To Chirk

Today's walk was made a little longer by my having stayed in Ruyton XI Towns, and so having to walk back to Shotatton before I could really get going. Although starting on part of the road which is still A5, for most of the day I was away from the busy modern road.

I had brought with me copies of some of Harper's sketches from his 1904 book in the hope I could still recognise the scene. Wyle Kop in Shrewsbury yesterday was well-enough preserved, but not so today at Queen's Head (village named after an inn). The inn is there and much the same, but what had been a round-arched canal bridge has been rebuilt in a different style, and a house in the background has gone altogether in the course of recent road improvements.

Before the present main road was built in the 1980s, I remember the A5 going from Queen's Head via Whittington to Gobowen, bypassing Oswestry. That's now the B5009, and when I first thought of this walk, I expected to pass that way. But I've decided to follow Telford's original route for the whole of this phase, and his milestones took me into Oswestry.

There I met with John Higgs, author of the Watling Street book published earlier this year. We obviously have much in common, although I reckon our interests are complementary, not competing. I spoke with him about my walk while being recorded for a podcast. Why am I helping him promote his book? It must be about reflected glory.

My main aim in these last two days has been to find out how much the characteristics of the road in North Wales are shared in Shropshire. The milestones here (today I missed 95 and 92 miles, but had an unexpected bonus in a reproduction at 90 miles), from Shrewsbury to Gledrid, share a common design with each other. It's similar to those from Chirk to Holyhead, but not quite the same. The tollhouse at Montford Bridge had looked like Telford's pattern, albeit two-storey as in Anglesey, but the one at Wolf's Head was totally different.

The distinctive 'look' of the road through Wales primarily comes from low stone walls either side, frequently punctuated by the 'depots': roadside alcoves where repair materials were stored. I was searching for these, but the Shropshire road is generally bounded by hedge or fence. A bit of stone wall here and there wouldn't be enough, as it could have been added by roadside property owners, or later road improvements: it has to have the depots to be persuasively the same. I found nothing of this for most of both days. I had more hope after Gobowen, because here Telford built a new route rather than improving a pre-existing road, but this too it was mostly fenced. Going down the hill from Gledrid to Chirk Bridge, some retaining walls are essential - and here I found, finally, one likely-looking depot and a possible part of another. Here perhaps is where the style first appears.

So now I am back in Wales, at the Hand Hotel, a coaching inn. The road is now badged as Llwybr Hanesyddol - Historic Route, and Chirk has really gone to town with this, using the same coach and horses symbol on their street signs and street furniture.