I recently finished reading a book ‘Telford The Making of Shropshire’s New Town’. I moved to Telford at a very young age (my dad worked for the development corporation) and have grown up with the Town.
I have always appreciated the lovely green spaces within the town but until I read the book I had not realised just how much effort had been put in to encourage and allow industrial wasteland to be reclaimed by nature. Alongside planning the development of new housing the landscaping of the town involved the planting of around 15 million trees creating a ‘city within a forest’.
In 2018 to celebrate Telford’s 50th anniversary a new walking trail ‘The Telford T50 50 Mile Trail’ was researched and developed by local walking groups. Since then I have been looking forward to the publication of the guidebook to the walk.
The book launch was today and although I was not able to attend the ceremony, later in the day I was able to make a short walk in the rain to pick up a copy from the Telford Park information centre.
I spent and indulgent afternoon reading it from cover to cover and have planned my first walk. It takes in a local walk that I often do and also another local walk that I have been meaning to do for over a year…
I have been inspired and know I will walk that section of the T50 50 route very soon 
You can read more about the trail and download walks routes on the Telford T50 Trail website, although I would recommend that you purchase the guidebook. The guidebook provides comprehensive information about the industrial heritage and history of the area and also takes us on a journey to enjoy nature within the created ‘city’, leading to unexpected delights.
Below are some photos from some of my walks that coincide with the full route that I have not yet walked.
We sometimes forget how beautiful Britain is. I love to travel, but one has to remember not to race through our own country with blinkers on while heading to somewhere more exotic.
I love Britain, I have my special places that I enjoy. I also love traveling abroad and finding new places to enjoy.
My ethos is ’slow travel’ which means visiting a place and fully immersing myself in my chosen destination. It needs a bit of research on my part to find the perfect ’slow holiday’ destination
Nice to see a sign of life from the master of the last ditch, after quite a while.
“Slow travelling”, is as good as “slow food”. I do now and then think of Novalis (1772 – 1801) who in view of an increasing pace of life commended his contemporaries to exercise slowness.
So, let’s keep travelling slow. Life is fast enough.
“Nice to see a sign of life from the master of the last ditch, after quite a while.”
I thought so too
You can follow Tom’s adventures on his ‘Last Ditch Blog’ where you can find his travelogues and lovely photos (in between the politics). Tom’s adventures are much more fast paced than mine.
Yes I like my slow travel, absorbing as much culture, history and sense of place in my chosen destinations. So much so that sometimes I even surprise the locals when they are wondering what could possibly be so interesting that we could stay for more than a couple of nights..
I am enjoying your outdoor pics.
Thank you
More holiday pics coming soon…
i think it is tremendous to be able to lead the reclamation of industrial land to its beautiful state as seen in these pictures. i am convinced more places around the world should follow.
It would be good if other places would follow the example.
I walked from the Victorian Town to Museum of the Gorge, along the river.
A walk along the river there is a lovely experience
Lovely shots. I’ll check out that book when next visiting that neck of the woods. The countryside surrounding Telford is certainly very beautiful – I don’t know the town, really.
The town still has a lot of regional centres. The Town centre is a large shopping centre like any other. But the park around the Town centre is a lovely green space and all the regional centres are surrounded by green spaces and corridors
The book is well worth it, along with the walks it points out the history and nature that can be seen on the walks.