|
|
Shropshire town, 7 miles NW of Bridgnorth.
Picturesque old town built largely of the mellow local limestone 13 miles SE. of Shrewsbury. Two of its most prominent features are the ruins of St. Milburga's Priory and the ancient Guildhall.
Catherine Milnes Gaskell (1857-1935),a writer herself, lived at Wenlock Abbey which adjoins the Priory. Among her literary visitors over the years were Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) and his wife Emma and Henry James (1843-1916).
Mary Webb (1881-1927) spent part of her childhood at The Grange, a large house on the Church Stretton road. One of her novels, Gone to earth (1917) was made into a film starring Hollywood actress, Jennifer Jones. Many of the scenes were shot in and around Much Wenlock in 1949.
A novel by Jonathan Coe (1961-) The rain before it falls (2007) tells the story of three generations of a Shropshire family with much of the book being set in Shropshire, particularly in Much Wenlock and the surrounding countryside.
Wenlock Edge is a beautiful wooded escarpment running SW. for 4 miles or so from Much Wenlock. Immortalised by A. E. Housman (1859-1936) in one of his most famous poems from A Shropshire Lad (1896). A short walk along Wenlock Edge is described on this website, starting just outside Much Wenlock and following part of the old packhorse route from Much Wenlock to Shrewsbury.
Location map of Much Wenlock courtesy of Streetmap.co.uk
Page created 1 October 2002 and last updated
4 July 2008
For your literary enquiries and comments please see the Who to contact page.
Please read the general terms and conditions and about accessibility on this site, including the use of the UK government accesskeys system. Further details on ICRA labelling, visitor counts and EnrichUK may be obtained by following these external links:-
|
|