As promised in the Autumn Rural Review I donned my walking boots and warm clothes and have completed 4 of the walks around Wem that the Parish Paths Partnership have both repaired and documented. All of the walks I did start and finish at the Co-op car park and apart from my walking attire I took with me only the walk instructions, my phone and a light snack. The Ordnance Survey OS Explorer Map 241 covers the area and if you buy the map one has access to the map on your phone as well but the walk instructions are all that you need.
I started with Walk 5 on a drizzly day in early October that loops south west from Wem, along the River Roden then left into Tilley, across the railway towards Oaklands, Tilley Green, across the Shawbury Road and back towards Tilley via the Ruewood Nature Reserve. It’s about 5 miles and took me just over two hours. I chose this route as it’s the shortest so was a good introductory walk that I thoroughly enjoyed.
A month later I ventured on Walk 6 with two members of the Paths Partnership team. This is a longer walk ( 8.5 miles ) and heads east from Wem towards Soulton Wood, which will be beautiful in the spring when carpeted with bluebells, across the A49 to Wixhill and back towards Lee Brockhurst. There are some wonderful views from Wixhill back towards Wem and the Welsh Hills beyond that my photographic skills don’t capture adequately. Then towards Barkers Green and back into Wem. It took us just under 4 hours, allowing for a light lunch along the way.
By Christmas I has also completed Walk 4 ( which is mostly the reverse of Walk 5 with a loop towards Barkers Green on the way back to Wem ) and Walk 3 which involves taking the train from Wem to Prees (it’s a request stop at Prees ) then walking back to Wem via Edstaston.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed my walks. I was lucky with the weather but it was wet underfoot and heavy going in a few places but these will be marvellous walks in the spring and summer so I look forward to retracing my steps and doing more walks as they are published.
My thanks to the Paths Partnership volunteers who with help from Shropshire Council, Wem Town
