Mother's Day and our visit to Blist Hill Victorian Village in The View from the Terrace

It’s a beautiful late winter/early spring day, full of sunshine and daffodils but still very cold. It would be nice to drive to the garden centre at Raglan. The daffodils always line the roads in Wales at this time of year. It’s Mother’s Day and both of the boys called in this morning with gifts. Chris brought me a beautiful blue orchid, some scented candles and a box of Thornton’s chocolates. Tony arrived later with a bunch of flowers, another box of chocs, a lovely little elephant and baby soft toy and a mug with ‘Best Mum in the world ‘ on it. I feel very spoiled.

Cat sent me a card and a little teddy with a pink bow. When I was staying with her I remember telling her how, when our family moved from Shrewsbury when I was 14, I gave all of my childhood toys to Dr Banados. It was a wonderful experience to see the looks on the children’s faces but I did sometimes wish I had kept my teddy bear. She has probably remembered that and sent me this one, such a sweet thing to do.

This time last week we were in Ironbridge celebrating our 40th anniversary. We had arrived on the Saturday evening when it was already dark and when we went down to breakfast my breath was taken away by the beautiful views of the gorge from the dining room windows where the River Severn flows between high wooded hills. It reminded me a little of the Wye Valley, one of my favourite places. But this was my river, the one I was born near that I used to ride to school beside on my bicycle. I am always so happy when I return to Shropshire. A part of my soul never left and I feel whole again.

We spent the day at the Blist Hill Victorian Village. It’s a village created from buildings taken from other places and is fascinating. As you enter there is a bank where you can change your money into old, pre decimal money to spend in the shops. All of the shops are set up as they would have been in Victorian times. There was a chemist, and in the corner was a cubicle with an old fashioned dentist chair. It gave me the shivers! I loved the drapers. My grandmother kept a millinery and haberdashers shop in the early 20th century, my mother and her sister grew up there. This shop must have looked very similar. The lady behind the counter even looked a little like my grandmother. All of the shopkeepers were dressed in the clothes of the period. Across the road from the drapers was a shoemakers. That was my hubby’s grandfather’s trade and he had his own busiess too. Hubby even recognised some of the tools. His father kept them and Mother-in-law still had them. I don’t know where they went when she died as Hubby’s nieces sorted and cleared her things. Hubby hoped they hadn’t gone into a skip somewhere, but I said that if they had someone probably rescued them and they are now part of his prized collection.

There was the remains of a canal with old industries beside it. This part was real as the site was originaly industrial. I couldn’t believe they had a canal there as we were quite high up and it must have gone right down the steep hill through a series of locks to the River Severn below.

The highlight of the visit for me was the discovery of the Forest Glen Refreshment Pavilion. It used to stand at the foot of the Wrekin. We used to go to the Wrekin at bluebell time when I was a child. I’m sure we went for ice cream and tea in that pavilion. Last week Hubby and I had our lunch there. Unfortunately my photos from that day are still unrecovered on the laptop, but I found this the next day in the Coalport China Museum, a piece of china that shows a picture of the pavilion in it’s original place.

We also saw several house set up as they would have been then, a doctor’s house, a squatters house and a toll keepers house. When I saw the kitchen in the squatter’s house I said I would never complain about mine again! It was tiny and dark, though the house was quite warm from the coal fire. There was only one bedroom where the whole family slept and I couldn’t help but wonder how they managed to have so many children when it must have been so difficult to ever be alone together.

Later in the afternoon we had a delicious cream tea followed by a pint for Hubby in The New Inn where there was a pianist and singer entertaining with all of the old songs I remember my mother singing. We had thought of going for a meal in the evening but we were both pretty tired so we bought some sandwiches and cake at a local shop and took them back to our room and had our snack there while watching Call the Midwife.

The oldest iron bridge in the world