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Travel StoriesMuch A-Wenlock About Nothing
Prologue, Rain, Lost, And Hot
Ride Date 13 Feb 2026
By Ren Withnell
Prologue.
It's winter. It's perpetually dark and cold. No-one wants to go out to play. There's no bike nights. No-one is planning a weekend away. It's a relentless stream of work, eat, watch telly, sleep, work, eat, watch telly, sleep. It's horrible is winter.
Trying (desperately) to be positive what winter does is cause me to appreciate summer more. I've oft pondered what it must be like to live in a country with a climate that's pretty stable. I'm thinking of somewhere like The Canary Islands, they have changes and storms I'm sure but mostly the weather is "good". If I lived there would I appreciate the good weather as much as I do here in Blighty on the rare days the sun comes out?
Dreaming of warm, contemplating the notion of dry.
To counter this perpetual seasonal misery it's time Sharon and I took a short break. But where? It needs to be far enough to be worth going, not so far as to be a blummin' hard ride if the weather is poop. It won't be a city but it'd be nice to walk rather than ride to a shop for supplies. Sharon has made it VERY clear we won't be camping. I figure we'd best crank up Booking.com and AirBnB.
I'm clicking around and I find a few hopeful places. There's a studio in Much Wenlock - we stopped for a brew in Much Wenlock in 2024 and it looked very nice. There's a couple of small food stores within easy walk. I find the accommodation on street view and there's parking for the bikes. It's not "cheap" but it is within my definition of "manageable".
The only concern is it's a studio - the bedroom is the living room is the kitchen and the bathroom is a walled off corner. Will this be sufficient for Her Ladyship? "As long as there's heating and it's dry - it's fine." Right, I'll get that booked then.
Friday The 13th Feb 2026
Meh. The weather is Meh. Considering this is February Meh is actually more than acceptable. I've been desperately monitoring the weather because there's snow due - maybe - perhaps - or maybe not. So far it's grey and cold and damp. We can deal with grey and cold and damp. We can't deal with snow.
I take the motorway to Sharon's house this morning. She's up and getting organised when I arrive although there's no rush. We can only arrive after 1500 and google suggests it'll take 1 hour 40, which at our pace is 2 hours, oh, and I'm sure we'll stop for a brew, make that 3 hours. Yeah we can leave at 1200, 1230 I reckon. Sure enough we're closing the gate around 1215.
Grey, dirty, cold, and damp. Acceptable riding conditions then.
It's a familiar ride to Smiths Honda on the A41 at Chester. I'm sure I must have been down the A41 before but it all looks new to me today. The skies are heavy as we make our way past green fields and stout hedgerows. The trees and bushes remain leafless allowing glimpses into the designer homes of footballers and the newly wealthy. The odd villages are pretty, some of the houses are ostentatious.
By the time we reach Broxton the rain has arrived. It's heavy at times and certainly wet, visibility is an issue. Fortunately our first planned stop is in about 8 miles - I know this but Sharon doesn't, I wonder how miserable she is right now.
The Lockside Cafe is just north-west of Whitchurch. It's our first visit so we're fumbling in the small gravel car park then we can't find the entrance. Aha! Once we're seated with drinks (and a scone for Sharon) I take a moment to look around. It's a small cafe, perfectly pleasant and I imagine being beside a lock on the canal - quite a charming location if it weren't for the inundation outside.
Well we are next to a lock on the canal I suppose.
We rest a while and relax. There's 3 mature ladies being a cliché in the way they're dressed, their tea and cakes, and gossip of the goings-on hereabouts. Sat-nav suggests we're still about an hour from Much Wenlock - but just in case I find a chain pub on the outskirts of Shrewsbury. Outside the rain is not abating.
I'm glad I added another stop. My plan initially was to simply stop in the car park and check Sharon is OK. By the time we've done battle with excess traffic along the A49 and been water-boarded with the rain the pub's car park can't arrive soon enough. Trying to be butch and manly I ask Sharon if she'd like another break - I'm hoping she says yes.
We stopping? Hell Yeah! This car park comes complete with it's own paddling pool.
The Two Henry's is a regular typical chain pub. It's absolutely fine save for the cost of the drinks. I'm beginning to understand these places sell food at what might possibly be called "acceptable" prices by hiking the cost of the drinks. Well we're here now, dripping on their carpet and in need of a warm. It's hellish out there - I'm getting flashbacks of our recent Skeggy trip.
You'd think with sat nav and having travelled around Shrewsbury's ring road a few times I'd not be getting lost. Nope. Wrong lane Ren - now we're taking a detour towards Telford and Wolverhampton. Damn and blast! It's all dual carriageway and there's not even a slip road for 7 bloody miles!! Luckily the rain has eased but I can still imagine Sharon cussing me for the extra miles. Sorry sweetie.
We're now in the countryside, single track. Between the showers bright sunshine blinds us, we're both cold and even though we've not travelled far we're ready to call it a day. We must however plough on. Slowly, carefully we zig zag through fields and farmyards, past some lovely cottages and a village or two. It is in all likeliness lovely here but right now I just want to find that main road and get there.
Cressage is where we finally rejoin the A458 and soon we're into Much Wenlock. Finding the property is easy as I've checked it all out on streetview. We're soon parked in the driveway much to our relief.
The studio apartment is above a double garage. There's a set of stone steps, a door, a kitchenette, a bed, a few chairs and that's it. It's not a large space but it is clean, tidy and exactly as advertised so that's fine. It takes us far too long to work out how to turn the new fangled underfloor heating on which is another sign that we must be getting old. We very carefully place the now dirty saddle bags away from the clean cream carpets and settle in.
Small yet prefectly functional - if we'd bothered to read the instructions.
Of course the sun is out now - we wouldn't expect anything less. We have emergency supplies but we're going to take a walk into Much Wenlock. We'll get something for tea and have a brief look around.
A Nisa Local with a petrol station fulfils our dietary requirements. We return through the small town and it is indeed rather a pretty and peaceful place. The obligatory gawp into the estate agent's window shatters any delusions of us living here but this doesn't stop Sharon from dreaming. We'll have a proper look around tomorrow, I'm getting hangry.
Well the sun WAS out, alas night time comes early in winter.
The oven is fine, the induction hob too. The problem is we haven't bothered to read the instructions so the whole affair of heating food becomes a farce Monty Python would be proud of. It takes well over an hour to heat some pasta and garlic bread. Go Team BAT! It's a relief to finally sit at the little fold-out table and stuff calories into our faces.
We didn't read the instructions for the underfloor heating either and now we're sweating buckets as frost forms on the bikes outside.
We do at least manage to operate the sheets on the bed correctly. Yeah, we're doing alright so far save for making life difficult for ourselves. We're (too) warm, we're dry, the accommodation is compact yet lovely, and the forecast for tomorrow looks cold but dry for the most part. I just hope it doesn't blummin' snow...
Advertise here - contact ren@bikesandtravels.com
Prologue, Rain, Lost, And Hot
Another short winter break in Shropshire. This time Much Wenlock provides the location and the weather does what winter weather does. It'll be fine, hopefully.
Reader's Comments
Upt'North ¹ said :-
Brrrrrrrr, just Brrrrrrrr.
Upt.
07/04/2026 12:33:49 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
Put ya big jumper on Upt' - you'll be fine.
07/04/2026 15:55:35 UTC
ROD¹ said :-
I have been through Much Wenlock many times as it's on the way to my favourite stopping place en route to Wales.
I understand all this "can't work the heating, oh it's getting too hot" so Sharon does not wear any clothing to bed!!
The favourite stopping place Clun castle car park. With toilets, a picnic bench, and a walk around the castle ruins it's a great stop.
07/04/2026 16:43:19 UTC
CrazyFrog said :-
There's a really nice little cafe by Clun bridge too, and the road up Clun valley is a bikers delight!
07/04/2026 18:03:39 UTC
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Travel StoriesMuch A-Wenlock About Nothing