Loton Park

Loton Park Hill Climb is a hillclimb held in part of the Loton Park deer park just outside the village of Alberbury in Shropshire, England. The track was originally constructed by the members of The Severn Valley Motor Club based in Shrewsbury, in the mid-1950s. The first ever winner was Peter Foulkes in a Cooper Climax. The track was threatened with closure in 1969 and since then events have been organised by the Hagley & District Light Car Club, who obtained the lease on the land from owner Sir Michael Leighton in 1970, in which year the first National A hillclimb was staged. The course is 1475 yards (1349 metres) in length, making it the third longest course used in the British Hill Climb Championship. It contains an unusual downhill section fairly early in its layout. The hill record of 41.76 seconds was set by Wallace Menzies on 26 September 2021.

Alberbury is a village in Shropshire, England, 9 miles (14 km) west of Shrewsbury on the B4393 road which travels from Ford to Lake Vyrnwy. It is on to the England-Wales border, marked by Prince's Oak. The River Severn runs just north of the village, and most of the village is in a designated conservation area.Alberbury Castle is at the centre of the village as is Loton Hall and the attached deer park. Alberbury is home to Loton Park, with the Loton Park Hill Climb run by the Hagley and District Light Car Club. The village also has a cricket club. As part of the development of Central Ammunition Depot Nesscliffe in World War II, an ammunition depot was built beneath Loton Park. This was used for storage of Incendiary ammunition and chemical weapons shells and was operated in co-operation with and guarded by the United States Army Air Forces.The village hall hosts meetings of the Women's Institute and the Young Farmers' Club. In 2008, the village made regional news due to a spectacular Christmas lights display put on at a local farm.

Alberbury Castle is in the village of Alberbury – some nine miles west of Shrewsbury, Shropshire and very close to the border with Wales. The building has been constructed from locally available red sandstone. It is a Grade II listed building.Its origins are uncertain but it was probably built in the 13th century by Fulk FitzWarin during the reign of Richard I. According to Sir William Dugdale, the castle of Alberbury was given to Guarine de Metz, the ancestor of FitzWarin family, by William the Conqueror. However, this account is disputed by the Domesday book.The main purpose of its construction appears to have been as a barrier to stop the Welsh onslaught and to retain control of the passes along the River Severn. According to sources, the castle was razed by Llewellyn the Great in 1223, only to be rebuilt three years later in 1226, this time with a stone wall surrounding the bailey. A few years later, the Sheriff of Shropshire, Thomas Corbet of Caus, took advantage of a hasty utterance of Fulk FitzWarin, and had him ejected from the castle and took over his lands citing FitzWarin's words as a renunciation of fealty. However, Fitzwarin was able to retake his lands and his manor through the law. The FitzWarin family retained possession of the castle, although they moved their seat of power to Whittington after they secured it as a stronghold, till the mid fourteenth century, when it may have been abandoned.A church building adjoining the castle, with a single high tower with a triangular roof, that may have been useful as an outpost or a look out, still exists today as Alberbury's parish church of St Michael. It was founded by the FritzWarin family during the reign of Henry I.The castle has had a number of owners over the years. In 1842, the ruins of the castle were owned by Sir Baldwin Leighton according to Charles Hulbert. It is not currently possible to visit the castle as it lies on private land.

Wattlesborough Tower is a ruined fortified 13th-century manor house or Tower House in Shropshire. It is situated close to the boundary with Powys in Wales. Wattlesborough is a former township within the present parish of Alberbury. The castle is a Grade 1 listed scheduled monument. The Tower comprises a square two-storey tower above an undercroft surrounded by a moated enclosure with a fishpond. The Leighton family inherited Wattlesborough in 1471 and used it as their chief residence until circa 1711. At that time an adjoining farm building was constructed and named Wattlesborough Hall.

Alberbury Priory was a medieval monastic house in Alberbury, Shropshire, England, established c.1230. It was one of three houses in England belonging to the French Grandmontine Order.The monastery was small, with only 7 monks under a prior in occupancy in 1344, possibly supported by 'lay brothers' who did manual work.In 1359, the then prior of Alberbury was deposed for alleged violence, murder, and dissipation of the priory's goods. In 1364, one of his successors was outlawed for alleged murder and fled the house.Alberbury Priory was dissolved in 1441 when King Henry VI, who had seized the alien houses during the Hundred Years War, gave it as an endowment to All Souls' College, Oxford.

Rowton Castle, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, is a Grade II* listed country house that was once the home of the Royal National College for the Blind before it moved to its present location in Hereford. This 17th-century castle is surrounded by 17 acres of gardens, and is approximately six miles (9.7 km) from Shrewsbury. It is currently used as a wedding venue, hotel and restaurant.The present castle was built in the 17th century, although a previous castle had stood on the site for several hundred years. The house was in the possession of the Lyster family until the death of Lady Charlotte Lyster, in 1889. She passed the house to her nephew, Montagu Corry, 1st Baron Rowton, who in turn passed it on to his nephew, Colonel N. A. Lowry Curry following his death in 1903. The house's next owner, Major Lees, sold it to the Royal Normal College for the Blind in 1941. The college, which had previously been located in London, was forced to find new premises after its site, based in Upper Norwood, was bombed during the Blitz, then acquired by the authorities. The college used the castle itself as the accommodation block for staff and senior pupils. The building also housed the dining areas for both junior and senior pupils. Classrooms, which have since been converted into private apartments, were built to the eastern side of the building. In 1953 a fire destroyed much of the buildings and 38 pianos and organs used for training pupils in tuning. The alarm was raised by one of the students, and everybody present was evacuated to safety. Training was able to continue after Henshaw's Institution for the Blind took students and staff as a temporary measure. As the college expanded it outgrew the site and bought other premises in and around Shrewsbury, then in 1978 relocated to Hereford after finding accommodation that would enable it to consolidate its facilities into one campus.After the college's departure the building was empty for several years until work began to convert it into a hotel in 1986, which was opened on 12th April 1989.

Nesscliffe and Pentre railway station was a station in Nesscliffe, Shropshire, England. The station was opened in 1866 and closed in 1933.

Halfway House is a village in Shropshire, England, halfway between Shrewsbury and Welshpool (in Wales) on the A458 road. Also, it is known to be halfway between Birmingham and Aberystwyth. It has a pub called the 'Halfway House'. Its neighbouring village, Wattlesborough, has a shop and a cafe. It also has a village hall which is shared with Halfway House. A mile to the north-east at Wattlesborough Hall the 12th century keep of Wattlesborough Castle survives, adjoining an 18th-century farmhouse.

Westbury railway station was a station in Westbury, Shropshire, England. The station was opened in 1862 by the Shrewsbury and Welshpool Railway company, later coming under the joint control of the Great Western Railway and the London and North Western Railway. It closed (along with all the other intermediate stations) on 12 September 1960, though it retained its passing loop and signal box until 1988, when the modernisation scheme for the line saw Radio Electronic Token Block signalling commissioned, all remaining manual signal boxes closed and control passed to the signalling centre at Machynlleth. Just a year earlier, the loop was the site of a head-on collision between two passenger trains after one passed a signal at danger. One of the two Class 150 Diesel Multiple Units involved was derailed and 37 people were injured.The former main building survives here in occupation as a private house, along with the now automatic level crossing over the B4387 road.

Melverley is a village in Shropshire, England, situated on the River Severn and the River Vyrnwy, near the Powys hills and the border with Wales. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 156. The village, and the large rural area that surrounds it, was years ago famous for flooding from the nearby rivers but since the extensive defences being installed in Shrewsbury and improvements to the flood defences in and around the Melverley area flooding causes no problems for the majority of residents. It is a controlled flood area, meaning that water is allowed to flow across the open fields and held for a few hours until the river levels fall. Melverley Green is a small village to the north of Melverley.

Westbury is a village and parish in Shropshire, England. It includes the settlements of Caus Forest, Lake, Marche, Newtown, Stoney Stretton, Vennington, Wallop, Westbury, Whitton, Winsley and Yockleton. It lies 8 miles (13 km) west of Shrewsbury, close to the Wales-England border. It is located at 135 m altitude. It had a population of 1,352 according to the 2011 census. In 2005, Westbury parish expanded with the annexation of half of the former Wollaston parish. It is situated on the B4386 road which travels from Shrewsbury to Montgomery. Amenities include a Marstons Pub called 'The Lion', a medical practice surgery, and a cemetery on Hinwood Road. The primary school (St Mary's CE Aided) closed in 2017, merging in a federation with Worthen and Hope into the Long Mountain School at Worthen.

Melverley railway station was a station in Melverley, Shropshire, England. The station was opened in 1871 and closed in 1933.