Central Ludlow to Ludlow Park and Ride

We were heading to  Toot View, which turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous holiday cottage on the lower slopes of Brown Clee Hill.  We were looking for something not too challenging to do, after driving from Milton Keynes and before going food shopping at Sainsbury's in Ludlow and on to the cottage. A mooch around Ludlow, including a visit to the Castle, followed by a walk from the centre of the town to the Park and Ride Car Park (SO528746),  following the route of the Shropshire Way for most of it, was a perfect solution. We'd had a wet spring, and the weather forecast for our holiday was mixed, but the sun was shining on today's walk and it was quite warm; we were distinctly over-dressed.

Before driving on to the Park and Ride, we met up at Sainsbury's to buy provisions for lunch (they don't have a cafe) and make use of the customer toilet. It's less than a mile from here to the Eco Park, which is where the Park and Ride car park is located, and a bus arrived almost as soon as we got to the bus stop. Our bus passes didn't get us a free journey, but they did get us a slightly reduced rate (£1.80 return, though we were only going one way) and we were soon in the bustling market-day centre of Ludlow.  John Betjeman famously described Ludlow as "probably the loveliest town in England".  There were certainly lots of half-timbered buildings, like the Feathers Hotel (shown) but overall we found it to be more ordinary and less  touristy than we'd expected and we liked it for that. 

We headed straight to the castle, built in the 11th Century as a Welsh border stronghold. It's high above the River Teme, close to its confluence with the River Corve. It's a good old-fashioned castle, complete with spiral staircases such as I loved as a child, and my children and now my grandson also enjoy(ed). There were good views down to the river and back to Ludlow town centre from the top of Mortimer's Tower and good views in all directions from the top of the Gatehouse Keep.  A wedding party were just having photos taken and when we got to the inner bailey, we realised that the wedding had taken place in the unusual round nave, all that remains of the Chapel of St Mary Magdalene. Meanwhile, The North Range was the home of the sons of King Edward IV, "the little princes in the Tower", so-called because, following their father's death, they were imprisoned in the Tower of London and then murdered.

After leaving the castle we had a look at the market, then went searching for a cup of tea. The problem was that I really wanted my tea in a proper cup, not a paper one. The Cottage Cafe, down the narrow lane of Attorney's Walk, came up trumps. Then we headed down to Upper Linney to start our walk, first of all retracing our steps  up College Street, past St Laurence's Church and walking through the Buttermarket.  Then we walked down Broad Street, which was delightful; a broad street with a variety of buildings, and presumably the inspiration for the next part of the John Betjeman quote: "probably the loveliest town in England, with its hill of Georgian houses ascending from the river Teme...". Half-way down, we passed through Broad Gate, the only one remaining of Ludlow's original "gates". Then we continued down Lower Broad Street, built up to make the slope more gentle than it was, because previously it was too steep for coaches.

Lower Broad Street leads onto Ludford Bridge over the River Teme, but after taking some photos from the bridge we returned to the town side of it and headed east alongside the river. One of the roads in this section, Temeside, was closed to traffic, but we could still get through. Eventually, after joining Steventon Road, we turned left onto Foldgate Lane which headed over the railway and into open countryside, until the modern developments caught up with us. There were good views back to the centre of Ludlow.

We passed Ludlow's Travelodge and turned right onto  Sheet Road, then we crossed the A49 and returned to our waiting cars in the Park and Ride car park.  A 15 minute drive brought us to Toot View.

Following leg