An English summer painted in a single image. Believe it or not, this was at approximately 9am on a supposed Summer’s morning! (Author’s Collection).
My visit to Ellesmere was always planned to be my first port of call on a supposedly sunny Friday in early August that didn’t quite start in that particular weather fashion as the above headline photo amply demonstrates! From here I ventured to nearby Whittington Castle (planned) and then Stokesay Castle (unplanned) before ending in Ludlow (planned, didn’t turn out as I hoped but was beautiful in its own way). All in all, Friday 5th August was a strangely beautiful day and all of these day trips can be found elsewhere within my growing catalogue of travel articles in my archives.
As the weather improved, as did my whistle stop tour of this Shropshire market town on the English/Welsh border. Perhaps unsurprisingly I started with the canal and worked my way around the vast “Mere” or shallow lake for which the town is synonymous and stumbled upon two beautiful churches and a piece of unknown history of a very recent past.
Only minimal colour commentary from hereon in and I’ll leave you in peace to enjoy a pictorial stroll around an old English town on the Welsh border.
*All images captured by me on 5th August 2022*
Welcome to Ellesmere and a particular favourite image with which to commence our brief stroll around the Shropshire town.
Welcome to Ellesmere!
The beginning of the Llangollen Canal in Ellesmere whereby in just a few hundred yards the canal branches south west toward Wales and north west toward Nantwich where it joins the Shropshire Union Canal.
Bridge Number 59 of the Llangollen Canal at Ellesmere unsurprisingly called “White Bridge”.
Through the trees ahead you can just make out Bridge Number 58 or “Red Bridge”. This direction eventually leads north west toward beautiful Whitchurch, Grindley Brook and ultimately Hurleston near Nantwich. All of these walks are covered in great detail in my archives.
Please say hello to the “Happy Wren” of Broadwater Meadow as he snakes to the right and north west away from Ellesmere.
I have no idea why there’s a huge stuffed female character beside the canal but it makes for a wonderful image! Heading south west toward the Montgomery Canal and into the neighbouring country of Wales.
The small marina is hidden behind the trees to the left, temporary moorings to the right and straight on toward “Frankton Locks” where the canal splits again with the Montgomery and Llangollen canals running separately into both middle and south Wales.
One final beautiful image from the canal as someone departs from Ellesmere Marina.
“The Jebb Garden” and commemoration of Eglantyne and Dorothy Jebb, sisters and co-founders of the “Save The Children Fund”.
“The Jebb Garden” faces the vast lake or “Mere”.
(1) St Mary’s Chapel near the “Mere”.
(2) St Mary’s Chapel near the “Mere”.
(1) Rather than more overhead images of a strangely sunny and yet rain threatening sky, here’s some swans!
(2) Rather than more overhead images of a strangely sunny and yet rain threatening sky, here’s some swans!
St Mary’s Church, Ellesmere, and a Grade I listed building dating back as far as the 14th Century.
A beautiful rear view of the church hopefully conveying its size and length.
A moody picture with which to finish! The “Mere” is now visible to your right. It didn’t rain and the weather vastly improved for my visits, planned or otherwise, to Whittington Castle, Stokesay Castle and the town of Ludlow. Please see my archives for these articles.
Your humble narrator at Grindley Brook Locks, late July 2022.
Thanks for reading. Please see my archived articles for a host of recent trips to historical ruins, castles, abbeys and monasteries as well as articles such as this one and the soothing strolls beside the rivers and canal waterways of central England.
Alternatively, my three most recently published articles within my travel series are linked below:
