Barley’s Biscuit Bridgnorth, Hightown Full Steam Ahead

Here is a snippet from my eleventh Barley’s Biscuit story set in Bridgnorth:

It had already been a brisk walk along Mercian Way, a gorgeous walking track through some of the beautiful Shropshire countryside, when Mick stopped for a short rest. He looked at the tops of the trees surrounding both sides of the Mercian Way. Trees lined the old railway path practically the whole eight miles or so they’d already walked. Mick has always loved railways. The path he chose that day to walk his friends Barley, the clever Border-Collie dog and Basil his nephew, used to be a railway track many years before, linking Ironbridge with Bridgnorth. Now it’s a well known route for cyclists and walkers.

Mick daydreamed as he looked at the trees, watching them dance from side to side in the wind. In the old days the tree tops would be full of steam and smoke from the old fashioned steam trains. He pondered. Basil appeared from the woods with a big fat stick.

“Whro.” He groaned through the stick. Mick knew exactly what he wanted and threw the stick as far into the woods as he could, knowing that Basil would be back in the blink of an eye, of course he was right. Basil dropped the stick by Mick’s foot ready to be thrown again.

Around the next corner of Mercian Way, Bridgnorth golf course in Lowtown follows a part of the meandering River Severn. Passing through the golf course would leave them with a climb up a steep, windy road to reach Hightown in Bridgnorth. “Hello Mick.” A man playing golf shouted. Mick squinted his eyes to see who it was. He recognised the accent, it was one from Liverpool, but he wanted to be sure.

“Oh, hello Bill.” Mick shouted back.

“Keep Basil on the lead Mick,” Bill said, “I know how much he loves to play ‘fetch’… and there are plenty of golf balls being hit around here.” The two men had a little laugh.