Firm your wobbly bits! The Hook-a-gate Hop The Ramble Brisk walking can keep you healthy and help Start at Parr’s lane, (off Overdale Road). 1 Follow the From Overdale Road, go down Hanley Lane to the bend. 4 Go control weight. Walk a mile a day (roughly 15 path at the end, through gate and into the field. Following the line of the hedge on your right walk around the side through the kissing gate on your right. to 20 minutes) and try to walk for at least 150 of the field. The path goes through woodland until you minutes a week. come to a more open area with gorse (prickly You can fit more walking into you life by: 2 Continue straight ahead ignoring the gaps in the bushes with yellow flowers). hedge. At the far end a kissing gate leads into the next u Walk to the local shops instead of using the field. If you’re very lucky you might see a car Kingfisher. They are cobalt-blue and u Walk your children to school In Medieval Times, this entire area was part of the orange-chestnut in colour, but they u Try a family ramble at the weekend Royal Hunting Forest of Lythwood. Hook-a-gate was the fly at such high speed that all you “gateway” into the forest. usually see is a flash of brilliant blue. u Walk to the bus stop and take the bus into town Keep following the hedge which bends round to your 5 Here the path joins the Kingfisher Way. At the right, following the ditch (There are lovely open views waymarked post, fork right down the bank to the brook. from this field). Follow the path over the stile, down Go over the stile and follow the Rea Brook along to the Walking Tips alongside the ditch, past the old school at Hook-a-Gate to point where it goes under the bypass. join the road by the phone box. 6 Stay along this side of the bypass until you are half u All you need is a pair of shoes, fairly flat ‘The Cygnets’ pub serves lunches. It has a beer garden way along the field. Turn right (fingerpost) and follow the with good support (arches and ankles) and children’s play area. Alternatively visit the New Inn path up the middle to Pulley Lane. Cross the road and turn which also serves food. u Walk a short distance then stretch your calf right and immediately sharp left down the footpath on the muscles and hamstrings old lane (signed as a cycle route). Go through the kissing Turn right and follow the road down through the gate on the right before the barn of Pulley House. Carry u If you’re going for a longer walk: carry village to the footpath sign pointing right, 3 leading straight ahead through the first field, through the kissing drinking water and wear suitable clothing through large gates “Private Road, Public Footpath”. gate on the left hand corner (signposted Way) (layers are good as you can add or remove Continue through the farmyard, go straight ahead to the and into the second field. Keep straight on. clothes depending on the weather) waymarked gate, u Please do respect the Country Code: take your then steeply up 7 When you are level with farm outbuildings (on your the narrow path. left), turn right and head towards the big oak tree, and up litter home, leave gates as you find them, through the next field to The Castle – the tall white house and try to keep to the way-marked paths. 4 The track at the top of the field. Then over the stile into Castle Lane u If you are walking with dogs: keep them on widens as you follow it back up to and out on to Lythwood Road. a lead near farmland, take extra care when Hanley Lane and Overdale Road. crossing fields with cows and calves, and ‘The Maltings’ (In Lythwood Road by the vets) was used until 1920. To make the malt (used in beer) the raw keep them away from streams, and take a There have been sightings of barley was soaked in water, then spread on the floor Otters in the Rea Brook. These plastic bag to clean up any and kept at a temperature of 60ºF to germinate. After rare mammals are under threat in this it was kilned (dried and cured) at 172ºF. The higher mess. due to the increased use the temperature at the final stage the darker the malt. u For extra interest; of pesticides. The best time to consider buying a see an otter is at dawn or dusk To return to the starting point: turn right up Lythwood compass and pedometer when they are more active. If you are walking with your road, right into Lansdowne road and at the cross-roads (this gives you details dog - please keep him away (mini roundabout) left into Overdale road. of your walking speed from the water as he might and how far you have disturb the wildlife living in and around the brook. walked). 17 18 19

G O Pulley R S Hall E LA & Barns NE

Cygnets Upper Pulley Church The Three Fishes New Inn Playground 16 SHARPS Quarry TON ES LANE Plant

Shops & PO

Community The Beeches Woodland Shops & The Parish Compasses O ce Yards Bowling Church Green Pavilion 0 100200 300 400 500 BMX Games Lythwood Track Courts Hall

Community Woodland & Orchard

Bayston Farm

Sharpstones Circular © Crown copyright and database rights Shropshire Way 2011 Ordnance Survey 100049049 Bus Stops You are not permitted to copy, sub-licence, distribute or sell any of this data to third parties in any form. The Pulley Stroll The Peacock Panorama

Start at the shops in Lansdowne Road, turn left into Lythwood From the Library in Lythwood Road, go along Glebe Road. Road, then take the first left into Castle Lane, go up the lane, Take the path on the left between the old school through the kissing gate to the left of the tall white house. and the church to the Glebelands playing fields.!

The big white house is called the Castle. It used to be Cut diagonally across to the gate by the Scout More walks? a small farm of 9 acres. There was never a castle here and Guide hut, turn right on the road and - it’s more likely that the farmer who lived here chose immediately left into Yew Tree Drive. the name to impress his neighbours! To find out more about walking in Go left up the alley between no.s 66 and 68. Keep right at the metal barrier then go the kissing Shropshire visit our website at: Head straight down the field to the big oak tree and into the gate into the field, follow the hedge up to the top left next field. Carry on to point7 then turn right, follow the # www.shropshirewalking.co.uk hand corner of the field and go over the next stile. path, over the footbridge over Bran brook, on to the substation in Lower Pulley Lane. Turn right and walk up towards the A49. This walk has panoramic views: in the first field look or scan with your smartphone At the junction turn left down the A49 to The Three Fishes pub back for a view over and North Shropshire; and the start of the Sharpstone Quarry Circular Walk ). OR: in the second field look right for westward views of Here you can find hundreds of Cross the A49 into Cross Lane. where two tracks cross. Turn Pontesford and the Stiperstones; in the third field, look right up the narrow track to The Common. 8 left for views East to the Wrekin. walks to download including:  The Shropshire Way You can see Sharpstones Quarry which is owned by Skirt round the left hand edge of this second field. Take Tarmac. It’s a mile long and covers 133 acres. They the next stile on your left into the third field. Turn right  Circular walks extract one million tonnes of stone every year - that’s and go along the right-hand field edge (follow overhead 4,000 tonnes every day. lines). At the second electricity pole, turn left across the  Easy Access walks field, in-line with three oak trees.

 Family Friendly walks Turn right and walk down the road (past the old church) to Go over the stile to the left of the final oak tree, along the  Walking for Heath walks the A49. Carefully cross main road via refuge and go left path between the gardens and out onto Lyth Hill Road. up the A49. Carry on over cross roads junction opposite The Cross the road to the gate $ to enjoy the view eastwards.  Podcasts Compasses pub to end of the built-up area. FOR AN ALTERNATIVE WALK: turn right up the road to  Maps and guides ‘The Compasses Inn’ has a beer garden backing on to Lyth Hill and Spring Coppice. Further details of walks on The Common. Lyth Hill are available at Library or on the Acknowledgements web www.shropshirewalking.co.uk 9 At the first field on the right, go through the kissing gate in the near corner. Head straight up the field, With thanks to Pat Moore, See the Wrekin, Ironbridge Power Station and . follow the path round the top of the field and through a Gerry Lawson and Ted Clarke for Turn left down the road (face oncoming traffic for safety). waymarked wooden gate in to the alleyway which bends walking and checking the route back into Betley Lane. information in this leaflet. A wide variety of plants grow in the high-banked hedge Artwork by MA Creative, Shrewsbury on your right. To work out how old a section of hedge Go up the lane. Take the first turn on the right onto Lyth is - count the number of different species of trees you www.macreative.co.uk Hill Road. Cross over. Turn right down the road. Next can see growing in it – It’s roughly 100 years old for to house number 72, take the narrow drive on the left every species you can find! leading to the Glebelands playing fields. At the fence turn left and follow the footpath on to the playing field. Follow You may hear and see the peacocks at The White House on the old school boundary to the gate in the right hand your right. They can often be seen strutting in the road. corner of the playing field. For a short detour with views over Condover and the Follow the footpath out on to Glebe Road. Turn right, back Wrekin, go through the kissing gate on the right into www.2shrop.net/baystonhill to Lythwood Road by the Library, then turn left and follow the Horse Fields just before you re-enter Bayston Hill. the road downhill to the start point.! Continue down Lyth Hill Road, just past Road and OR c) turn right in to Glebe Road then first right into immediately before no. 103 turn right into Betley Lane. Yew Tree Drive, then right at the public footpath sign Follow the lane around and at ‘Bolventur’ turn left and alongside house no. 40, through the kissing gate and out on to Lyth Hill Road. See the Pulley Stroll directions for straight on across the field to join the“Peacock Panorama” returning across the Glebelands to the library. beyond Point #. The Lythwood Wander Sharpstones Circular

By kind permission of and Bayston Hill Parish Council. Start at the ‘Three Fishes’ pub ) and cross the A49, with care, onto old Sharpstones Lane opposite. Passing behind From Overdale Road go down Parr’s Lane to the end. Turn the bus stop, between the cottages and the hedged utility left along the alleyway and into Mayfield Grove and carry cabin, follow the lane down past the bungalows to the on along the cul-de-sac. At the cross-roads go straight across bottom and turn right over the railway bridge into the up Mayfield Grove to the ‘T’ junction at the top (Brookfield). quarry processing area.

Turn right along Brookfield and turn right after house no. Be very wary of busy lorry traffic in this area and carefully 34. Go through the gateway at the end of the road, and follow the direction notices on the buildings up through follow the easy access path down to Parrs Pool. Take the the yellow gateway, along the lane and round the bend circular route around the pool and over the boardwalk (see towards Bomere Farm. About 500m downhill where the ducks and moorhens) lane branches left you will see a kissing gate which takes you up the new path around the top edge of the quarry The Community Woodland is planted to recreate a Medieval workings. As you climb to the highest point look out on coppice wood. The woodland contains oak, ash and alder your left for a pile of fossilised tree trunks, excavated which will be left to grow into full trees. There are also hazel, field maple and hawthorn which will be coppiced during the quarry extension. On your right notice the (cut back every few years and allowed to regrow). extensive meadow planting right across the slope.

Walk right along the ridge to a wooden kissing gate and % Keep on to the end of the stone path then walk turn left back onto the farm lane. Continue up the lane through the new plantation to the end and then turn left and round the sweeping bend until you notice a Quarry on to the playing field. Keeping the wood on your right, Blasting Time Board on the left, next to a kissing gate. Pass walk up the field past the BMX track on to Lythwood Hall through this gate on to a new Permissive Path around the Lane. Turn right along the lane to gated access to the new left edge of the field, and enjoy the view of Shrewsbury woodland on the left. and the football ground on your right. Keep following the field edge through a stock gate and kissing gate until you & Walk up the easy access path through the new planting see a stile. Ignore the stile and instead turn right through passed orchard and sensory garden to gap in the top left another kissing gate and walk down across this sloping corner. Just through the gap you can cross over the ditch field to the hedge line alongside the elevated A5 bypass. on right in hedge and turn right up the track to Lythwood Farm ( and continue to Lyth Hill for a long walk. OR walk Follow this hedge line left, ignoring the A5 underpass on on down the path, along side the allotments on the left in your right, alongside the small stream until you reach the Stretch your legs and explore the countryside to Y&CB car park in Lythwood Hall Lane. old railway bridge. * Cross over the line and follow the right on the doorstep! track to a gate onto the A49, opposite the Garden Centre. Discover the fields and farmland, the pools and Lythwood Farm. In 1590 this area used to be a woodland Very carefully cross the road and turning left follow the streams, and the woodland dells within a 10 minute called ‘Higgons Hay’. The farmhouse was built around pavement back up into Bayston Hill. OR over the stile + this time. behind the garden centre and down the track to stile on walk from your home. the right. Go over this and keep left on to the lane at These walks are moderate (with a few stiles). b) Follow the lane on to Lythwood Road and carry on to Pulley Hall Barns , and left, back up lane to Bayston Hill. the junction with Overdale Road and Glebe Road. Turn left On average they take around 40 – 60 minutes, or you along Overdale Road to your starting point. can join them up for a mini expedition!