River Severn at Cressage

Handed over Happy Wren this morning and went to the Cherry Tree cafe in Ellesmere for an excellent breakfast.

We spend the day at Chirk Castle, viewing the inside, the gardens and walking the extensive estate in quite humid, hot weather.

Our location for the next two nights is the Old Hall at Cressage which is a fascinating and wonderful B&B which, in the past, has been a restaurant and hotel and has a history going back hundreds of years.

We were welcomed with tea and a slice of almond orange drizzle cake sitting out on the terrace overlooking the River Severn, the Wrekin and the most magnificent gardens.

Cressage is a place I passed through many times as a lad on journeys to see family in Bridgnorth or to play cricket at Cound. I used to look forward to crossing Cressage bridge and seeing the old railway station on the Severn Valley Railway which was a private house with the platforms still intact. Today big gates and tall fences have closed of that view.

We’re not far from my father’s and grandparents home in Uppington and we can see the Wrekin, that famous Shropshire landmark at the bottom of which I was born in the Wrekin Hospital coming up to 69 years ago. Uppington, the Wrekin and the Severn are part of my being as well as Wellington. Despite living 47 years in Kent and only 22 in Shropshire the place when you grew up always holds a special place in your heart.