Sights in The Marches
-
Great Malvern Priory
The 11th-century Great Malvern Priory is packed with remarkable features, from original Norman pillars to surreal modernist stained glass. The choir is enclosed by a screen of 15th-century tiles and the monks' stalls are decorated with delightfully irreverent 14th-century misericords, depicting everything from three rats hanging a cat to the mythological basilisk.
reviewed
-
A
Mappa Mundi
The cathedral is best known for two ancient treasures housed here. The awe-inspiring 13th-century Mappa Mundi is a large calfskin vellum map intricately painted with the vivid (to modern eyes, wacky) world vision of the era's scholars and an enthralling pictorial encyclopaedia of the times.
It is the largest and best-preserved example of this type of cartography anywhere, but more than that it's a bewitching journey through the world as then envisioned, peopled by strange beings with eyes in their chest, roamed by basilisks and mythological monsters. Navigate your way through the barely recognisable mash of continents and you can even find Hereford itself.
reviewed
-
B
Castle
The town's crowning jewel is its splendid Castle, which snags an ideal defensive location atop a cliff above the river's elbow. One of a line of fortifications built along the Marches to ward off the marauding Welsh, it is now a great castle for hide-and-seek, with myriad nooks, ruined rooms and mysterious stairwells. The sturdy Norman keep was built around 1090 and has wonderful views.
The castle was transformed into a 14th-century palace by the notorious Roger Mortimer, who was instrumental in the grisly death of Edward II. The round chapel in the inner bailey was built in 1120 and is one of few surviving.
reviewed
-
C
Blists Hill Victorian Town
Set at the top of the Hay Inclined Plane (a cable lift that once transported coal barges uphill from the Shropshire Canal), Blists Hill is a lovingly restored Victorian village repopulated with townsfolk in period costume, busy with day-to-day chores. There's even a bank, where you can exchange your modern pounds for shillings to use at the village shops. In summer, a Victorian fair is an added fun attraction for young ones.
reviewed
-
D
Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron
Set in the brooding buildings of Abraham Darby's original iron foundry, the museum contains some excellent interactive exhibits. As well as producing the girders for the iron bridge, the factory became famous for heavy machinery and extravagant ornamental castings, including the gates for London's Hyde Park. Combined tickets with Darby Houses also available.
reviewed
-
Broseley Pipeworks
This was once the biggest clay tobacco-pipe maker in the country, but the industry took a nosedive after the introduction of pre-rolled cigarettes in the 1880s, and the factory was preserved much as the last worker left it when the last lights were turned off in 1957. The pipeworks is a 1-mile walk south of the river, on a winding lane that passes the old workers' cottages (ask at the tourist office for the Jitties leaflet). To reach the Broseley Pipeworks, cross the iron bridge and follow the signs.
reviewed
-
E
Shrewsbury Abbey
Famous as the setting for Ellis Peters' Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, the lovely red-sandstone Shrewsbury Abbey is all that remains of a vast, cruciform Benedictine monastery founded in 1083. Twice the setting for meetings of the English parliament, the Abbey church lost its spire and two wings when the monastery was dissolved in 1540. It sustained further damage in 1826 when engineer Thomas Telford ran the London–Holyhead road right through the grounds. Nevertheless, you can still see some impressive Norman, Early English and Victorian features, including an exceptional 14th-century west window.
reviewed
-
F
Darby Houses
Just uphill from the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron are these beautifully restored 18th-century homes, which housed generations of the Darby family in gracious but modest Quaker comfort.
reviewed
-
G
Hereford Cathedral
After Welsh marauders torched the original Saxon cathedral, the Norman rulers of Hereford erected a larger, grander cathedral on the same site, which was subsequently remodelled in a succession of medieval architectural styles.
The signature highlight is the magnificent Mappa Mundi (see p000), a single piece of calfskin vellum intricately painted with some rather fantastical assumptions about the layout of the globe in around 1290. The same wing contains the world's largest surviving chained library of rare manuscripts manacled to the shelves, kept in a moisture and temperature controlled room. The collection includes a first edition of Dr Johnson's A Dictionary of the…
reviewed
-
H
Iron Bridge
The flamboyant, arching 384-tonne and gravel-strewn Iron Bridge that gives the area its name was constructed to flaunt the new technology invented by the Darby family. At the time of its construction in 1779, nobody could believe that anything so large could be built from cast iron without collapsing under its own weight. There's a small exhibition on the bridge's history at the former toll house.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
I
Enginuity
If the kids are starting to look glazed, recharge their batteries at this levers-and-pulleys science centre beside the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, where you can control robots, move a steam locomotive with your bare hands (and a little engineering know-how) and power up a vacuum cleaner with self-generated electricity.
reviewed
-
J
Museum of the Gorge
Kick off your visit at the Museum of the Gorge, which offers an overview of the World Heritage Site using film, photos and 3-D models. Housed in a Gothic warehouse by the river, it's filled with entertaining, hands-on exhibits.
reviewed
-
K
Coalport China Museum
When ironmaking moved elsewhere, Coalport china slowed the region's decline and the restored works now house an absorbing China Museum tracing the region's glory days as a manufacturer of elaborate pottery and crockery. Craftspeople demonstrate china-making techniques and two enormous bottle kilns are guaranteed to awe even if the gaudily glazed chinaware leaves you cold.
reviewed
-
L
Jackfield Tile Museum
Once the largest tile factory in the world, Jackfield was famous for its encaustic tiles, with ornate designs produced using layers of different coloured clay (the tiles are still produced here today for period restorations). Gaslit galleries recreate ornately tiled rooms from past centuries, from Victorian public conveniences to fairy-tale friezes from children's hospital wards. The museum is on the south bank of the Severn, near the footbridge to the Coalport China Museum. Tours of the factory are held every Tuesday at 11.30am. To reach the museum, cross the footbridge at the bottom of the Hay Inclined Plane.
reviewed
-
M
Chained Library
The same wing contains the world's largest surviving chained library , hooked to its shelves by a cascade of long thin shackles. The unique collection of rare books and manuscripts includes a 1217 copy of the revised Magna Carta and the 8th-century Hereford Gospels, although the gospels' fragility means they aren't always on display.
reviewed
-
N
Henry Tudor House
At the bottom of the High St on Wyle Cop, the seriously overhanging Henry Tudor House was where Henry VII stayed before the Battle of Bosworth.
reviewed
-
O
Church of St Laurence
One of the largest parish churches in Britain, the church of St Laurence contains grand Elizabethan alabaster tombs and some delightfully cheeky medieval misericords carved into its choir stalls, including a beer-swilling chap raiding his barrel. The Lady Chapel contains a marvelous Jesse Window originally dating from 1330 (although much of the glass is Victorian). Four windows in St John's Chapel date from the mid-15th century, including the honey-coloured Golden Window. Note the front pew at the front right, carved with sets of initials from vandals through history, including one William Payler (expertly chiselled) from 1783. Climb the tower (£3) for stunning views.
reviewed
-
P
Tar Tunnel
A short ramble along the canal brings you to the 200-year-old Tar Tunnel, dug as a water-supply channel but halted abruptly when natural bitumen unexpectedly started trickling treacle-like from its walls. You can still don a hard hat and stoop in deep enough to see the black stuff ooze.
reviewed
-
Q
Cider Museum & King Offa Distillery
Don't forget to claim your free samples in the Cider Museum & King Offa Distillery, which explores cider-making history. Look for the fine costrels (mini barrels) and horn mugs used by agricultural workers to carry and quaff their wages, which were partially paid in cider.
reviewed
-
R
Market Hall
The mellow-stone building balancing on chunky legs opposite the tourist office is Shrewsbury's 16th-century Market Hall, hub of the historic wool trade. A few pillars are still dented by rows of holes used to count how many fleeces were sold.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
S
Hereford Museum & Art Gallery
The quirky collection at Hereford Museum & Art Gallery includes everything from 19th-century witches' curses to a two-headed calf. There are hands-on antiquities boxes and dressing-up gear to keep kids engaged.
reviewed
-
T
Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery
The stunning timber-framed Tudor merchant's mansion and warehouse in which Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery is housed are as much of an attraction as its exhibits, which range from Roman finds to Darwin's times.
reviewed
-
U
Bear Steps Hall
From the atmospheric Fish Street, steps lead to the 14th-century Bear Steps Hall, now home to a small exhibition space. On the hall's other side is Butcher Row, home to more half-timbered lovelies.
reviewed
-
V
Old House
This gloriously creaky black-and-white, three-storey wooden house was built in 1621. Climb upstairs for beautifully kept medieval rooms with period furniture (including 17th century cradles), carved wood panelling and antique cast-iron firebacks.
reviewed
-
W
Council House Gatehouse & Old Council House
Near the entrance of Shrewsbury Castle is Jacobean-style Council House Gatehouse, dating from 1620, and Old Council House, where the Council of the Welsh Marches used to meet.
reviewed