Halloween Leisure Cycle

This event is part of the OutdoorLads *Halloween 2022* and participation is intended for those attending the weekend hostel event - although if there are a still places after 25 October these can be booked by others not attending the hostel event.  

Nestled in a spectacular wooded gorge just down the hill from our hostel stands a monument to British industry – the world’s first iron bridge. Crossing the River Severn, it was completed in 1779 and opened to traffic in 1781.

At that time the beautiful Severn Gorge had been transformed with a hive of industry, iron foundries, kilns and fires making the area a buzzing, smoke-filled port that was dark and dusky, even on a clear day.

Today the area has changed – the grime and the dark smoke have been relegated to history. Nature has reclaimed the quarries and and riverbanks and turned them back into green woodlands with wildlife and wildflowers in abundance.

We'll start off from the hostel and head down to the Ironbridge itself, the success of which inspired the widespread use of cast iron as a structural material.  Today Ironbridge is celebrated as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution.

We'll cross the bridge and join the Mercian Way, which here follows a disused section of the Severn Valley Railway, above the picturesque banks of the River Severn. The old rail trail takes us down through Coalport and continues along the Severn valley on a mainly off-road route to Bridgenorth.

We will stop for lunch in Bridgnorth - either bring your own lunch and sit somewhere nice such as Castle Gardens, or head to one of the many pubs or cafes in town for a *quick* bite to eat.   

After lunch we head out of Bridgnorth on a slightly different route before retracing our steps along the Mercian Way / Severn Valley rail trail to Ironbridge.

The proposed route is only 30km / 20 miles, so there will be plenty of time to stop to check out the industrial heritage and sights en-route.

Any bike in good working order will be suitable for this excursion, as it's flat and reasonably surfaced (a mixture of gravel and tarmac). 

You'd probably be most comfortable on a gravel, hybrid or mountain bike, but a road bike with not super skinny tyres will be fine - I have done the route on a road bike with 700Cx28 tyres quite comfortably.  The proposed route can be viewed and the GPX downloaded from Cycle.travel here. 

If you have any questions about the event or the route please contact Skip.

IMPORTANT! -  Cycling Participation Statement

You MUST complete the Cycling Participation Statement in addition to booking your event space before attending a cycling event. You only need to complete a Cycling Participation Statement once, not for each cycling event you attend. 

Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms, even if they are extremely mild, or who has recently tested positive for Covid-19, is asked not to attend.

Image credits: All images except Image 3 are provided by the leader and permission is granted for their use and re-use by ODL.  Image 3 (Pxhere) is a public domain free use photo.