you will of the Roman town of Mediolanum. A wide variety of dwellings can be seen need to be quite observant to spot the It is on a direct line between along the way. Ancient ‘colonist’ cottages delightful walkway/alley that runs parallel and Wroxeter (Viroconium) and has a (originally lone houses in a woodland and to the west of the B5476. It has Roman-style street plan. The mystery of clearing raised a couple of feet above proved difficult to sign effectively so you Mediolanum derives from the ancient wet ground) rub boundary fences with will just have to discover it for yourself. writers who did not specify the location substantial ornate Victorian farm houses. – they just assumed everyone knew Brown Moss and Prees Heath where it was. At Grindley Brook, just north of Whitchurch, there is an impressive flight Brown Moss and parts of Prees Heath The route into Whitchurch from the of ‘staircase’ locks and a delightful tea Common are Sites of Special Scientific south takes you along Dodington with room. This is a veritable Piccadilly Circus Interest (SSSI). Attractive, though its classical frontages, past the former of long distance footpaths where the potentially invasive, woodland surrounds canal wharfage and into Jubilee Park , the South a number of mosses and pools. Prees (1897). The path runs through the Way, The and of course the Heath Common Reserve is managed nature-rich Whitchurch Waterway Shropshire Way all meet up. by Butterfly Conservation. Its ‘star turn’ Country Park, with an optional detour to comes in June and July, when the rare the Greenfields Nature Reserve. silver-studded blue butterfly emerges. It Wem – so good they named it The canal arm that links the edge has a remarkable symbiotic relationship of town to Grindley Brook and the thrice with ants. The environmental challenge Shropshire Union is at the curiously This small with Norman here is to reduce the fertility of the soil named Chemistry – an area seemingly origins and the hub of seven roads is so that butterfly-friendly heathers can named by a combination of the personal the ‘home of the modern sweet pea’. It is flourish once more. name Chem with tree (old English for Wem High Street famous for being successfully defended by its women against the Royalists in the The old control tower is an obvious cross as in – St Oswald’s Cross) Civil War. pointer to Prees Heath’s short life as thus Chem’s Tree.

The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas Grindley Brook Locks

Discover Shropshire Route 22 A41 B5395 DIFFICULTY: some tricky field boundaries.

Grindley Brook Grindley Brook A49 Locks B5476 Blake Mere 14¼ miles / 23 kilometres B5395 Greenfields WHITCHURCH Danson’s Bridge Nature Reserve

Lift Bridge A525 Chemistry B5398 Broughall A525 Waymills A525

Silver-studded blue at A41 Prees Heath Pan Castle Motte & Bailey Y Edgeley WA B5476 Ash Magna DISMANTLED RAIL Brown A495 Moss

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Prees 01KILOMETRES 2

Shropshire Tilstock Heath 0 MILES 1

Fenn’s Moss Steel Heath

Marl Hollinwood Higher Moss Allotment A49 Heath B5476 A41 Morris’ Bridge Roving Bridge P r e Allman’s Bridge e s

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c h Whixall

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a n Dobson’s Bridge a

l Marina Prees Prees Branch Canal Moat Nature Reserve Abbey Green

COURSE OF CANA Old farm buildings at Edstaston Wharf

L Edstaston Wharf Edstaston Route Profile

120m Moat 100m 80m Kilometres 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 60m B5476 Miles 1234 56789101112 13 14 Moat

WEM You are not permitted to copy, sub-licence, distribute or sell any of this data to third B5065 parties in any form. River Roden © Crown copyright and database rights B5063 2012 Ordnance Survey 100049049

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