The best running trails around Kinlet

Very recommended. Well located for cyclist: Wyre Forest, River Severn Valley, possible start in Ironbridge/Bridgnorth direction.

Long flat path most of the way

thick mud at the moment

Knowles Mill is the remains of an eighteenth-century water-powered grain mill, located in the Wyre Forest in Worcestershire, England. The mill has been owned by the National Trust since 1938. The mill and its surroundings feature extant machinery, as well as notable populations of adders and wood cranesbill. One of nine possible mills that historically worked on Dowles Brook, Knowles Mill was built in the eighteenth-century, and was later modified in the nineteenth-century. The surviving building is two storeys high and the site also preserves an overshot mill wheel made of iron and a great spur wheel, alongside other remnant machinery. The first record of a mill on the site dates to 1757 when it was listed as for sale in a local newspaper. However there is documentary evidence preceding 1757 that lists owners of the land that the mill was built on. These owners include Arthur Palmer, c.1661, Edward Wheeler, c.1693, Roger Hunt, c.1704, Antony Betts, c.1717, Edward Faulkner, c.1722 and Daniel Crun, c.1735. The first owner of the mill was William Crun, in 1757. It passed through a number of owners, including William and Mary Herbert, William Nicholls and Arthur Nott. The mill takes its name from the Knowles family who worked there from 1803 to the 1870s; earlier names included Coventry Mill and Upper Town Mill. The first member of the family to be listed as owner was James Knowles. The mill continued in use until 1891, when it became no longer financially viable. It was donated to the National Trust by Paul Cadbury in 1938, along with four acres of orchards. The property was visited by the historian James Lees-Milne during his work as a curator for the Trust. Source: Wikipedia

Bewdley was once an important inland port, connecting Shrewsbury with the Midlands and the seaports of Gloucester and Bristol. Originally the quays were shorter and had slipways between them. In time, as more landing space was needed, the quayside walls were joined into one continuous length. The larger boats, known as Severn Trows, carried local goods such as rope and charcoal, metal goods from Birmingham and Staffordshire pottery to the south. They returned laden with woollen cloth, wine, spirits, tobacco, sugar, spices, citrus fruit and dried fish to be sold in market towns across the West Midlands and Welsh borders. This civic space was developed when the Environment Agency built the Town's new flood defences, and incorporates work by artist Elizabeth-Jane Grose. On the lower quayside you can find flowing words relating to the river and the vessels that worked on it. On the upper quayside have a look for the 'cargo-plates' recording forty of the common and less common exports and imports to the Port of Bewdley. Source: Environment Agency

Bewdley Bridge over the Severn was built in 1798 by Thomas Telford. It was erected to replace the 1483 medieval bridge that was swept away in the floods of 1795.

Welcome to the Wyre Forest Butterfly Trail. This 3.5 mile trail takes 2-3 hours to complete and has been designed to introduce the amazing diversity of butterflies found in the Wyre. The Butterfly Trail now continues along the Dowles Path to Coopers Mill. The track that you have walked along from the bridge over Dowles Brook is a good area to spot the bright yellow Brimstone butterfly. The Brimstone hibernates as an adult through the winter and is often the first butterfly seen each spring. Some people believe that the insect's original name of 'butter-coloured fly' was the origin of the word 'butterfly'. It is only the male that is bright yellow in colóuration; the female is a more greenish- white and in flight might be mistaken for a Large White. The reason why the Brimstone is generally numerous here is because of the presence of several bushes of alder buckthorn between the track and the brook on which the female lays her eggs. If you look carefully during May and June you can often spot the yellow skittle-shaped eggs on the undersides of leaves and sometimes also the caterpillars which are extremely well camouflaged against the green of the leaves. The caterpillar goes through a number of skin changes. as it grows before eventually pupating away from its food-plant to emerge as an adult butterfly in late July. Brimstones can then be seen visiting flowers like teasels and thistles for several more weeks before going into hibernation to emerge the following spring. It is often regarded as Britain's longest lived butterfly with some adults surviving as long as 11 months. Only a handful of our butterflies hibernate as adults in this way, most species pass the winter as an egg, caterpillar or pupa. Consequently, their adult stage may only last for a few days but, nevertheless, long enough for courtship, pairing and egg-laying to take place to ensure the survival of the species for another year. Other species to look out for include the Comma, with a distinctive ragged edge to its wings; the Common Blue, on the wing in May and June with a second generation from July to early September (if you see a 'blue' butterfly before May then it is almost certainly a Holly Blue which is similar in size and colour but lacks the orange markings on the underside of the hindwing); and the Gatekeeper, which is generally brown in colour with orange splashes across its forewings. The Butterfly Trail now continues to Coopers Mill. Two butterflies to look out for on your return journey are the graceful and very beautiful White Admiral, which has only colonised Wyre in recent years and is still something of a rarity here; and the Speckled Wood which is on the wing for most of the summer in a series of overlapping broods and is generally found in shadier spots along the Trail.

The ‘Wyre Forest Line’ formed a connection between the SVR at Bewdley and the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway (S&HR) at Woofferton. The route encompassed two railways, the Tenbury Railway and the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway. Following the completion of the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway in 1864, the GWR took over the working of traffic over the Tenbury Railway section on behalf of the joint companies, with the LNWR also having running powers. As part of this process, the GWR telegraph system was extended to Woofferton; also the LNWR agreed to a turntable being installed at Tenbury to be paid for by the GWR. This turntable was moved from Bewdley and re-erected in the goods yard at Tenbury. (Some confusion has occurred in the past, as there was a small wagon turntable at Woofferton in its early days.) The completed line ran north from the GWR station at Bewdley on a single line track alongside the Severn Valley Line for a distance of about a mile before diverging to the west to cross the river Severn at Dowles Bridge (the viaduct referred to by Capt. Tyler), the remains of which are visible from trains on the SVR. The abutments where the line passed over what is now the B4194 remain in-situ. The line continued to Woofferton via Wyre Forest, Cleobury Mortimer, Neen Sollars, Newnham Bridge, Tenbury (later renamed Tenbury Wells) and Easton Court. The route acquired a number of names. A platform sign at Woofferton station referred to 'The Bewdley Branch', while passengers at Bewdley could take 'The Tenbury Branch'. Informally the route was often referred to as 'The Wyre Forest Line' or 'The Tenbury Line'. The Engineer's Line References were TBY for 'Tenbury & Bewdley' and WTW for 'Woofferton and Tenbury Wells', while the 1905 Ordnance Survey map describes it as the 'GW&L&NW Joint Railway - Woofferton & Tenbury' and the 'GWR - Tenbury & Bewdley Branch' One purpose of the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway was for freight traffic to gain access to the expanding markets of the West Midlands. However at the time of opening, this journey would require traveling to the SVR's southern terminus at Hartlebury, with a reversal to reach the West Midlands via Kidderminster. This was hampered by a lack of siding space at Hartlebury and resulted in frequent delays, leading to construction of the 'Kidderminster Loop Line' from Bewdley to Kidderminster. After the GWR built 'The Loop', the majority of services from Stourbridge and Kidderminster to Bewdley continued on the Wyre Forest Line. In January 1869, ownership of the Tenbury Railway was transferred jointly to the LNWR and GWR. It nominally remained an independent company until nationalisation in January 1948. The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway ceased to exist as a separate company when ownership was transferred to the GWR in February 1870. Both the GWR and the Tenbury Railway became part of British Railways' Western Region after nationalisation. In 1908 the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway opened. This connected with the Tenbury & Bewdley Railway at Cleobury Mortimer and ran as a spur for 12½ miles to Ditton Priors.