Magical Mystery Tour June 2025 Part 6 Worcestershire Wonders!

From Chirk we drove south along the A458 and then continued on the almost empty B4363 for miles through beautiful, unspoilt Shropshire countryside, and down into Worcestershire. We had booked 2 nights in an air bnb hosted by Sue and Bill, in the village of Great Witley. It was a very beautiful, unspoilt part of the country, with glorious views everywhere.

We headed to the Bell at Pensax just a couple of miles away for an excellent supper.

It was owned and run by the community, and was busy with local families and couples. Another proper pub! We slept well, and set off to Worcester next morning... to catch a bus! We had decided to walk a 6.5 mile stretch of the Severn Valley Way, and we caught the bus to its start at Hope Heath. It was a hot day, and the walk was mixed. Some very pretty sections by the river, and some not so good ones pushing through high banks of Japanese knotweed! We did pass some rather lovely traditional pigs!

Apart from the lovely river views, the 2 biggest highlights were firstly stumbling upon a lovely flower festival at Holt Church.

The church itself had Norman origins, and each flower arrangement was accompanied by a poem.

Our first glimpse of the mighty river Severn, quite wide here but looking deceptively tranquil!

The second highlight was another wonderful pub, on the riverbank at the halfway point. The Camp House Inn was a very traditional pub owned by the same family for 86 years.

Again it was so busy, with good beers, and very large portions of its traditional pub grub.

We chatted to a family member who lives there, who told us that the pub floods every year. All the sockets are now at ceiling level. The worst floods were higher than the bar, but his freezers kept running underwater!!! One elderly local chipped in to tell us very matter of factly that he rememberd last winter when the water started coming in at the corner of the floor in the snug. He said we all watched it getting higher and creeping into the public bar, and so at 22.45, as it reached their feet, they decided to stop drinking and call it a night.

There was a gaggle of geese in the garden... slightly more intimidating than a sparrow on the table!!

We reached Worcester at 3pm and immediately drove to Witley Court, and unusual English Heritage property. It is the vast ruin of what was obviously a huge, elegant stately home, built in the 17th century by the Foley family, then extravagantly extended in the 1850s by the Dudley family who had made their money in the iron industry.

Sadly it was destroyed by fire in 1937. You can still see a few of the blackened beams.

It had a haunting beauty. I particularly liked the way they had planted lavender in the remains of the Orangery!

The photos of the hall before the fire were impressive but sad.

The gardens were originally laid out very formally, and the centrepiece is the spectacular Perseus and Andromeda fountain which has been fully restored and displays every hour. Beautiful.

One sad thing was that the Chapel was closed, as it is known for being a very unique and beautiful baroque church. This picture is from the Internet.

It was now 5pm and still very hot and sticky, so we decided to drive 20 minutes east to see the ruins of Edvin Loach Old Church, an 11th century church built within the earthworks of a Norman motte and Bailey.

It is important for its rare, early Norman herringbone stone work.

The views were super.

We took a different way back along yet more, pretty, winding lanes. We had crossed the border into Herefordshire, and the typical black and white houses started to appear.

We found another pub, the New Inn just outside Clifton upon Teme. It had new owners, and a nice terrace looking across to the hills, so we sat enjoying the slightly cooler evening, had a drink and shared a packet of scampi fries!! A real step back in time!

Next day we set off fairly early as we had places to visit before heading home! First stop was Brockhampton (National Trust). This is part of a large estate, but instead of seeing 'the big house', this property is the Mediaeval Manor house, built in 1425, some of which is in its original condition.

It traces the history of its occupants. Originally they were the landowners, but they built themselves a grander house in the 18th century, and this building was subsequently the home of the Wagoners family, the gamekeeper, the etc. Each room represents a different occupant. It has some interesting features, including Great hall,

and a Buttery. Nothing to do with butter! Butteries were for storing alcohol... in Butt's. You often find them in Market places, for example Salisbury and Ludlow. Here they still press the apples and make Cider. Chris didn't fancy the Butter beer recipe though.

In the kitchen is a hatch in the ceiling dating from the time that hops were dried in the corridoor above, and then swept down into a hop pocket hooked under the hatch.

A presser would have been inside the bag, treading the hops down as they fell so as to fit as many as possible in. A full bag, shown here, could weigh 170lbs!

How about this very rare moustached cup... with a little ledge to keep your moustache out of the tea!!

There is a quaint 1530s gatehouse and a ruined chapel.

We were also impressed by their sensory bags for people with Autism or similar needs.

The other noteable feature of the estate was that it was once full of orchards and hop fields. The Trust are replanting the orchards and you can walk through them.

Well into the walk there is a replica of a Hereford Trow boat, built to take part in the Queen's Jubilee boating pageant, and eventually finding its home here. Boats like this would have transported the fruit harvest along the Rivers to market.

Just 20 minutes drive from here was another National Trust property, the Firs, which was the composer Edward Elgar's birthplace in 1857.

As we arrived, a board said a talk was due to start. We expected a 10 minute introduction to the property, but instead were treated to an excellent 35 minute presentation given by one of the staff who happens to have written 3 books about Elgar.

It was a fascinating introduction to the man behind the music, revealing him to be very unlike his public persona, and explaining that a major part of his success was due to his wife, Alice. One sad fact was that he was no businessman. When he was hard up, he sold the rights to some of his works for as little as 1 Guinea! Just think how many times they have been played since... and no Royalties! The house itself is small, but has a good display about Elgar, his family and life. It has been an Elgar museum since 1957 , thanks chiefly to his sister, but only run by the Trust since 2016. There were some wonderful items like letters and notes about his very extensive travels, which further reveal his character.

My favourite was a letter that explains that each of the Enigma variations was attributed to a person Elgar knew, and represented how they walked into a room!

If you are planning a visit, go online and see when the talks are scheduled, they are a big part of making this an interesting place to visit. There was also a pretty cottage garden, and a nice little cafe here, so we had a snack lunch before heading home.

Our route took us past our son and daughter in laws house, so we just had to pop in to see them, and for for cuddles with our 2 grandchildren! Then south on the M3... it was a Sunday at about 5.30, and, thankfully going the other way to us, the traffic was either stationary or slow moving for over 34 miles... from Winchester almost back into Bournemouth. It was still 28°C and we just hoped they all had plenty of water in their cars.

So the end of a very different trip to the one we had planned, but a very enjoyable and interesting one. We survived the tent camping, and found so many new to us places to visit. Good times with friends, new and old, and some super food and great traditional pubs. What more could we ask?! Thank you for joining us in our diary!