The factories of the West Midlands were the powerhouses
of the Industrial Revolution and Birmingham , Britain's
second city, was once the world's greatest industrial metropolis.
Long saddled with a reputation as a culture-hating, car-loving
backwater, Birmingham has redefined its image in recent years,
initiating some ambitious architectural and environmental schemes,
jazzing up its museums and industrial heritage sites and giving
itself a higher profile on the nation's cultural map than it's ever
had before. It's not an especially good-looking city, it must be
admitted, but it does hold several excellent attractions and it's
certainly lively, with nightlife encompassing everything from Royal
Ballet productions to all-night raves, and a great spread of
restaurants and pubs in between.
The counties to the south and west of Birmingham - Warwickshire,
Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire - comprise a rural
stronghold that maintains an emotional and political distance from
the conurbation. The left-wing politics of the big city seem remote
indeed when you're in Shrewsbury, but in fact it's only seventy
miles from the big city. For the most part, the four counties
constitute a quiet, unassuming stretch of pastoral England whose
beauty is rarely dramatic, but whose charms become more evident the
longer you stay. Of the four counties, Warwickshire is the
least obviously scenic, but draws by far the largest number of
visitors, for - as the road-signs declare at every entry point -
this is "Shakespeare Country". The prime target is, of course,
Stratford-upon-Avon , with its handful of
Shakespeare-related sites and world-class theatre, but spare time
also for the diverting town of Warwick , which has a superb
church and a whopping castle.
Neighbouring Worcestershire , which stretches southwest
from the urban fringes of the West Midlands, holds two principal
places of interest, Worcester , which is graced by a mighty
cathedral, and Great Malvern , a mannered inland resort
spread along the rolling contours of the Malvern Hills -
prime walking territory. From here, it's west again for
Herefordshire , a large and sparsely populated county that's
home to several charming market towns, most notably
picture-postcard Ledbury and Hay-on-Wye ; the latter
has the largest concentration of second-hand bookshops in the
world. There's also Hereford , where the remarkable medieval
Mappa Mundi map is displayed, and pocket-sized Ross-on-Wye ,
which is within easy striking distance of an especially scenic
stretch of the Wye River Valley . Next door, to the north,
rural Shropshire weighs in with Ludlow , one of the
region's prettiest towns, awash with antique half-timbered
buildings, and the amiable county town of Shrewsbury , which
is also close to the hiking trails of the Long Mynd .
Shropshire has a fascinating industrial history, too, for it was
here in the Ironbridge Gorge that British industrialists
built the world's first iron bridge and pioneered the use of coal
as a smelting fuel. These were two key events in the Industrial
Revolution and, appropriately, the Gorge's industrial heyday is
recalled by a phalanx of first-rate museums.
To the east of Shropshire, sprawling north of the Birmingham
conurbation, is Staffordshire , where Lichfield makes
a good hand of its links with Samuel Johnson , while
Stoke-on-Trent remembers the good times, when its potteries
dominated the world market, in an excellent museum and several
heritage sites - and factory shops. Beyond lies Derbyshire ,
whose northern reaches incorporate the region's finest scenery in
the rough landscapes of the Peak District National Park .
The latter offers great opportunities for moderately strenuous
walks, as well as the diversions of the former spa town of
Buxton , the limestone caverns of Castleton and the
so-called "Plague Village" of Eyam . In addition, there's
the grandiose stately pile of Chatsworth House and Haddon
Hall , an exceptionally fascinating old manor house.
Birmingham, the region's public transport hub, is easily
accessible by train from London Euston, Liverpool,
Manchester, Leeds, York and a score of other towns. It is also well
served by the National Express bus network, with dozens of
buses leaving every hour for destinations all over Britain. Local
bus services are excellent around the West Midlands
conurbation and very good in the Peak District, but fade away badly
in amongst the villages of Herefordshire and Shropshire.