The Montgomery Canal - a final look at Maesbury

Thursday, 08 April 2010 19:37

A few more interesting facts about Maesbury

We continued our walk along Main Road and Maesbury Marsh became Maesbury. Over the fields to our left we could just see Canal Central and Epiphany.

Over the fields

There are a lot of dog owners in the countryside and the population of canines is no doubt augmented by those brought by narrowboat. So I am sure that these dog owners are grateful for the invention below and we spotted a couple around  Maesbury. Although I have to say that not all dog walkers in the area were good at "pooper scooping".

Dog friendly stile (pull the lever up and the "pooper" scoots under!)

Maesbury old National School is now a residence and beyond it is St John the Baptist's Church. More details of both are here - clickety click. Once there was an orchard between them and the cottage by the school was home to the caretaker.

Maesbury Marsh becomes Maesbury

The Church is a prefabricated Victorian building. Apparently it was erected in three days in 1906 and is one of a number of buildings in the UK known as  "Tin Tabernacles".

St John the Baptist Church

We attended the Easter Day service here and we were made to feel very welcome. It was good to see young people involved in the service and families attending too. It was also good to meet fellow narrowboaters Mark and Janet from narrowboat Shropshire Lily who moor in the Mill Arm.

Walking up to Ashfield crossroads and Chain Lane there are a couple of cottages at the crossroads. One is a guest house and the other has a happy gargoyle on the wall!

Happy gargoyle

Beyond the crossroads is the village school opened in 1923. It has an impressive clock and large yellow footsteps leading to the door!

Maesbury School

After church on Sunday we walked back to the canal along Morton Lane from the crossroads. It eventually brought us out by the Mill Arm, passing the old mill and crossing Morda Brook on the way. Crossing Crofts Mill lift bridge we returned to Epiphany.

The Maesbury website has lots of information for visitors, including details of the walks in the area. I took a virtual walk before we actually did our walk and so I was able to give John a running commentary - whether he liked it or not!