The Corvedale is a network of water draining from Brown Clee into the Corve. Over the centuries, these waters have deposited fertile silty loams on the water meadows. It has been and is home to some great estates.
In the 17th century the Mores wanted to keep it in the family. Their land that is. So, Catherine the 23-year-old was to marry her 16-year-old cousin. The place was the Corvedale; Brockton, Larden and Shipton – a Garden of Eden. Was Jacob Blakeway the snake in this Eden? He and Catherine were already in love. After four children had been baptised at Shipton church, Catherine’s husband ‘discovered’ they all had a likeness to Blakeway. The husband was awarded custody and they were secreted away until they set out first for London and then the New World in the care of leading Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower.
Keith Pybus will lead you along the paths of lust and adultery to Catherine’s home, the remains of Larden Hall (the best part was shipped to Texas). From Larden the route follows Wenlock Edge to dip down to Shipton and the church of St James, to see the memorial to the children from the Mayflower Descendants of Massachusetts. Shipton Hall: Elizabethan manor house with rococo interiors added by Thomas Pritchard, the builder of the famous Iron Bridge.
Shipton was built around 1587 by Richard Lutwyche to replace a much older house destroyed by fire. The house has been described as "an exquisite specimen of Elizabethan architecture set in a quaint old fashioned garden, the whole forming a picture which, as regards both form and colour, satisfies the artistic sense of even the most fastidious."
Lunch for the fastidious in the Grand Kitchen – vegetable quiche, salads, fruit crumbles, tea or coffee – followed by guided tour of the house by the owner Mrs Jane Bishop. Tour of the gardens and the monastic dovecote with Keith before boarding our transport.
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| Distance |
4.00 miles |
| Ascent |
550 feet |
| Starting Time |
09:30 am |
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No Dogs |
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Unsuitable for children |