The August Bank Holiday at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm will have a special twist this year.  This popular visitor attraction will be teaming up with Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership to offer a full weekend of activities, events and entertainment.

• On Saturday 25th August there will be Music, Poetry and Prose (no stalls)
• Sunday 26th August will feature Arts & Crafts
• And Monday 27th August will be celebrating Food & Farming

Arts & Crafts people are invited to have a stall on Sunday 26th August, and Food & Drink producers are invited to have a stall on Monday 27th August to join in the festivities and sell their products.

A pitch is only £15 for one day, which includes a table within a large marquee. If you feel that your stall would be well suited to feature on both the Arts & Crafts, and the Food & Farming day – please specify on the booking form. Deadline for applications is Friday 30th March – all applicants will be contacted after this date. Bookings will be reserved on a first-come-first-serve basis, and secured with payment.

There is space for 26 stalls within the marquee, so book quickly to avoid disappointment. There are an additional few empty spaces outside the marquee for hot food & trailers.

The Bank Holiday Monday “Grand Day’s Out” at the farm has run successfully for 3 years and have previously attracted up to 1,200 people.  This year takes a different turn, focusing on a whole weekend of family fun, rather than just the Bank Holiday Monday. This festive weekend will give local producers the opportunity to display and sell their products to this captive audience of locals and visitors to the area.

In addition to the produce on offer, there will be games, trails and activities, giving people entertainment throughout the day. As the event is aimed at families, bite-sized samples, tasters and interactive activities will go down well to get people interested. It is also a great way to meet people and market your business.

For more information, please contact Jodie Griffith on 01588 674090 or email jodie.griffith@shropshire.gov.uk

After growing demand from local B&B owners to be able to book on behalf of their guests, the ShropshireLink bus service is now available for group bookings. The service will allow groups of walkers to get from town to countryside to the start of a walk whilst only needing one registered user. The bus, when available, can drop you off and collect you from the end of your walk allowing you to leave the car behind. This is ideal for linear walks in the Shropshire Hills.

ShropshireLink operates in 9 different zones throughout Shropshire, and users can book the bus between 24hrs-7days in advance to any location within a zone. The bus does not stick to set timetables or routes, meaning that users can book the bus to suit their journey.

Booking of the bus runs on a first come first served basis, so it is important to book as far in advance as possible.

The bus service is now taking group bookings to make it easier for accommodation providers and group organisers to reserve places using only one named user. This new initiative, to help promote sustainable travel for walkers, is supported by the Shropshire Hills AONB Walking with Offa project which has developed 12 new circular walks in the Shropshire Hills. All of these 12 walks are accessible by public transport, including zones 1 and 2 of the ShropshireLink. The codes for the ShropshireLink bus stops for the 12 Walking with Offa walks, to use when booking, are available on the individual walk leaflets.

For more information and to book the ShropshireLink, contact the Shropshire Council’s Customer Service Centre on 0345 678 9068.

The new Walking with Offa routes can be found on www.shropshirewalking.co.uk/walking-with-offa and look out for the printed leaflets in local visitor information centres soon.

Celebrating Local Business

A thriving economy of sensitive agriculture, small specialist producers and local outlets are vital to the future quality of our communities and countryside. A Trade Fair of local businesses will be held at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre on Thursday 23^rd February, from 5-7pm.

Members of the Shropshire Hills Sustainable Business Scheme have been invited to attend this event to promote their business. Our Local MP Philip Dunne, the local media, large local retailers and business networks have also been invited to meet some of Shropshire Hills new and more established local businesses.

Through working with local businesses in the Shropshire Hills Sustainable Business Scheme, we hope this event will strengthen the local supply chain, recognise success and build resilience in our local economy.

We are confident that ‘the Shropshire Hills’ provide a marketing umbrella for small and medium-size businesses, and this can be one which helps to promote pride of place amongst the local community and contributes to an image of the area as a cornucopia of food and drink attractive to the visitor.

For more information about this event and the Sustainable Business Scheme please contact Jodie Griffith on 01588 674090, email jodie.griffith@shropshire.gov.uk.

More information about the Sustainable Business Scheme members can be found on our Buy Local website at www.shropshirehills-buylocal.co.uk

We are able to confirm that in 2012 we have the funding in place to operate a new linear Shuttle bus service between Much Wenlock, Acton Scott Historic Working Farm and Church Stretton.

The new Shuttle route will be called the ‘Wenlock Wanderer’ and will travel along the famed limestone escarpment of Wenlock Edge, through ancient woodland and into the majestic folds of the Stretton hills and the Long Mynd. There are some great walking opportunities from this Shuttle bus, as well as fantastic views, welcoming country pubs and the chance to experience life on a Victorian Farm at Acton Scott Historic Working Farm.

The ‘Long Mynd & Stiperstones’ Shuttle, which has run each season for over ten years, remains the same. As the name suggests, this Shuttle bus takes you over these two distinctive ‘hill tops’ with key stops at Church Stretton, Cardingmill Valley, Pontesbury and Minsterley.

Further great news is that the Shuttle bus fares will remain the same as the 2011 prices, meaning your £7 Day Rover ticket will buy you a lot more mileage for your money. You will be able to travel on both Shuttle bus routes using your Day Rover ticket.

The Shropshire Hills Shuttles operate every weekend and Bank Holiday Monday, and the 2012 season starts on Saturday 7th April (Easter) running until the end of September 2012. For details of the Shropshire Hills Shuttle bus routes, timetables and prices please see www.shropshirehillsshuttles.co.uk – we look forward to seeing you next season.

Joy will be working three days a week, starting on 4th January. Helen will be employed for two days per week and her first day in the office will be 18th January. They will be based at Rigmoreoak, Pennerley; Natural England’s office on the Stiperstones National Nature Reserve.

Next steps

Once they start, Joy and Helen will be talking to groups, organisations and individuals throughout the scheme area and organising events to which everyone will be invited. Along with our partners in the scheme, they will also be investigating the cultural and natural features, assessing current access and interpretation, identifying existing training provision and collecting together a range of historic documents and archives.

All of this information will then be gathered together to provide the basis for activity to be delivered in Stage Two of the scheme.

If you have any questions please contact Clare Fildes on 01588 674090 or email clare.fildes@shropshire.gov.uk

The great British pub may be closing at a rate of around five a day, but Shropshire is now at the very forefront of a campaign to bring some economic benefit to the rural inns and other businesses in the area.

The 12 new walking trails all fall within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and are branded together under the “Walking With Offa” umbrella.

Each one has been carefully walked, mapped and researched – with the very specific aim of making the Shropshire Hills far more accessible to individuals, families and groups of friends who might otherwise never tick the “walking” box when it comes to their list of hobbies and pastimes. These are the people who it is believed, could now hold the key to keeping many of Shropshire’s more rural pubs and inns alive.

All 12 walks are circular and start and finish at a nearby pub or village shop where a new generation of walkers can find fantastic scenery, the great atmosphere of a country inn, as well as some genuine locally-sourced, value-for-money menus. The western reaches of the Shropshire Hills, in particular – along the borderlands with Wales – are where many of the more remote country inns can be found and near to where King Offa of Mercia built his world famous Dyke.

It’s no accident that the new walks campaign is being launched in the same year that Offa’s Dyke Footpath is celebrating its 40th year as a National Trail – and newcomers to the footpaths and byways of Britain will be rubbing shoulders with more experienced walkers and ramblers.

As well as being carefully selected for length and degree of difficulty, all of the new walks are also well signposted with their own branded footpath way-marker posts. Better still, they are all accessible both by public transport, including the possibly unique-to-the-UK transport system ShropshireLink.

Unlike a traditional bus service ShropshireLink is not restricted to a set route or timetable. Instead the bus is able to travel flexibly within an area to meet the demands of people who wish to travel to or from their nearest market town. Where appropriate, the bus has the ability to go direct to the passenger’s own front door or holiday accommodation, to make travel easier and helps ensure the passenger can enjoy a drink without driving home!

Click to download the Walking with Offa walks or follow on Twitter@ShropHillsAONB

From the Stiperstones to the Clee Hills and from the Wrekin to the Clun Forest, the Shropshire Hills are one of 46 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the UK, designated for their national landscape value.

The AONB Partnership is a joint advisory committee established by two local authorities to fulfil the purposes of the AONB to conserve and enhance natural beauty and promote sustainable development. The Partnership consists of up to 43 members and meets three times a year, to oversee implementation of the Management Plan, and advise on policy and strategy. The Partnership also has a number of sub-groups focussing on particular topics.

Applications for membership are now invited from individuals and from organisations (non-statutory or voluntary), as part of a biennial review. Applicants in both categories must demonstrate an interest related to the purposes of the AONB and a willingness to participate constructively in its management. We would particularly welcome applications from organisations with business or land management interests.  Membership is unpaid but in certain circumstances members may be able to claim reasonable expenses.

To see the Terms of Reference which set out the roles of the AONB Partnership and its members, click here.

To see papers of recent meetings of the AONB Partnership, click here.

For an application form please contact 01588 674080 or email shaonbo@shropshire.gov.uk

For an informal discussion please contact Phil Holden on 01588 674088 or phil.holden@shropshire.gov.uk

The closing date for applications is 16th December 2011.

£120,000 has been secured through SITA Trust’s Enriching Nature Programme, to improve the habitat along the banks of the River Clun.  The River is really special; because it is home to the extremely rare freshwater pearl mussel, being one of only three pearl mussel rivers in England recognised as a Special Area of Conservation. However, due to declines in water and habitat quality, numbers in the Clun have fallen to perilous levels. As pearl mussels can only thrive in the best quality rivers, and the fact we used to have many more mussels in the Clun says something about how good this river used to be. These little animals have been in the Clun since the last ice age and should be here in their hundreds of thousands.

This 3-year project aims to give pearl mussels a helping hand by working to improve water quality and the river habitat. The project will work with volunteers from the Severn Trees Trust to plant 1000’s of trees and will fund practical works to help stabilise the river bank. With the support of farmers we also hope to fence sections of river to prevent livestock from further eroding the bank.  In the upper Clun, help is also available to fully fund sediment traps and to block ditches, which will help reduce the amount of silt getting into the river. Not only will this help pearl mussels, but will also benefit upland birds such as lapwing and curlew.

Mike Kelly, River Valleys Officer, is especially keen to talk to any landowners in the upper Clun who might be interested in silt traps and can advise on how this could benefit any farm considering entering Natural England’s Higher Level Stewardship scheme.

For more information on this project, please contact Mike Kelly on 01588 674091 or email mike.kelly@shropshire.gov.uk

The second of our new self-guided walks from the “Walking with Offa” project is out.

This is a bracing, six and a half mile walk with steady climbs, from Bishop’s Castle to Lydbury North crossing Oakeley Mynd, taking around three to four hours.

Click here to download the walk leaflet.

Click here for more information about the Walking with Offa project.

The final workshop is taking place on Wednesday 30th November, 10.30am – 3.30pm, at the Mayfair Centre in Church Stretton.

The Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty attracts many walkers on holiday and 80% of visitors go for a walk during their stays, so the workshop will help you find out more about walks in your local area so you can help your guests explore on foot and encourage them to stay longer or return for more.

Feedback from businesses who have already attended has been great. People have found it really helpful and it has made them think about targeting walkers in their marketing. It has also given people the chance to familiarise themselves with local walks leaflets, maps and websites, and find out about local walks, long distance routes, pub walks, walking events and local walks leaders.

The workshop also provides businesses with a chance to share and improve their knowledge about the landscape, heritage and wildlife that make walks in the Shropshire Hills so enjoyable. Who were Wild Edric and Jack Mytton? What are the stories behind the Devil’s Chair and Mitchell’s Fold? What are all those remains on Titterstone Clee and what’s important about the geology along Wenlock Edge? What wildlife should visitors keep an eye out for at what times of year?

The workshops have been organised by the Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership and the Walking with Offa Project.

To book, please contact Jodie Griffith on 01588 674090 or jodie.griffith@shropshire.gov.uk