Lying in the shallow green valley of Ape Dale, between Wenlock Edge and the Stretton Hills, the historic Acton Scott Hall estate will host the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum’s 2025 annual fundraising walk on Sunday 22 June between 10am and 2.30pm.
The estate team has developed a series of carefully crafted walking trails of varying lengths. These trails open up parts of the Shropshire Hills National Landscape (formerly the AONB) usually closed to the public. A voluntary donation on the day, suggested at £10, will help support the work of the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum.
Three walks of varying lengths start and finish outside the hall and take in the estate's secret rock garden and Hornbeam Avenue, before the two longer walks make a bee-line for the stunning views and vistas across the South Shropshire landscape - the longest route (about 9 miles) ascends Ragleth Hill.
The museum’s director Richard Gough says: ‘like everyone else, our costs are increasing and we still rely heavily on generous donations. Just so we can keep going, the museum needs fundraisers like our annual “March for the Museum” more than ever and I have always thought walking in Shropshire’s stunning countryside is a perfect way to support our museum and our heritage’.
Dog-friendly and complete with refreshments, toilets and free parking, the fundraising walk takes place within another kind of landscape too - the changing financial environment for England’s local and regional museums. Rising costs and year on year declines in government funding challenge the impact museums can make and in a small number of cases have forced closure, such as the Museum of Cannock Chase in April this year.
Since 1985, 12th-century Shrewsbury Castle has housed the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum’s growing collection. The museum uses its collection in its gallery displays and temporary exhibitions, public programming and outreach to tell the stories of Shropshire soldiers and their families in war and peace, at home and abroad, from the 18th century to the present day.
The small museum team, which includes volunteers, want to ensure they can continue interpreting and sharing the collection, delivering new visitor experiences, reaching wider audiences and having community impact.
In recent years, the museum has striven to collect and tell more diverse stories than it has done in the past, ranging from the experiences of servicewomen to how families have coped with the loss of loved ones in military service. For Richard, ‘we love telling these new stories, but it does come at a cost, with additional fundraising like the walk we hope to continue uncovering stories from our Shropshire soldiers’.
No booking is required to join the sponsored walk. For any enquires, including other ways you can donate, please contact info@soldiersofshropshire.co.uk