Shrewsbury, Ironbridge, Newport, Peak District - Buxton, Bakewell, Crook Hill Farm

This won’t make it on the web tonight and neither did yesterday’s blog due to technical difficulties. At the moment we’re relaxing in our B+B at Crook Hill Farm in the Peak District with no means of contact with the outside world. We started our day at The Bull Inn in Shrewsbury. After breakfast we had a walk around the town. Shrewsbury is a medieval town in Shropshire surrounded on most sides by the River Severn. Our mission for the day was to find Shrewsbury biscuits! We found some at the Visitors Centre but they’re not what you think and they weren’t even made in Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury biscuits in NZ (the ones with a jam centre) are called Jammy Dodgers in Shrewsbury whereas Shrewsbury biscuits are more like a plain biscuit with bits of fruit in them. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any fresh ones so we bought a recipe instead. After visiting the Dingle (a formal garden) we left Shrewsbury and drove to Ironbridge. Ironbridge is named after the Iron Bridge that spans its gorge. The bridge was made in 1793 and was the first of its kind. It is said to be the international symbol of the industrial revolution since it was here that they discovered how to improve the manufacturing of iron by using coke. Ironbridge is where it all began. Ironbridge is also world famous for its pork pies according to the shop at which we bought one. We continued our quest to visit “Great Britain’s Top 100 Tearooms” by visiting Newport. It looks like the tearoom in question had recently changed hands and it didn’t live up to the description in the book. We drove from Newport to the Peak District driving through Stoke-On-Trent, Leek, and on to Buxton. We really like the Peak District. It’s very scenic with rolling hills, rugged terrain, rivers, forests, and lots of small villages dotted throughout the landscape. We stopped at Ashford-in-the-water to check out our second tearoom for the day only to discover that it was for sale. We found another one close by and had tea with Lemon Cake and Victoria Sponge. Bakewell is another small village in the Peak District and you can guess what it’s famous for - Bakewell pudding! (Yes it’s a pudding, not a tart) We bought one to have with our Pork Pie. We then carried on to our B+B which is called Crook Hill Farm. It’s a working farm out in the middle of the country. The room is very nice – the best so far! It’s in an old converted barn. We have been ordered by our hostess Janet to present for breakfast at 8 am. Onwards to York tomorrow where we should be able to post these blog entries.