Carding Mill Valley

Another journey down memory lane with a visit to Carding Mill Valley and the Long Mynd near Church Stretton.

Carding Mill Valley was our go to place with my parents and friends in the 1960s and later occasionally with my own family. It was and still is a magical place, an amazing landscape of steep sided valleys, interlocking spurs, rushing streams and waterfalls. You felt you were in a different world where time was suspended.

As Cheeseminer recalled it can be busy with walkers and school visits. There were at least 6 school parties in the lower valley all busy measuring the stream. This must be the most measured stream in the country.

I first experienced the fun of measuring streams in the mountains around Arthog as an A level student in 1971. That to remains a memorable day. I went on to inflict the same activities on a few generations of pupils in subsequent years.

We soon left the measurers behind, climbed up onto the Long Mynd, across the plateau and down into Rattlinghope (what an eyesore except around the church) and back over the moors via the iconic Lightspout waterfall - another of our favourite destinations.

Interesting really, we rarely went very far up the valleys, often only as far as Lightspout or the Edwardian reservoir. For 90% of visitors the same is true today. We went much further, completing over 8 miles in pretty good weather for early March.