Day 8 - Shrewsbury Day Off

My first day off marks the end of the first stage of my journey, that of South Shropshire. Shiela collected me in the morning and drove me to hers where she put my week’s worth of dirty clothes in the washing machine then we went out to visit family and old haunts.

First of all we drove to the farm next door to Wildehope Manor that Sheila used to run with her ex-husband Tony, where my dad visited her there. The first pic shows the farmhouse in relation to Wildehope.

I heard some stories about life at Wildehope back in the 70s. Once there were a large delivery of chocolates for some sort of special occasion. When they went to open them they discovered that the mice had eaten the entire crate of chocolate, leaving nothing behind. Another time during a hot, dry summer, the warden had used an incinerator and started a fire in the fields so bad that it almost set fire to Wenlock Edge and it had to be put out by a huge team of fire engines.

Next stop Astley Lodge, childhood home of Shiela and her siblings at the time that my dad had visited them, and the starting point for his adventure. It’s a large Victorian house in Hadnell, just outside Shrewsbury. It’s much changed since she lived there but the front looks the same. The current owner welcomed us in and gave us a tour of the house.

After this we visited Shiela’s two sisters, Kate and Amanda, at Kate’s house. With the three Johnson girls in one room, there was lots if laughs and reminiscences about people and places from over the years.

Amanda remembered my dad and his brother Stef, along with her two brothers Ian and Graeme, sneaking into the attic at Astley Lodge to play darts. She also found a photo of herself with Polly the Poodle, her mother Maggie (these last three all accompanied by dad on day 1 of his 1972 walk) plus my grandmother Rena and my dad's childhood dog Sara the springer spaniel, taken outside Astley Lodge.

After a lovely day with the Johnson girls I returned to Sheila’s for dinner and to get ready to begin Stage 2 of the walk tomorrow, walking South down Offa’s Dyke.