Much Wenlock is a delightful little market town situated between Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury about 25 minutes drive from Sutton Court Farm Holiday Cottages. It’s main attraction is Wenlock Priory but the town itself is well worth a visit and one of the finest medieval towns in shropshire with an array of beautiful half timbered buildings along the high street culminating in the town square and the Guildhall.

Much Wenlock’s main claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of Dr William Penny Brooks the founder of the Wenlock Olympian Society which was the inspiration for the Olympic Games. Dr Brookes organised the first Wenlock Olympian games in 1850, his stated aim to to ‘promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants of the Town and neighbourhood of Wenlock’.  In 1890 Pierre de Coubertin stayed with Dr Brookes in his house on Wilmore Street and witnessed a staging of the Wenlock Games put on in his honour. He later went on to set up the International Olympic Committee and the modern Olympic Games. As a tribute to this relationship one of the mascots for the London 2012 games was called Wenlock.

Here are some of Much Wenlock’s attractions.