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Out and About
Shropshire:
"The nearest earthly place to paradise" - P. G. Woodehouse
Shropshire is an intriguing county, and Soulton Hall and its cottages are the ideal base from which to explore it. On this page we hope to give you a flavour of the place: it's simply too diverse to do anything more. (A link to a site with more information about Shropshire is at the foot of this page.) We are, of course, also within reach of Wales, Cheshire and the Welsh Marches.
Unspoilt
Shropshire is a true shire: it is what you expect of rural England. Its changeless countryside, which is a restful have for both people and wildlife, is interspersed with charming, historic market towns. These include Wem (granted the first ever town charter in 1086), Ellesmere, Ludlow, Bridgnorth, Market Drayton, and Much Wenlock (home of the modern Olympics).
Many traditional independent shops survive in these small towns. As they do in Shrewsbury, Shropshire's county town. This ancient town, birthplace of Charles Darwin, is famed for its half-timbered Tudor buildings and is idyllically situated on a hill in a loop of the River Severn.
Having said that Shropshire is "what you expect of rural England", it isn't, quite.
World Heritage Site
Shropshire gave birth to the Industrial Revolution at Ironbridge, which is now a World Heritage Site; there are now ten award-winning museums there explaining those momentous deployments.
Historic Monuments and Buildings
Shropshire's rural tranquillity also masks a more turbulent past, as well as an industrial history. Shropshire was frontier territory for centuries. The county's numerous earth works, hill forts and castles - of which Soulton was one (see history) - bear testament to this. Indeed, King Arthur's Camelot was (probably) in Wroxeter, which, before that, had been the fourth largest city in Roman Britain.
In addition to these fortresses, Shropshire boasts a number of other historic ruins, buildings, and country houses including: Weston Park and Hawkstone Park; Stokesay Castle, Wenlock Priory, Haughmond Abbey (English Heriage); Attingham Park (National Trust). This list is far from exhaustive. There are many beautiful gardens in Shropshire too.
Other Attractions
Shropshire also has a number of individual farm attractions and all sorts of museums, including the preserved Severn Valley Steam Railway. In addition to these attractions, activities such as paintballing, ice skating, dry skiing, and quad- and pony trekking are available in Shropshire.
Further Information
The Shropshire Tourism website is an extremely useful source of additional information about the attractions of Shropshire and forthcoming events in the county. (We are not responsible for the content of external links)
