self catering in shropshire, Whitcliffe

self catering in shropshire Whitcliffe self catering in shropshire self catering in Shropshire, Ludlow town, Ludlow castle, Whitcliffe, town walls, inns and alehouses, visitors, Ludlow, Ludlow bone bed, England, Ironbridge, town, Whitcliffe common, Breadwalk, freestone, holiday cottages, self catering in Shropshire, You may find the text below interesting to read if you are planning to stay in our holiday cottages. Whitcliffe has given of itself freely through the centuries to all, rich and poor alike, both the visitors and the residents of Ludlow Town. Its rocks that now form a cliff face towering over the river Teme were formed at least 420 million years ago. Being at that time at the edge of a large continent, the area around Ludlow was a shallow tropical sea. To the west was the continental shelf and a much deeper and wider ocean, whose frequent storms disturbed the sea bed and created shell banks as far as Ludlow. Shortly after that time there followed the formation of the Whitcliffe Beds, (which was sediment that had been churned up by the worms and snails so making what is called freestone), beloved of the later stone masons. During the next 5 million years or so there was a climatic change, very panicky for the said worms and snails I should think. After a brief period of being a land surface, the area became covered by shallow water again bringing a very slow sedimentation, so to form what is known as the Ludlow Bone Bed, packed with fish scales, spines and other bones. Along the rocks of Whitcliffe there is a fault, and with the land movements from this there was a significant earthquake about 300 million years ago resulting in the rock exposure and fossils that we see today. On the top of the cliff face covering an area of 52 acres is Whitcliffe Common. Before England was conquered, and the de Lacy's came and built Ludlow Castle, the area beside Ludlow Castle was a very small community called Dinham. The inhabitants of this early village of Dinham used the then very steep track down to the river Teme for their water source, and probably would ford the river over an earlier bridge to gather their supply of fire wood, fruit berries, hazel nuts and chestnuts all abundant on Whitcliffe common at that time. The stone from the very heart of Whitcliffe can be seen forming Ludlow Castle and the town walls, indeed many other buildings in the town. It was in 1221 that the common land of Whitcliffe was confirmed by grant to the people of Ludlow for grazing and for brushwood, probably not so much fun when it was legal no excuse for a good fallout. On the very top of Whitcliffe common near the Wigmore road are some plainly visible trenches most likely to have been dug by the parliamentarian Army during the siege of Ludlow Castle, they won we surrendered when they started getting nasty, during the civil war in 1646. "The Donkey Steps" is a path which went from the Dinham Bridge to the common at the top, established from an earlier track into a wider path in the 18th century for the taking of iron ore, by donkey cart, from Clee Hill to Burrington where it was crushed for later use at Blists Hill, Ironbridge. In the 1850's a riverside walk was laid out to connect the two bridges either end of Whitcliffe, Ludford Bridge and Dinham Bridge, this walk was called the Breadwalk as the unemployed labourers were paid in bread to ensure their families benefited not the local Inns and Alehouses. The common is a very well used walk by locals and visitors. It is also a time honoured courting area and although I have never seen any "fern tickets" sold anywhere in town I am often told of their existence.