23 January Maesbury

Monday 23rd January

Drive to Ellesmere and enjoy a walk along the Llangollen, re-tracing our narrowboat journey and enjoy the intermittent sunshine.

On the way home we stop in at Whittington for a wander around the castle.

It's an Incan hole!

Tuesday 24th January

shopping in oswestry and a walk along the canal with Sammy before dark


Wednesday 25th January

Wow, sunny morning.  Off to Ludlow.
Stop in Bishops Castle along the way for coffee at the Happy Bap

Paused at Stokesay Castle which sadly was closed.

On to Ludlow for the markets, a walk around the castle then back across the lovely Shropshire Hills in the last of the afternoon sunshine.

Thursday 26th January


Friday 27th January
Holly went to Brian's (Annabelle's grandad) after school then we all went over for evening drinks along with Liz/Rob, Maria/Stuart

Saturday 28th January
Holly was picked up by Maria and Lydia for the day playing at Annabelle's.
Aidan & I went for a long walk from Llanymynech to Four Crosses along the Monty

Afterwards, as the weather was still clear we detoured up Llanymynech Hill to see if we could find the views across the valley that we missed last week in the fog.

We did.

Sunday 29th January
Sunday rugby for Aaron in the rain, we stayed home

Monday 30th January
dampish day, did lots of school work and the kids built a fire in the woods. Went to Oswestry for supermarket supplies

Tuesday 31st January


Wednesday 1 February
Another semi sunny day dawns so we make the most of it and take Sammy to Trevor and so we can walk along the Lllangollen canal.  The weather turns much better than promised and we enjoy some absolutely glorious sunshine.  Perfect place to be in the sun. Part way along Sammy takes off and it takes a good 1/2 hour to locate him, requiring me walking back the way we have come and everyone else going on ahead.  He finally appears racing madly along the towpath with not a care in the world.  We end up continuing all the way to Llangollen  and buy chips to make some chip butties to fortify the kids before the return journey.  We decide to go to the local Indian restaurant for dinner as it is banquet night, so we take the neighbour Brian along too and have a very nice meal.  http://www.bengal-spices.co.uk/

Sammy

view into Llangollen from the canal

chip butties in Llangollen before the 4 mile walk back - this is not a time for organic, vegan wholefoods!

When we came through here in August all the trees kept this view secret

Anglowelsh narrowboats packed into Trevor basin

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, closed for winter maintenance

Thursday 2 February
Winds howling through the chimney all night, but temperature pretty mild come morning. Stayed home working on school stuff and playing with the neighbours kids after school.

Friday 2 February
Sunny start to the day but rain forecast for the afternoon, so no big plans, but it would be a shame to waste the sun so we make a trip to Llanymynech to see the limekilns and the quarry.

This area was a major centre of the lime industry until the beginning of the 1900's. Lime burning started on Llanymynech Hill in the mid 1700s.

By lighting fires in the kilns and adding crushed limestone, lime was produced and could be used as fertiliser in the fields. Slaked slime was also used as lime putty for building, as it is soft when first mixed but hardens over time as it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reverts back to calcium limestone.

cart on the dis-used railway line

This is the only Hoffman Kiln in the UK with its chimney still intact.

inside the kiln

The Hoffman Kiln

 
 A Hoffman kiln is a continuous kiln where the fire never goes out as it is transferred from one chamber to another. To facilitate loading and unloading, the kiln is divided into a number of separate chambers, usually 16, having 8 on each side with dampers between them which may be opened for the fire to pass from one chamber to the next. All the chambers in one kiln are connected to a single chimney shaft. As the fire passes round the kiln so the chambers in front of the actual firing zone are gradually warmed, and the chambers behind cool off slowly.

At one end of the kiln (nearest the canal) stands a tall square section chimney approximately 30 metres high which took the smoke away from the area and probably served the purpose of "drawing" the draught through.

Quicklime reacts to water so the roof kept everything dry. 

Coal was stacked on top of the kiln around the 363 stoking holes.  The fire inside must reach 900C to burn the limestone properly.  The Hoffman Kiln was efficient with fuel but labour intensive

Coal arrived by horse drawn barge on the nearby Montgomery canal and was poured into the kiln through holes in its roof by the firers.

The limestone loaded trucks which descend on an incline from the rock face, arrived in pairs and were probably pushed around the kiln until they arrived at the correct arch.

The Tallyhouse

There was a weighbride in front of the tally house and a system of levers and counterbalances allowed a heavy load to be weighed by movinb a small weight along a calibrated bar known as a steelyard.
The tallyman recorded the weight of each truck of limstone carried formthe quarry and directed it to the kilns, the canal or the railway siding. Teams of quarrymen were paid according to how much stone they delivered. Each truck would contain a 'tally' - a brass token engraved with a team master's special number. Using this the tallyman kept a record of each team's output.

The English Brake Drum House

The downward pull of the heavy stone filled truck connected by a cable wound around the brake drum to an empty truck lower down, was enough to pull the 'empties' back up hte hill for refilling.  2 parallel sets of track were needed to keep the trucks apart and to run evenly.

a cob and clydesdale out for a ride

the powder store

Llanymynech rocks, the former limestone quarry

tunnel through the hill

http://www.llanymynech.org.uk/html/the_quarry.html



Saturday/Sunday 4-5 February

home days with Lydia & Zac and Annabelle over for a play on Sunday too.  Lots of shopkins and dancing

Tuesday 7 February

Set off this morning for a visit to Ironbridge, set on the River Severn between Coalport and Coalbrookdale and named for its bridge, the first in the world constructed from cast iron.  The gorge was a centre of industry at the time and in the 1750's there were 6 ferry's crossing the gorge but they were at the mercy of the river which rain too fast in winter and could be too shallow in summer.

Thomas Farnolls Pritchard came up with the idea of a new bridge built from cast iron and sent designs to 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson who was obsessed with iron and devoted to finding as many things to do with it as possible (he built the first cast iron boat, minted coins and had his own coffin and tombstone made from cast iron) Abraham Darby III who ran the local Coalbrookdale Company in the gorge.
Seventy years earlier his grandfather had discovered that iron could be smelted with coke instead of charcoal. This development, made a mile away at the Old Furnace in Coalbrookdale had given iron its potential as it became cheaper to produce.
Abraham Darby was keen to carry on the family tradition of invention and innovation and building an iron bridge would be a technological achievement and a spectacular advertisement for his manufacturing company.
In 1776 the Act of Parliament was passed authorising the Bridge and work begaiin in November 1777.

The bridge uses 378 tons of iron and is made of 5 arches. Its height is over 16m from the water and the road along the top if over 7m wide.

the tollhouse, where tolls were collected until 1950.  Even Prince Charles paid his toll

After our exploration of the village we called in at Truffles cafe (as recommended by the guide in the tollhouse) for a coffee before continuing on to Shrewsbury.

In the evening we went to the Royal Hill at Edgerley for pizza night where we were joined by Liz, Stuart, Brian, Annabelle and Emily.


Wednesday/Thursday 8th-9th

Last days in Maesbrook