When the Hodnet bypass was built (opened September 2003), a piece of land between it and the River Tern was converted to a wetland area with a series of excavated pools and associated wildlife habitats.
As part of this work Shropshire Council diverted part of Footpath 28 – which runs from Stoke Heath, via Helshaw Grange, to the River Tern – from its original route; so that it passed instead under the nearby bypass river bridge and through the new Wetlands, to reach the original footbridge over the River Tern. From here the footpath becomes FP12, and ran to the edge of Wollerton Mill.
This work highlighted a long standing issue concerning FP12; namely that on official maps it was shown as existing only between the river bridge and the edge of the Mill, but not from there up to Mill Road, Wollerton.
Before the Mill had been converted to a home this hadn’t been of great practical significance, as people freely walked along the Mill driveway and through the Mill grounds. However, conversion of the Mill into a home in the 1990’s saw this access blocked by the new owners – on the grounds that such a route did not legally exist.
This led to 10 years of legal wrangling involving residents and footpath users over the existence of footpaths. After a further period of consultation/negotiation, during 2012 Shropshire Council started to issue the necessary sets of legal orders to progress matters; the aim being to first legally re-establish the two claimed paths and, finally, to then legally extinguish the paths that were no longer required. This led to a new FP12 section being created along the diverted route.
By the start of December 2013 the new footpath had been cleared and gates and steps placed and the Wollerton Wetlands walk was finally accessible in its entirety. The paths around the Wetlands were overgrown for years [due to limited access] but at the request of Shropshire Council’s Outdoor Recreation Dept were kindly cleared by a Shropshire Probation Service work party during 2014.
The wetlands is now a lovely short walk easily accessed from Wollerton, parking is possible near the village hall. I hope you enjoy exploring it as much as I enjoyed discovering it on my doorstep!