'The Case of the Teddy Bear Killers' by Tom Bryson ( an extract from a proposed book for older children )

‘Run, run, they’re back,’ the frightened Snadger’s cry rang out down Lincoln Hill in Coalbrookdale.
Cadgermolewagger swept from his secret crevice deep in the limestone cave. He cried in fury as he saw the approaching Diggermen. He quickly rounded up his followers and they fled into the burrowed limestone rock.
It was the year 1789 when Snadgers fought to bury their thin forms deep in the limestone caverns of Coalbrookdale. It was not easy to hide from the Diggermen - miners who wielded their pickaxes with fury, sweat dripping from their chalk-white faces, coughing as their lungs accumulated the deadly dust. Primitive organisms, as the Snadgers were, they knew that if they didn’t escape the shovels that scooped the limestone into iron bogies, they were doomed. The laden bogies, and the trapped Snadgers would be hauled down the iron tracks to the Ironworks; where The Furnace waited.
But despite the never ending excavations all the way down Lincoln Hill, despite the flailing arms of the limestone miners, despite the inexorable attrition in their numbers as the gouged valley deepened – some Snadgers survived. They slunk away into the recesses of the woods, hid in the shelter of the great Atlas Cedar tree, clung to each other as the Coalbrookdale company workers passed along on their Sabbath Walks. In their clean shirts and tall hats they looked respectable God-fearing citizens on a Sunday outing; to the Snadgers they were those Monday to Saturday devils in disguise.
One such Snadger was Cadgermolewagger. As thin as a pencil but blessed with the magic skills of the shape-changer, he was able to escape their toiling hands by expanding, contracting, wriggling, twisting, hopping and flying; at times he became as a speck of dust, at others an unbreakable rock of limestone as hard as granite. But Cadgermolewagger was an exception – a once in a generation born Snadger. He was also a Leader.
‘Follow me,’ he cried. ‘We must organise, we can fight back, we can stop the Diggermen, the Fireburners and the Iron Horses.’ As one, the rest of the Snadgers moved in line behind Cadgermolewagger ;a column of white stick-like ants they moved up the steep hill. Some cowered in fear, others held their slender forms erect, unwilling to show how scared they were; some slumped, fell by the wayside, gave up the battle. But Cadgermolewagger pressed on until they came to a place of safety.
It is recorded in the Ledgers of Snadger history that it was in this day in 1790, in the woods alongside what is today known as the Lodge Field, a great Council of the Snadgers was held. Cadgermolewagger addressed the community of Snadgers and laid down the ‘Three Principles’ that were to be their watchword henceforth.
‘One – Ours is the Natural World. The Diggermen, Fireburners, and Iron Horses will one day be driven from the land that we will once again possess – we Snadgers are of Nature and Nature will always out.
‘Two – We must fight the Diggermen, Fireburners and Iron Horses - we Snadgers will use our great gift bestowed by the law of nature – flesh-burning.
‘Three – the followers and descendants of the Diggermen, Fireburners, and Iron Horses must be sought out and destroyed.’
Throughout the limestone caves of Coalbrookdale a great shout rang out, that hammered down the Severn Gorge, drowned the clanging hammers and roaring furnaces of the Iron Works, was heard as far away as Coalport. The Snadgers hailed Cadgermolewagger, joined forces and vowed to the God of Nature to defeat the usurpers who would tear them from the earth itself, destroy them in the Great Furnace.
Cadgermolewagger held high an effigy of the Fireburners, a figure made of straw, leaves and twigs bound with the bark of the Acer tree. He held it aloft and his shape changed, his body swelled to the size of a Fireburner, a face as pale as death sprouted up from his frame, bared teeth flashed and with a roar of roar of rage Cadgermolewagger bit off the head of the effigy.

Severn Gorge Trip, Sunday, July 26th

We started the day by walking to The Rotunda










where we looked along the Severn Gorge











and over to The Wrekin.










Then we descended into Coalbrookdale












to the Museum of Iron











where we met Abraham Darby the Third













and some shire horses.









We, also, found the furnace which Abaham Darby ( the First )
used to smelt iron with coke ( instead of charcoal ) 300 years ago:
a process which kick-started the Industrial Revolution.

A short walk took us to the Greenwood Centre where we had
lunch and met 'Woody the Hoody' and a nymph rising from a tree.

After our meal we set off towards the River Severn











where we saw the old warehouses and former railway
lines which took goods made in this area to The Wharfage
from where they were transported down the river to Bristol.



























Rain fell as we walked to The Ironbridge but
such a magnificent sight lifted our spirits!!!












The End

'Going, Going, Gone' by Martin White

‘For the last time -is there any advance on twenty eight thousand pounds? Twenty eight thousand for this desirable property, The Rectory, Hodge Bower. Twenty eight thousand.’
The auctioner paused and looked around the small group of people assembled in the dingy assembly room of the Tontine Hotel in the centre of Ironbridge.
'For the last time twenty eight thousand pounds. Going, going gone! Sold to the gentleman in the second row.’
It was 1979 and Martin felt the shock of acquiring a three-storey, semi-derelict house in an overgrown bramble-laced Edwardian garden. He and his wife had noticed the house for sale in the evening newspaper a week before. They visited and found it had been empty for two years after the death of the Rector of the local church , a much loved man in the locality.
Those years had taken their toll with dampness and fungoid growths in the rooms, no central heating , an ancient bathroom and a cramped kitchen. It was not an inviting prospect for their young family. And yet ......
The house stood on the northen slopes of the Ironbridge Gorge looking toward the tree- covered slopes of Benthall Edge on the other side of the river. A network of paths and narrow roads connected them with the heart of the village, the Iron Bridge, the Tontine Hotel and the market square. It was a romantic location. And it was an exciting time; Martin had come to work on the New Town that was rehabilitating the ravages of the worked out East Shropshire coalfield and Ironbridge was just beginning to attract people reckless enough to attempt to colonise and reinvigorate a very derelict town.
Martin and Judy spent a week of frenzied activity , estimating the cost of making the house habitable, arranging a mortgage, agreeing a loan with a very reluctant bank manager. They had hardly any time to consider the life changing implications of what they were taking on. There had not been many bidders at the evening auction. Just them and another couple, surrounded by onlookers curious to see who would be mad enough to buy a property that most probably thought best demolished.
And so the tap of an auctioneer’s gavel signaled a life-defining moment.

'Some Things a Townie Learnt on a Trip to a South Shropshire Dairy Farm' by David Bingham

It’s a myth that cows lie down when it’s going to rain.

Sitting on a bale of straw is very comfortable.

The ideal shorthorn dairy cow is wedge-shaped from back to front and from top to bottom.

Farm cats are nosey and follow strangers around.

A dairy farmer knows each cow in his herd by name and will have his favourites.

A farmer’s son can ride his bike up a steeply-sloping, rutted field

A cow which is too intelligent can be as much a liability as one which is not too bright.

Dairy farmers like to have an afternoon nap between milking times as they get up early in the morning.

A farmer is usually quietly spoken; but if he tells his son to collect a calf from the high field, then his son goes and collects a calf from the high field.

The best way for a townie to cross a field with a herd of cows is to walk through calmly and ignore them.

Hens lay eggs in the strangest of places.

'Coalport Morning' by Marilyn Gunn

Dawn trees
with their long low companionable shadows
they would not be parted from;

it is as if they carry on the breath:
those new earth mornings of candescent light,
spreading their beams across millennia
to reach this place.

Nothing has changed,
nothing escapes the soft flood,
the bright benediction of slant rays
firing up dew, kindling grass
on this next in the chain of first days:

light the frail touch paper
every leaf burns.

Remember that morning
when bird-song dazzled us awake?
And how we lay there then listening
in the hush of the great afterwards silence
that expanded around us;

And then the green, whispering,
calling us,
drawing us out.

'Amongst the Horses' by Tom Wentworth

Do you see that speck upon the hill so high?
I see everything from my position down below;
they do not stir,
they do not shake their tails
in the silky, cinematic landscape
and as the breeze rushes past,
they do not stir again:
the paths of one thousand giants
crunch and crackle like the mints
that the horses love so much.
I would not touch them,
would not dare;
a shaggy set they are
but content like teddy bears of suede.
The thickness of the tufts of grass decrease,
as I am swallowed,
but an earthy smell rises,
silvery statues, left to days of sun.
The sun has retired
and so must I
I am the horse whisperer.

'Progress' by Paul Francis

From a display at Acton Scott, 20.6.09


Good housewives, mother taught me
As I swept the kitchen floor
Spin thread at home on wheels
Made by Edward Bore.

As parish clerk he’d gathered
A little local fame
But it was the beauty of his wheels
That truly made his name.

When new machines made cheaper thread
No knocking at his door.
His humming lathe was still; he died
Unrecognised and poor.


Paul Francis