Horsehay

This walk visits interesting locations around Horsehay including Horsehay Common, Horsehay Pool and Telford Steam Railway. At the start you will find toilets and a public bar, selling refreshments and snacks, but check serving hours. Exit via the car park entrance to cross Stainburn Road, the access road to the Golf Centre. Take the elevated footpath, parallel to and on the left of the main road, A5223, passing house frontages to reach the footbridge. Turn right over the footbridge. Cross the residential road at the end, Lawley Gate, to a finger post opposite, indicating a bridleway. (Should you wish to view a restored well (Touch Telford), walk left along the pavement for 100ms. The well is set into the bank on your right. Return to the fingerpost to continue the route). Taking the direction of the pointer of the fingerpost, follow a rising path behind garden fences and keep to the wire boundary on your left as the path traces the edge of the coppice. At the T junction, keep to the foot of the bank and turn left to continue along the fence/hedge line of the wood on a wide grassy track on the edge of Horsehay Common, now part of the golf course. Exit onto a lane through a gap in a wooden fence. Here turn right. Follow this single track lane above the embankment of the Telford Steam Railway(TSR) track, passing several houses on your left to reach a crossroads. Turn left. This lane eventually joins a main road at the main site of TSR. You will see glimpses of Horsehay Pool on your right as you near TSR. Turn left, noting to the right the imposing Old Loco Shed with its blue plaque, and continue along the main road, crossing the railway bridge and Fence Road. A few paces past this junction, turn left at the metal public footpath sign to follow a path which runs at an angle behind some houses. Pass through a metal gate to cross the field to a further gate directly ahead. Turn right and continue through woodland on a gently ascending path. At the T junction, turn right. The descending path meanders through the woodland, The Brandlee, to reach a kissing gate Take care when crossing the main road, Station Road, to descend a flight of steps opposite. At the foot, turn right and continue on the tarmac path, then pavement, to the point where the footpath stops. Turn left to take a short flight of steps downhill. Turn left onto a wider track, a former tramway. This soon narrows. At the next junction, take the right fork and continue downhill on the edge of woodland to arrive at Pool Hill Road. Turn right uphill. Shortly after a left hand bend, turn left at a wooden fingerpost onto a path which soon crosses a track bed. Take the left fork on the path to emerge onto Suffolk Way. Immediately opposite, you will see a well-defined footpath. Follow this through a green space/semi-woodland. Shortly after a right-hand bend, you will arrive at a T junction. Turn left here, continuing on this rising woodland path, which skirts the housing development and the site of the once famous Horsehay Ironworks, to reach a wooden barrier at Frame Lane. Cross the road to use the pavement and turn right. Recross the road to a layby just before the Traveller’s Joy public house on the right and take the rising footpath which follows the Ironworks’ perimeter. After a short ascent, the path becomes flat, passing behind some new houses and then to the front of residences, created in the former offices of the works, to emerge onto Bridge Road, opposite Farm Lane. Here turn right, noting the blue plaque, celebrating the Horsehay Ironworks, on the wall above. Continue to a safe crossing point opposite the Cod Father fish and chip shop. Take the lane on the right of the shop, Pool View, to follow the edge of Horsehay Pool. Note on your left the two historic rows of cottages, built for the workers of the old works. Just after a grassy picnic area, the lane bends to the right. Here, take the cul-de-sac road straight ahead. Turn left immediately after the first house onto a path which follows the boundary of this property to exit through a wooden gate. Turn left. This path now forms the perimeter of Horsehay Common. Continue on the path, taking the right fork at the next junction. The path eventually descends to meet a major uneven track. Turn left to pass under the subway and continue uphill to arrive back at the car park.