During my recent post shift walks at Attingham Park I have enjoyed seeing the first signs of Autumn. One of my favourite pathways that leads to the suspension bridge has been closed for a few weeks and I am hoping that it re-opens soon.

Fitting my walks around commitments means I often walk alone. Walking alone is good for thinking and clearing my head but walking with others gives me a greater sense of wellbeing.

My most recent walk with others was to check out a route for a group-led walk for visitors to Attingham Park.

My sense of wellbeing started well before I arrived at Attingham. I left home in glorious sunshine which turned to mist as I drove past open fields. The sun was trying to break through the misty layers casting shadows on the ground. As I approached Attingham Park the house was completely concealed by the misty veil only partly revealing itself as I walked to the courtyard where I encountered the VR (Visitor Reception) manager and the group walk co-ordinator. We had a brief conversation and I found out that there was currently a problem with a power outage which they were trying to get fixed.

I headed to the meeting room above the courtyard where the other two walk volunteers were waiting. Both were a little confused as to why the office was empty, it seemed they hadn’t seen the group walk co-ordinator as they passed through the courtyard, although he must have seen them because he told me they were upstairs in the meeting room!

Once the problem was under control, James, the group walk co-ordinator joined us and we set off to walk the route we had mapped earlier in the week. The grounds were shrouded in mist.  As we entered the deer park the house was completely hidden and the trees appeared as dark shadowy shapes. Along the first stage of the route, I was able to point out a large nesting box (for owls?) that I had seen earlier in the year.

We left the deer park and entered one of the woodland paths that leads to the Berwick memorial. When we reached the memorial, James mentioned a tree that had been inscribed by WWII soldiers and prisoners of war. As we were discussing the location of the tree, a man arrived through the gate nearby and asked if we had seen the inscribed tree. Unbeknown to us we were standing next to it! He told us about the WWII connections and the inscriptions on the tree. Some of them are fascinating and I need to research some of the symbols on the tree.

We continued our walk along the pathway leading past the Repton Oak towards the mansion, pausing briefly to chat with a couple of volunteers that were collecting acorns from beneath the old oak tree. Deer, although obscured by mist, could by seen nearby as we continued our walk back to the deer park bridges and the mansion beyond.

On my way back to my car, my VR manager, Nicolas, was at secondary VR and wanted to know all about the walks and would I still be helping out on VR (Tuesdays). I reassured him I would; Tuesday afternoons are my commitment to VR. As I arrived back at main VR the sun emerged through the mist and I chatted to other colleagues before driving home.

This chapter discusses the benefits of walking with purpose as opposed to walking for leisure. Studies have found that when walking for a purpose people tend to walk faster. Some of the studies concluded this led to better health and wellbeing.

I don’t know about the conclusions to the studies I can only say how I feel after ‘walking with purpose’.

I walk faster when I have a destination in mind, I don’t want to be late. Having a goal boosts my mental state and feeling of wellbeing. I often set off later than I intend which means I have to walk faster to get to my destination on time.

During term time I have a weekly purposeful walk to a local school. I volunteer as a school reader providing one-to-one reading support for children helping them improve their reading skills and boost their confidence.

Returning home after a recent visit to the school I found that one of my favourite benches to ’sit and rest a while’ had been replaced over the summer holidays. Of course I chose to ’sit and rest a while’ and enjoy the view before returning home.

This chapter discusses the potential benefits of going for a short-measured walk (not a hike) before breakfast. It talks about recent scientific studies that have concluded a walk before breakfast whilst the body is still in fasting mode burns off more fat and improves the way the body reacts to insulin.

I would not normally have chosen to walk before breakfast but my car was booked in for a service on a drop-off-and-leave-it-there for the day basis. Unfortunately, due to Mr C’s car breaking down and the subsequent engine fire as the car was removed from the tow truck towards our driveway, he was unable to give me a lift.

This meant I had to resort to shanks pony and train to get home after the drop off and back again to pick up my car after servicing.

Mr C had told me of the pathway I needed to take to get to the railway station without crossing or walking down busy roads. As I walked along ‘motor mile’, I spotted a pathway and took it. I realised I was on the wrong pathway when I first walked over the railway and shortly afterwards the motorway.  However, before retracing my steps to find the correct pathway curiosity got the better of me, I couldn’t resist walking a little further to see where the path came out.

Once I was back on track, the path to the station was obvious because it was signposted. I found the pathway rather seedy and not a pleasant place to walk. At the station I purchased tickets from the ticket office and crossed the bridge to catch the train home. Only one stop.

Whilst I sat on a bench and waited, a couple asked me about purchasing tickets. I pointed them to where I thought the ticket machine on that platform was situated. The ticket office is across the bridge on the other platform.

A few minutes later the couple returned, they had located the ticket machine but unfortunately the machine had not printed off all the tickets, giving them a message to ‘seek help’ from the ticket office. The lady sat next to me on the bench whilst her husband crossed the bridge to try and sort out their tickets. The failure meant that they missed the train by minutes. It reminded me of a similar incident that I had many years ago. Some things never change!

Back in Wellington and walking home, a walking group caught up with me and we had a little chuckle that I was joining the group. The leader waited for the rest of her group and I continued to the pedestrian crossing, pressing the button. The group caught up with me and we bantered and chuckled, the walk leader joking that I had pressed the button for them.

I knew they would be walking as part of the Wellington Walking festival and found out that they were going to Dothill via the Wellington Loop to find out more about the trees in the Dothill nature reserve.

I continued walking home by the direct route. After no breakfast and just a cup of tea I was rather hungry when I got home and was looking forward to lunch.

Unusually, the garage phoned up just after lunch to say my car was ready. They don’t normally phone up until later in the afternoon. If I had known my car would be ready so quickly, I would not have gone home!

My second walk of the day led me back to the station for my return journey to the garage to pick up my car.

My next adventure was a post shift walk at Attingham Park. When I set off on my walk I wasn’t sure which way I would go but I heard the call of the walled gardens so I set off in that direction. I sat on a bench enjoying the autumn blooms and the peaceful atmosphere before heading to the suspension bridge still not knowing which direction I would go.

After crossing the bridge I walked along the river bank to the woodland walks. When it came to the choice of left or right through the woods the atmosphere felt quite melancholy so I chose to return to the suspension bridge along different pathway that passes the signpost where one of the directions is ’short cut’, the route that I walked last week after my volunteering. I arrived at the signpost to find that it had been replaced by new one. The new signpost is very smart but the the ’short cut’ has vanished into the mystic ethers and been replaced by a bluebell path (same pathway with a new name).

As I retraced my steps over the suspension bridge back to the mile walk I was surrounded by birdsong which made me realise why the woodland paths felt strange to me. There had been a complete absence of bird song!

I am not quite on target for arriving to coordinate with my actual walk to Stonehenge in August. Life and on occasion a lack of Mojo have got in the way.

I wonder if I can get myself back on track…

That being said I am still on track to complete my ‘Walk 1000 Miles’ by the end of the year.

I managed to persuade the reluctant adventurer to join me for a walk. First we visited my mum, who once again wasn’t quite herself so we didn’t stay as long as we would have liked to. Next we went to Shrewsbury to purchase some Sherry from Majestic Wines which led us nicely into lunch in the Cote Kitchen at Churncote Farm Shop.

After lunch Mr C drove the scenic route to Newport where we parked in Water Lane carpark next to the start of our walk. The first part of the walk led us to a part of the canal that I had no idea existed. It was delightful and teaming with wildlife. I will definitely go back there again. The walk then lead us alongside fields, through fields, through a churchyard, country pathways and a long stretch of country road ending with some paddocks which involved navigating several styles before arriving back in Newport and the start of the walk.

Overall I enjoyed the walk, although after a while I found walking along the country lane a bit hard going.

My milage differed from the 4.75 miles mentioned on the walk page. By the time we had finished the walk my FitBit registered that I had walked around 6.5 miles. We did go a bit off track on one part of the walk (map reader failed to read instructions) leading us to retrace our steps but the small detour didn’t account for so much difference in mileage.

I recently obtained the North Telford Coronation walks booklet and I am hoping to tick off all the walks before the end of 2025.

I started with one of my local walks where I could walk from home. I started the walk from the pedestrian crossing rather than Leegomery Community Centre. Along the way I detoured taking in Apley pool and Leegomery pools extending my walk to around 4 miles.

You might recall that I attempted this walk last Friday (27 June). Due to setting off late and the ominous looking weather that appeared as I was walking I took a shortcut home.

Today, 2nd July 2025, I walked the complete route starting the walk from the nearest place to my home which is the underpass near to Leegomery Pools. I enjoyed the walk in this order because it started and finished on some of the best bits of the route. I took my time and sampled many of the benches that line the walk

I am not sure what is happening with the historic locks on this route. Not long after they had been (recently) repaired and reinstalled they were walled off with wire barricades and allowed to become completely overgrown! Not the best way to showcase or preserve the towns history.

The photos are in the order I walked the route and from both of my walks.

When the North Telford Coronation walk booklet launched a few weeks ago I picked up a copy  on launch day. A few days later I walked route No. 5, Leegomery (I will post that walk soon).

Back to today I planned to walk my second Coronation walk from the book. The day ran away with me due to circumstances beyond my control. It was late afternoon before I could set off for a walk. I stuck with my plan to do the Hadley walk starting from the nearest point from my house which is the underpass near Leegomery Pools.

I followed the route until I neared Hadley Cemetery, I was running out of time and there was a dark ominous cloud overhead. I had left my house without a waterproof and didn’t want to get caught out in what might be a thunderstorm. I took a short cut home by crossing the road and walking past Hadley Cemetery towards Leegomery Pools, which joined with the route 6 path but I took a left hand turn before I reached the pools. The left hand path led me to the fastest route home.

I will start the walk again when I have more time complete it. Apart from a couple of teaser photos I will keep todays photos to share when I have completed the walk.