The Strettons Podcast

Happy new year from Sian and Pete. This week we’ve been stroking hedgehogs at a rescue centre in Edgton and been to see the monument to the last sin eater in the churchyard at Ratlinghope. We look back and forward to 2026 and see what events are coming up in the next two weeks. Hedgehog Rescue Martin And Tanis Jordan, email tmjordan559@gmail.com Midland Gliding Club cafe franchisee enquiries Tim M...

Richard Hill from Batchott talks about the family he worked for all his life, his love of tractors and lost opportunities. Poignant memories of family members he has lost coupled with stories of teenage trouble-making paint a vivid picture of what life was like growing up in Batchcott on the Long Mynd. If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us. Find us onl...

Part 2 of Pete's selection of his favourite bits from 2025. Timings Tom Norris 2:28 Bug hotel. 8:07 Brian Pope 13:56 Lucinda the potter 21:15 John Sankey 27:35 Terry Davies. 35:58 If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us. Find us online https://thestrettonspod.com/ email us: thestrettonspod@gmail.com   Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/the...

Jim grew up in an old mill in Walkmills near Leebotwood, and worked hard helping his father on the farm. Today his success in business can be put down to his parents instilling in him a strong work ethic, and his general happiness is partly attributed to keeping donkeys.  He talks about the mills which operated along the valley, and about his ‘water-powered’ childhood. And if anyone ever wond...

Pete's selection of his favourite bits from 2025. Timings Steve Paige 2:10 Losing my religion 6:53 Anne Morris 10:10 Snailbeach Mine. 15:08 Nick Churton. 21:34 Ragleth Fidget menu 26:24 If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us. Find us online https://thestrettonspod.com/ email us: thestrettonspod@gmail.com   Support the podcast https:/...

Ruth Lawrence was brought up on Womerton Farm, educated in Cardington and then sent to a boarding school near Shrewsbury. Her love of farming brought her and her husband Tony back from New Zealand to take on the family farm on the Long Mynd, where she still lives today.  She tells us about the characters who lived in the area when she was young, the fun she had with her friends, explorin...

We’ve been around all the shops asking what shoppers can buy there for Christmas. We’ve taken the chutney we made from our foraged blackberries and paired it with different cheeses at Saxtons. We also found a couple of people waiting for the bus on Beaumont Road, both heading to Ludlow but for different reasons and we learn all about cookies - the computer type - what are they, are they harmful an...

Robert Brain grew up in and around Minton where he still lives today. He tells us about riding ponies on the Long Mynd as a young boy, about hurtling down the hill on a piece of tin sheeting,and what it was like living next door to Hollywood actor, Pete Posthlethwaite. He tells us how Pete gave him his first experience of air travel when he took him away on a film shoot to Ireland, and lets us int...

The kids are getting excited about Halloween and the veterans are contemplating past action and those who are no longer here. In Picklescott village there’s a special nature reserve which demonstrates a sustainable way of living and the Bucks Head in Church Stretton is under new management. We finish with fireworks night at Acton Scott village where they burn an effigy of a traitorous catholic on...

Dorothy used to play on the A49 as a child and keep an eye out for any cars. She talks about what life was like growing up in Church Stretton and the fields where she would play with her friends. Listen to the sort of small pleasures she enjoyed and the changes she has seen in the town since the 1930’s. If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us. Find us on...

It’s time to order your Christmas turkey and my word they’re looking beautiful and plump on Harton Farm. We speak to some people organising a secret adventure run and we learn about the wildlife that’s been in our gardens this summer from the local wildlife group. The women on the Ring and Ride bus keep us amused on their weekly shopping trip and then the Church Stretton Ukulele band play us out.&...

We had a chat with Brian Pope who lives with his brother David, at Whittingslow Farm. Apart from a Young Farmers trip to Smithfield in London and a day trip to the Welsh coast when he was at school, Brian has stayed on his farm his entire life. He talks about the characters of his youth, Wistanstow Village Hall and contentment with his relatively simple life in Marshbrook. If you know someone we s...

There’s a new art gallery in The Square where you can buy and sell investment art, the mobile library comes to service the good people of All Stretton and we talk to the Police Community Support Officer about his role. We chat to some visitors from South Wales and Pete’s put a long list of things to do in the area in the next few months. We finish with turkeys singing to us. Timings   Roger B...

Maureen Pountney grew up in Gogbatch near All Stretton and tells us about life on a small farm with her family. At the age of 6 Maureen would walk to school in Smethcott with her cousin and friends, a journey which took about an hour through fields and along lanes. Simple pleasures were playing hide and seek in the tall bracken and caring for caid lambs in the kitchen. She left Gogbatch and marrie...

A packed events calendar in the run up to Christmas. There’s flicks in the sticks, pop-up pubs, carols in the square, the remembrance parade, coffee stops, fairs, pantos and fun for all. A lot of voluntary effort goes into putting on interesting events for our rural communities so why not go along to support them. If you’re new to the area, this is a great opportunity for you to meet your neighbou...

Will Priestley is well-known in the town for being the son of the town’s solicitor and then the town’s solicitor. He tells us about the characters who helped on the family farm and their unusual courting practices. Post-war life for young boys in Cardington and Marshbrook was full of motorbike racing and fishing. If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us....

We drive over to Gatten at the foot of Stiperstones Nature Reserve to get a tour of The Hollies farm from Rhian and then a cooking session where we discover and create edgy recipes using the hedgerow bounty we picked last week. Connr Furnival talks about his new role as Church Stretton town clerk and then we drive over to Munslow village where we join conservation volunteers from Caring for God’s...

We’re off to the other side of the Long Mynd, to a mystical area of the Shropshire Hills - Stiperstones. Here we find John Sproson, who owns the Stiperstones Inn and the shop attached to it. John tells us about village life, how the pub trade has changed and the lack of rich single women in Shropshire. If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us. Find us onl...

Goodbye to the summer with Teas to Please at Little Stretton, All Stretton village show and we go foraging in the hedgerows and fields of the Shropshire Hills in search of free food. We visit a small specialist company doing well in Leebotwood and we head to The Bog to join a group of people studying moths and bats in one of the last warm evenings of 2025.  Timings   Bats and moths ...

We chat to Anne Morris who brought up her young family in a derelict farm in Cardington and tells us about the struggles she and John had to grow the business. Working a job for the Milk Marketing Board, Anne also helped on the farm and brought up four children. We learn about all the people who sought shelter in her house when they had nobody to turn to. If you know someone we should speak to for...

We visit Blakemoregate Cottages high up on the Stiperstones - an important part of the mining history of Snailbeach. Then we talk to Mary Carter, the new curate at St Laurence’s Church in Church Stretton, we visit New House Farm to see the cattle and then watch The Magpies beat Shrewsbury Junior 8-0. Timings Church Stretton Town FC 1:00 Blakemoregate Cottages 4:48 Mary Carter, curate&nbs...

This week we have Steve Paige, known to everyone in All Stretton as their former postie and known to many more as the head honcho of our fire station. He’s a Stretton boy through and through and in this interview he tells us about getting his first ‘after school' job as a greengrocer’s boy. What was it like to grow up in Church Stretton in the 70’s and 80’s and what did he and his friends do for f...

We're off to see the kids making bug hotels and also speaking to people at the antiques centre and in the arts festival. The ladies at the knit and natter do more nattering than knitting and Tom Norris from Cardington tells us a few stories of growing up in the area. Lastly, we catch up with the Church Stretton accordion band at Burwarton Show. Timings   Bug hotel 00:01:08 Tom Norris 00:06:12...

Chris Foulkes tells us what it’s like living in a farm which features heavily in the famous Malcolm Saville children’s books. He talks about the fans who come from across the world to stay in his cow sheds. He reminisces about growing up in a simpler time, when food was delivered by the local grocer, and the best fun was to be found with his friends playing in the fields and hills around his farm....

Summer is bringing archaeology to The Strettons and this time, we’re digging for dinosaur bones with The National Trust in Carding Mill Valley and then chatting to race horse breeder, Richard Wilding about how to breed and break horses. Hand me that helmet and head torch and we’re down the mines at Snailbeach with some volunteer guides and then just up the road, we stop for a piece of quiche and a...