Overcoming the dread of driving again, I woke early, had breakfast (no black pudd’n), and got bravely behind the wheel heading to Stokesay. Stokesay has a medieval castle (manor house castle) called, cleverly, Stokesay Castle.

I failed to mention in my earlier posts that it took me a day and a half to figure out how to put the car in reverse. It’s a five-speed shift, so reverse is up to the left but try as I might I couldn’t get the car to back up.

Once, on occasion stopping for directions at a store, I had to push the car backwards to have room to go forward. Sheeesh. How frustrating! Anyway, I found out the you have to “Lift Up” the shift handle in order to place it into reverse.

Much Wenlock to Stokesay is approx 23 miles straight down the Wenlock Edge. No reverse needed.

View my journey here.

The Edge is similar to our Appalachian Trail but much shorter (40 miles). The area around the Edge looks a lot like the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, but its not as populated. It is very pretty.

I was able to grab one photo while driving since there wasn’t anywhere to pull off without  risking life and limb. So I risked life and limb by shooting while driving. If I had a flat I would have been in serious trouble as there is no “shoulder of the road” here. (Somewhere between Much Wenlock & Stokesay)

Stoksay Castle and Stokesay Church are situated together, but the Church is free and the Castle has a fee of 5 pounds ($10) with an audio recording.

hurch building started in c1078) this view is most likely mid 1400s.

Bell Ringer cords

View from the back of the church

Stained glass I am guessing at 1500s

The Stokesay Castle. Incredibly preserved. It easily takes you back to the medieval times. The starkness of how difficult living must have been back then is easily felt when standing in the same room as the people who lived and worked here. Henry Adams visited Stokesay several times with his friend Gaskell and also found it fascinating.

The Gate house. At this small door is were you entered the castle grounds unless you were a special visitor. In which case, the whole entrance would be thrown open to honor you. King Charles the 1st stayed here for a time.

The great hall is on the right entering thru the open doorway at the right. It stretched to left up to the fourth gable. Further left up the steps and to the right are the living quarters. To the extreme left is the tower used for days of siege.  Once welcome Cromwells forces came (the owner was a Loyalist) and a sort siege occured, but the owners (Baldwayns) gave up and all was made right and life went on.

The great room. The fire was kept in the middle of this room and the smoke from it…wherever smoke goes when in these circumstances

Rafters in the Great Room. Noticed the dark areas caused by the smoke.

Window in the great room.

The Living Quarters.

The ornate wood carving over the fire place is incredibly impressive.

Heading to the Tower.

In the tower there are two levels of living quarters each accessed by steps like these. Then up to the Tower Battlements.

View from the battlement.

When leaving, decided to try to visit the Ludlow Castle. However, upon entering Ludlow, the roads were being worked on causing too much confusion. So I ska-dad-led on and went back to the Raven to end a nice day and get ready to head to Blandford Forum in Dorset.

But that’s another day.

~Joe