and on to Chirk

 

Chirk dates back to 1324 but little of that remains. The village grew in the 17 centaury and by 1826 the main road London to Holyhead had been built and the Hand hotel became the post office for mail Oswestry to Llangollen. The railway soon followed but this remained as the main route into Wales until the A5 was built.

 

Nowadays it is a small town, set alongside the canal and the railway, with a sweet centre at its heart as its home to Cadburys factory and the smell of chocolate occasionally wafts by

There are a few shops on the high street, an excellent cafe set in a wool and teddy bear shop along with a quilting shop, butchers and the other essentials.

An easy walk out of town brings you down to the canal where I stopped by the coffee boat for a drink and had a long and interesting conversation with a gentleman carrying a barn owl on his bike.

The local church was open and I was pleasantly surprised by the number of information boards about the towns development.

Also the needlepoint/tapestry hassocks

The roof bosses were repainted in the 1970's and add a splash of colour amongst the wooden beams.

Almost forgot the beautiful castle gates just past the campsite entrance.

and the railings in the town

along with this wooden bench.

I suspect that we will return to this campsite as a stop over on the way into Wales.

Start of spring ?

 It was cold and frosty this morning but the sky was clear so three bags of fleece are blowing around on the line.

I took myself off into town for a wander round and a coffee, first stop was the train station to see if there was any new art in installations in the foyer,

This is a memorial to people who have lost their lives to prostate cancer.

I then headed down to the canal and this time headed off in the opposite direction to normal, the difference in canalside buildings is well marked.

Tradional

Modern

   The canal side is a hive of building activity which means more hoarding screens for the graffiti artists.

Next time I will follow the towpath further but for now this is as far as I went as the steps to rejoin the path are temporary on the other side and I may wait until there is something more solid or my poor old legs feel up to it (random ligament problems at present )

I left the canal at this point and circled back to Hopkinsons which is an antique shop/cafe /haunted museum near the railway station.

A mocha was very welcome as inspite of the sun the wind had been quite bitter down on the towpath, I sat inside shaded by the shutters , quietly knitting and listening to another x files audio book..

Even my stitching has a spring feeling about it, spot the yellow rabbit :-)

Speak soon xx