Digging into Trench

Friday 30th November and a free day of bonus exploration takes me back onto the Telford trail, seeing what treasures I could unearth from a tour of Wrockwardine Wood, Trench and St Georges...

- An Oakengates Welcome -

OAKENGATES: as has been my custom when investigating Telford in recent years, the starting point of my expedition is Oakengates. The town is clearly gearing up for Christmas, hence lights and decorations are going up along Market Street and a miniature funfair appears to have moved in too. 

- Lincoln Road towards the Pheasant -

WROCKWARDINE WOOD: I seem to have two separate Wrockwardine Wood excavations on the go today, and the first involves a wander along New Road where I encounter the Wrockwardine Wood School along with pubs the Fountain (closed), the Pheasant (pink) and the Red Lion. The area grew as a coal and iron workers settlement and still has a number of old cottages to lend a lot of character.

- Trench Pool -

TRENCH: Moving onto Wombridge Road, I prepare for some serious spadework around Trench. Initial finds here include the Bridge pub and some shops on the junction with Teagues Crescent, but the best discovery is reserved for Capewell Road where the Blue Pig has a quirky name reflecting the local pig iron industry. A former branch of the Shropshire Union Canal used to come right through the area, and although much of the remains have been obliterated by more recent development, the canal's feeder reservoir is intact as Trench Pool. Another clue to canal heritage is inferred by Trench Lock, and from the modern road interchange I take Trench Road towards Donnington, picking out further artefacts like the Trench Tavern and the Duke of York.

- Bulls Head and Butchers -

WROCKWARDINE WOOD: the second stage of my Wrockwardine Wood extractions brings me up Church Road, where Holy Trinity stands solemnly as the red brick parish church. I also scoop out shots of the White Horse Tavern and the Bulls Head, the latter having a particularly nice tiled frontage. The haul here is completed by an athletics stadium and the Wrockwardine Wood FC clubhouse.

- St George's Church -

ST GEORGE'S: with Moss Road and Gower Street as my next links, I shovel my way into St George's where I strike a rich seam of photographic productivity. Pubs are again very much evident, notably the Talbot, the Albion (at the top of the hill up from Oakengates) and the Bell & Bails, but my main focus is on the imposing St George's Church and the neighbouring recreation ground complete with war memorial gates and a cricket pavilion.

- Priorslee Village -

PRIORSLEE: there's one final locality left for me to mine this time, so I finish off with a poke around Priorslee. Sadly the Pigeon Box pub down off Priorslee Road is no more (replaced by a marketing suite for the 'Priorsleap' housing development), and the estates around Priorslee Avenue are distinctly modern in the Telford New Town vein. Nonetheless, Priorslee Village is a pocket of older properties and the Lion pub on Shifnal Road also looks like it might have been around for a while. With that, I hang up my spade and head for Telford Central, highly satisfied at another day of successful hard graft!