Basshr one

Verified Slow Way

Verified by 83.33% of reviewers

Easy, flat route through watery fields north of Shrewsbury. Ground-laying birds, waterfowl, curlews. Some confusion at a 5 path point midfield after Bomere Heath - the locator flag on OS map useful here. Hencote affords a great view of the county capital.

A rare bright day this March but the fields were still sodden and boggy from the previous days’ heavy rain. Even so, this route is easy to navigate, with shops and a pub in Bomere Heath for a mid-way stop. It leads you through some beautiful old fields and woods. The highlight for us was the sight of not one but several hares, curlews on a flooded field and Shrewsbury seen from Hencote with the Stretton Hills in the background. A great walk, peaceful and leisurely.

Having walked from Chester to Hereford this wet March, I'm giving this route 5 stars cos compared to other sections of the trail, this was pretty and easy. Flat, no nasty A roads to cross, only one gate we had to climb (triple-knotted binder twine and chains do not abound so much in Shropshire as in Cheshire and Wales it seems) and a lot of Nature due to big areas of set-aside, less intensively farmed fields than elsewhere in Shropshire and overall an unexpected peaceful delight.
To give you an indication of how long it took us at a very leisurely pace (including a packed lunch at the pond along War Brook and a beer at the friendly local The Red Lion in Bomere Heath), we started walking from Ruyton XI Towns (3 and a half walking route miles from Baschurch) at 11.30am and arrived at Shrewsbury Train Station at 7pm.
Very muddy fields but we were prepared (and used to it after 80 miles). Highlights were seeing a dozen curlews in a flooded field, lots of hares, a high proportion of ancient oaks left alone in the middle of ploughed fields. Whoever farms around Leaton and Woollaston deserves a medal for protecting its biodiversity. A great view of Shrewsbury from Hencote. The railway bridge over the Chester line at the bottom of Hencote Lane thrilling for the anorak in me. A great walk.

Ok at the start (apart from poor signage within first housing estate) and end (The end of the walk is a section from one of the walks from the popular '20 Walks in and around Shrewsbury' book) but a large number of broken/poorly maintained stiles and poor waymarking. Also, some land-owners have made it a little tricky to walk during the summer months (one section of footpath is currently impassable due to the crop, which meant we had to navigate another longer route after retracing our steps, and there is also one section where a new barn diverts the footpath, but the land owner has put an electric fence (live) around livestock and the footpath is no longer accessible). Extremely overgrown in a large number of places (we walked it in mid-June) - nettles and brambles (yes, very tingly, cut legs at the end of it - do not try to walk it in shorts!).
First 1-2 miles is pretty dog friendly and easily accessible for all - after that, stiles are generally poor and no easy access to get dogs through, apart from lifting them over.
I would not advise anyone to use the current route!.

We did the walk in two sections, from Baschurch to Bomere Heath, and from BH to Shrewsbury, leaving a car at each end both times.
The route is mostly flat through fields and farmland, with a great view over the old spires and towers of Shrewsbury at the end.
The section after BH was a bit muddy through a couple of fields (we were walking in January) and the signage isn't always obvious, but overall the walk was very enjoyable and I would do it again.

We walked this route from baschurch back to Shrewsbury, and the beginning and end parts were lovely. The middle part was a tad plain and boring. Just going across a few ploughed fields.

Overall, it was a lovely route and the first half from baschurch to Bomere Heath was entirely dog friendly, the second part from Bomere Heath Shrewsbury had multiple styles in varying stages of repair and

Along the route. There were some lovely areas of countryside and very little roadwork and some lovely views of the hills, especially on leaving baschurch.

We asked to park at The Moor farm café (which is also home to a Polo Club!) in Baschurch and so started off with some lovely home-made cakes and hot coffee!

Bomere Heath (half-way) serve coffe and cake at their village hall on a Wednesday & Friday - for information.

Overall a pleasant walk … very easy walking and flat but the second half has a few wobbly tricky stiles - and just a shame it isn’t dog friendly all the way.

Share your views about this route, give it a star rating, indicate whether it should be verified or not.

Include information that will be useful to others considering to walk or wheel it.

You can add up to 15 photos.