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Aerospace Museum Off A41, 8 miles south-east of Telford Landmarks in the story of military and civil aviation are preserved in this museum at RAF Cosford, which has more than 60 aircraft, most of them displayed under cover. The Dakota used by Field-Marshall Montgomery as his personal aircraft in the Second World War takes pride of place in the military transport group, along with Hastings and York aircraft which took part in the Berlin airlift of 1948. The research and development collection includes the Hunter prototype and the Fairey Delta FD2, both of which broke world speed records. Large-scale models tell the story of pre-1939 commercial flight. An exhibition hall is devoted to the history of British Airways.
Attingham Park On A5, 3 miles south-east of Shrewsbury To disguise his brick-built Queen Anne house standing in a broad curve of the River Tern, the 1st Baron Berwick in the 1780s commissioned George Steuart to create a shell for it. The result was this grandiose Palladian-style mansion, which is 400ft long, with a central portico upheld by four columns nearly 40ft tall. The interior is equally magnificent, with a wealth of delicate plasterwork, fine furniture, Regency silver and paintings.
Benthall Hall Off B4375, 4 miles north-east of Much Wenlock This late Elizabethan house stands less than a mile from the Severn Gorge. The Benthalls were Roman Catholics in the 16th century and the hall was built with a priest's hiding hole. The family was staunchly Royalist in the Civil War, and Lawrence Benthall defended his home for two years until July 1645, when Parliamentarians took it.
Boscobel House Off A41, 10 miles east of Telford When John Gifford converted a timber-framed farmhouse on his estate into a hunting lodge in the early 17th century he named it Boscobel, from the Italian bosco bello, meaning 'beautiful wood'. His family were Roman Catholics, and he incorporated in the house secret hiding places for priests. Boscobel also became a refuge for Royalists in the Civil War and in 1651, after his final defeat at Worcester, Charles II spent a day hiding from Parliamentarian pursuers in an oak tree on the estate, before escaping to France. A descendant of the oak tree survives, but the house has been much altered. There is a collection of historical farm machinery in the farmyard.
Brown Clee Hill Off B4364, 9 miles north-east of Ludlow The two smooth humps of Brown Clee Hill dominate Ludlow's eastern skyline. Brown Clee is the highest point in Shropshire. Its Abdon Burf summit rises to 1772ft and is crowned by a hill-fort. The hill was a much used refuge in the Iron Age and there are two more hill-forts - one on Clee Burf summit, the other on Nordybank, the western flank of the hill. The Brown Clee Forest Trail - a 1.5 mile circular route - starts beside a picnic area on a minor road about a mile west of Cleobury North village.
Buildwas Abbey On B4378, 2 miles west of Iron-Bridge The ruins of the Cistercian abbey, which Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, founded in 1135, stand beside the Severn. The abbey lies in eastern Shropshire, but was still near enough to attract the Welsh. In 1350, marauders from Powys abducted the abbot, and 56 years later followers of the Welsh prince Owain Glyndwr ravaged the abbey lands. The last abbot surrendered to Henry VIII's men in 1536. Buildwas was a relatively small abbey. The 164ft long church is now roofless, but nearly complete.
Clive House Museum College Hill, Shrewsbury In the heart of the Georgian area of Shrewsbury is the fine 18th century house occupied by Clive of India while he was Mayor of Shrewsbury in 1762. Inside is an outstanding collection of Shropshire pottery and porcelain, displayed in authentic period settings. Outside, visitors can wander in the attractive garden. Clive, who was also MP for Shrewsbury from 1761 until his death in 1774, is remembered too by a tall statue in The Square, in front of the Market Hall of 1596.
Clun Castle Off A488, 9 miles west of Craven Arms The ruins of this Welsh Marchland castle stand above the River Clum, on the motte of the earlier Saxon castle. The Norman castle built by Robert de Sav rose again after the onslaughts of the Lord Rhys (1195), Llywelyn the Great (1214) and Owain Glyndwr (1400), and parts of the Norman keep survive. The town originated long before the castle, in the Bronze Age. The museum housed in the town hall - built with stones from the original courthouse of the castle in 1780 - has a fine collection of even earlier flint tools from the locality, and maps of its earthworks. There are also bygones of later times.
Dudmaston On A442, 4 miles south-east of Bridgnorth This estate changed hands only by inheritance from the 12th century until 1978, when it was given to the National Trust. The present William and Mary house, which was built around 1700, for Sir Thomas Wolryche, incorporates parts of a Tudor mansion, and remains an intimate family home. It contains an excellent art collection.
Haughmond Abbey On B5062, 3 miles north-east of Shrewsbury Like many an abbey, this one did have a life after the Dissolution. Henry VIII's representatives pulled down the abbey church in 1539, but the 14th century abbot's house was sold and converted into a private mansion, of which there are extensive remains. In the 17th century, a fine garden gate was added, and it is through this gate that the abbey is entered today. The Augustinian abbey was founded about 1135. Its mid-12th century church was built on three levels because of the sloping hillside, and it is clear from the ruins that the whole complex of buildings must have presented a magnificent spectacle.
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Ironbridge Six main sites, spread over six square miles of the banks of the River Severn, form the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, an extraordinary re-creation of the past in an area which in the 18th and 19th centuries was one of the world's busiest workplaces. On Blists Hill a 19th century industrial township has been re-created, with gas-lit streets, shops, factories, and a wrought-iron foundry. Old china works now form a China Museum, and nearby is the Jackfield Tile Museum. At Coalbrookdale is the Old Furnace of Abraham Darby, who in 1709 first smelted iron ore with coke and so revolutionised the iron-making industry. Darby's original blast furnace can be seen, and a former warehouse is now a Museum of Iron. Spanning the gorge is the Iron Bridge itself. There is also a visitor centre.
Lilleshall Abbey Off A518, 4 miles south of Newport During the Civil War this remote religious house, founded for Augustinian canons about 1148 was for several weeks the scene of a bitter siege before falling to Parliamentarian forces. Building had continued well into the 14th century, and the abbey and its land had been acquired by the Cavendish family a year after its dissolution in 1538. It was later sold to the Leveson family and it was Sir Richard Leveson who turned it into a Royalist fortress in 1645. Most of the destruction occurred then, but the ruins give a good idea of the fine, spacious building the abbey once was.
Ludlow Castle Near centre of Ludlow The castle was built around 1090 by a Norman knight, Roger de Lacy, to hold down the conquered Welsh. Its huge outer bailey or courtyard could have sheltered most of the townsfolk of medieval Ludlow in time of trouble; over it towers the massive keep, built up from the original gatehouse in the early 12th century. Round the inner bailey is a range of domestic buildings added in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Mortimer family, who turned the castle into a palace befitting their status; Roger Mortimer became virtual ruler of England when he helped his mistress, Queen Isabella, to murder her husband 'Edward II' and put her son on the throne as Edward III. Even in ruin the state rooms preserve their Gothic splendour, while the circular Norman chapel of St Mary Magdalene is an unusual survival from the original castle.
Ludlow Museum In centre of Ludlow The 18th century Butter Cross at the heart of Ludlow is a good place from which to start a walk around one of Britain's most attractive country towns; and the museum housed within the Butter Cross gives a useful introductory survey of the town's long history. From medieval times there is woodcarving, including the carved oak Ludlow Chest, and the official seal of the Council of the Marches of Wales, which Edward IV established at Ludlow; from Stuart times there is metalwork and pottery; and from Georgian times there are relics of the glove, ceramic and metalwork industries which sprang up to meet the demand for quality goods from Ludlow's new wealthy residents. Radiating from the Butter Cross are streets which contain no fewer than 469 listed buildings.
Rowley's House Museum Barker Street, Shrewsbury The 16th century house, named after its builder, a Tudor merchant, makes an appropriate starting point for a tour of the town, containing as it does a gallery devoted to the history of the town from earliest days. But the museum's main claim to fame is its collection of finds excavated from the Roman city of Viroconium at nearby Wroxeter. Just across Hills Lane from the museum is the entrance to Shrewsbury's Victorian Arcade, a little complex of shops, all under cover, opened in 1983.
Shrewsbury Castle Near centre of town The castle, begun by the Normans in 1083 and rebuilt by Edward I in the 13th century, last saw active service in the Civil War but today has a new type of military garrison, housing as it does the Shropshire Regimental Museum. In this collection of mementos of the three county regiments, uniforms splash the galleries with scarlet and gold, regimental colours adorn the walls, weapons glint and medals sparkle, recalling nearly 300 years of campaigns from America to Spain, India to the Sudan, Flanders to Korea.
Stokesay Castle Off A49, 8 miles north-west of Ludlow The fortified manor house was built around 1290 by a wealthy wool merchant, Lawrence of Ludlow. Its state of preservation after 700 years seems little short of miraculous. The hub of social life in Lawrence's day was the Great Hall - a 52ft long chamber where the owner and his family worked, talked, played and ate. At one end of the hall a broad wooden stairway - the original medieval carpenter's work - leads to an upper room at the top of the North Tower. At the other end of the hall, outside stairs rise to a solar, or withdrawing room, to which the owner and his family retired after meals. Two peepholes in wall niches enabled the owner to keep an eye on doings in the Great Hall below. Just outside the dry moat surrounding the castle stands the 12th century St John's Chuch, used by Stokesay's early inhabitants as their private chapel.
Tyn-Y-Rhos Hall Off B4500, 4 miles north of Oswestry A ghost of the White Lady reputedly stalks this Tudor-style country house located on the Welsh border. The Lady was Miss Phillips whose family lived in the mansion from 1670 to 1922, and who drowned herself when forbidden to marry the man she loved. the hall is decorated and furnished throughout in late Victorian and Edwardian styles, and has a finely carved oak staircase.
Wenlock Priory Off A458 at Much Wenlock The priory was built in the 11th century, on the site of a 7th century abbey destroyed by the Danes. The priory church was one of the longest monastic churches in England, and the end wall of its south transept towers 70ft above the lawns. A pattern of interlaced arches ornaments the wall of the adjoining Chapter House. In the cloister stands an elaborate lavatorium, where the monks washed before meals.
Wilderhope Manor Off B4371, 7 miles south-west of Much Wenlock This superb Elizabethan house was built of local limestone in 1586. The house is virtually unaltered except for fine plasterwork ceilings, which were installed in the 17th century. The building is unfurnished except for a unique bow rack with room for 13 weapons over the hall fireplace.
Wroxeter Roman City Off A5, 5 miles south-east of Shrewsbury Viroconium was the fourth largest Roman city in Britain. Some idea of its size is given by the fact that the entire excavated area visible today covers only the city's baths complex, where 500 people came each day to take exercise and relax. Visitors pass across the huge exercise hall with its massive double doors that lead to the adjoining baths to which an aquaduct brought some 2 million gallons of water a day. Most of Viroconium was built around AD150 on the site of a 1st century legionary fortress. The site museum displays finds from the excavations.
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