Bartimaeus

We are still staying in close proximity to Kidderminster to match with our plans for August.  The Severn Valley Railway were hosting a Day of Dance with morris dancing at the stations along the line.

We had just over a mile to walk to the station at the start of the day.  We were in good time for the first train of the day.  It was announced but along with a suggestion that since it was already very full it might be a good idea to get the next one.

We were already enjoying the clog dancing on the concourse, so we settled down to watch some more - and I found a coffee too.

The clog dancing gave way to a fairly traditional looking morris dancing group.  The groups all seemed to know each other and sometimes shared or borrowed musicians.

We took the next train, staying on at Bewdley and getting off at Arley.  We went looking to see what was happening, and by this time Clare was looking for refreshments.  Strangely there seemed to be almost nothing happening, and the tea room was shut.  Luckily, our train had waited for the late-running train in the other direction so we were able to get back on and continue to Highley.

We were ready for lunch by then and headed straight for the cafe inside the visitor centre.  Afterwards we wandered round looking at the exhibits.  Clare had a long chat with a woman who had an exhibition of quilting with a geological theme.  I had noticed there was more dancing outside and watched Moonlight Morris doing their thing.

There seemed to be a long gap in the timetable in the middle of the day, and all the trains were running later than advertised.  We took advantage of a late-running train to return to Arley to pass the time waiting for the next northbound train.

We walked through the village and up to the arboretum.  We didn't pay to go in, but did buy ice cream from the kiosk.  On our way back to the station we met the couple we had talked to the previous weekend and had a short chat.  He asked more than once where we had parked our car despite me telling him that we had come by train.  We were back at the station in plenty of time.

This time we stayed on to the end of the line at Bridgnorth.  We hadn't seen much of the town last time, so we had a little more of an explore this time.  After walking through the park we came to the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway.  They only sell return tickets, so we rode down to river level knowing we had an easy option to get back to the top of the cliff.

After a short explore, including buying some drinks and some bread, we rode back up to the top and had a short look around the town before heading back to the station.

The times for both the trains and the dancing were well behind schedule.  We were in time to see two groups we had run across earlier giving separate and joint performances.  The Severn Gilders performed a very complicated dance which switched between being a dance for eight with a caller to a dance for nine.

We got the last train back.  One of the loaves we had bought got scoffed during the journey.  By the time we were passing over Falling Sands Viaduct again it was well past dinner time, and we still had to walk back from the station.

The following morning we weren't away early, but we were still able to watch the trains passing over the viaduct.