Adventures in Picklescott

We finally indulged in the proper English countryside by taking a long weekend at a farmstead cottage in the Shropshire Hills.

Shropshire is an English county right on the Welsh border, just south of Chester. Our cottage, The Old Workshop, was a mile and a half from the village of Picklescott, which nestles in a small hollow next to a quaint running stream. Picklescott has no store, church or even public phone booth, but does have a very nice pub, the Glass and Bottle Inn.

The three of us - Guinness was welcome at the cottage - took the train up on Saturday and after locating a private hire driver willing to take us, we ventured over the Long Mynd (see below) to our rather secluded cottage. We took a short walk through some nearby woods and open fields full of curious sheep to take advantage of the afternoon sunlight, but then retired in front of the wood burning stove.

Sunday we got up and out for a long walk through the countryside. We wandered through Picklescott and then up onto the Long Mynd. The Long Mynd is a series of moorland hills that run for approximately ten miles north-south near the Welsh border. It is rather striking to suddenly come across this area, as there is farmland and small coppices of trees all around and then you walk over a hilltop and there it is stretching out in front of you.

We traipsed over a few of the hills and down into a couple of the hollows as well before enjoying a somewhat windswept packed lunch. Then just as suddenly, we wandered off the Long Mynd and back into the farmland.

Some of us thought he could dig us a shortcut home...

We ended, well nearly ended, our walk at the Bottle and Glass Inn for a nice pint, then made a somewhat more sedated mile and a half walk home over the country lanes.

Monday morning didn't involve a 530 wakeup or hour long commute, but rather a breakfast of eggs on toast, with the eggs coming directly from the hen house outside our door!

Filled with good countryside food, we embarked in a different direction and ambled past several small villages, shorter hills, churchyards full of snowdrops and the occassional mud bog.

Our intention was to have a good wander, but get to the village of Castle Pulverbatch in time for lunch at the White Horse Inn. One problem, it wasn't open on a Monday afternoon in February. Oh well, home wasn't too far away and the sun was shining, so we enjoyed some PB&J on the patio!

All in all it was a very relaxing couple of days, which we all enjoyed. The cottage was absolutely perfect for us - decorated and outfitted extremely well and very much to our taste. We would have no hesitations about going back in the future or recommending it to anyone else!