Cheswardine Walk 1 – Family-Friendly Circular Route in Shropshire

Saturday 17th August 2024. I’ve talked about some of the local walks in my area in previous posts, and in particular the villages of Hodnet and Cheswardine in Shropshire, who have both put together a suite of lovely walks with detailed maps and directions to encourage people to get outside and discover more about their villages and surroundings. We are slowly going through all the Cheswardine routes with the children, and will share our stories as we go!

The Cheswardine Walks – Walk 1.

A 4 mile walk across fields, country lanes, along the canal and through woods, which in springtime are full of wildflowers, including bluebells and wild garlic. Ideal for a lunchtime stop at the Wharf Tavern, located on the canal at Bridge 55.

Walk 1 starts off from the Cheswardine Parish Hall, which has ample parking and is a safe space to unload children and get boots on etc. All of the Cheswardine walks start and end here, which is massively convenient, not only for parking, but for the lovely park that children with any left over energy can play in after a walk. From here, you head out, past the play park, down a little rural alleyway between some houses and out into the fields.

We walked through a couple of fields, before taking a stile onto a quiet country road. The road takes you over the canal, and a bit further up, you do actually join the towpath for a little jaunt up the canal.

Not long after joining the quiet country lane, you find yourself wandering up a very unique concreted tracked. We walked this route in late August, and found lots of lovely juicy blackberries most of the way, keeping us well fuelled as we wandered along.

At the end of this unique track we found the well overgrown access way to join the towpath and had a lovely quiet walk up the canal. We all really enjoy walking up the canal as there is so much to see, but it’s still really peaceful too. From the friendly ‘Hello’s’ of passing narrow-boaters, to watching families of ducks bobbing along beside you, there’s always something to look at.

We exited the canal at The Wharf. It is a brilliant pub with a campsite, and today it looked like another campsite was being built, as there was a lot of serious landscaping going on in the field beside the pub. We’ve enjoyed many a lunch in here, and highly recommend it, whether you decide to stop for a meal, or just a light refreshment! On a nice day, use the beer garden overlooking the canal, it’s so peaceful. The only thing that’s sad, is that they once had a little park for children which was brilliant for keeping them entertained (my boys have so much energy!) it’s a shame they did away with it.

Passing by The Wharf, we continue along another road, and this road isn’t as quiet as the last one we had walked on, so be vigilant – not everyone seemed to want to slow down as they passed us! Fortunately you aren’t on there for too long, but you do then find yourself on the main road from Woodseaves to Cheswardine! Thankfully, again, it’s only for a short amount of time, before jumping over another stile back onto fields.

Back in the fields again, we ambled on through all sorts of vegetation – wheat, grass, and elephant grass to name a few. Sections between some of the fields saw us wander through little copses (or drumbles, as they call them here) and over stiles, all the while fuelling ourselves with more blackberries!

Be aware that some of the stiles are a little wobbly, and sadly, a bridge in one of the drumbles looked like it had been vandalised, with the side bars for holding on to having been ripped off and thrown aside!

Eventually, the fields lead us back to the village, via the church. As we walked down the pavement back to the cars, we decided to stop for a light refreshing drink at one of the two pubs you pass as you walk through the main street in Cheswardine: The Red Lion. It was a very welcoming little pub, and whilst we were in there, we got chatting to a chap of 84 years, who had said he spent most of his years hiking too, and to keep it up! I’m sure we will 😁

Family Feedback: Cheswardine Walk 1

This route, advertised at 4 miles, would be a perfect wander out for more mobile children. Whilst the walk is an easy one as far as terrain goes, there are lots of stiles and gates to climb over/get through, and it would be more suited for children who are confident on their feet. There are also sections on the roads, which although not busy, can have the odd person who doesn’t slow up for walkers! We found sections, in the thick of summer, quite overgrown – I really need to invest in trekking poles to aid with wandering brambles! Otherwise it’s a beautiful walk and highly recommended. The suggestion is to walk this in the springtime – we walked this with our neighbours who had walked this earlier in the year, during the spring, and they also recommended we come back next spring to walk it again.

Considering they had walked The Wrekin again only that morning, I was very proud of the boys for walking another 4+ miles on top of the Wrekins 4.2 miles – and with no moaning! In fact, watching them, you wouldn’t have thought they’d walked at all today! When I asked them their favourite parts of the walk, my 10 year old said, in true boy fashion “Hiding in the Elephant grass and scaring you!”, and my 8 year old piped up in agreement, although he did also add that he loved walking through all the wheat! Interestingly, I asked if there was anything else, other than scaring everyone, that they enjoyed, and my eldest said “I liked that there was no litter on this walk”, which I thought was a lovely thing for a child to say!

TOTAL MILES: 4.48 | TOTAL TIME: 2h17 (1h58 Moving Time)

If you’d like to walk this route too, you can find it by clicking here!