The National Trust is raising funds to create two new off-road cycle routes in the beautiful Shropshire Hills.

The two “family-friendly” routes will follow Wenlock Edge, the rural landscape that inspired A.E. Housman to write of ‘Blue Remembered Hills’ in his 1896 poetry cycle A Shropshire Lad. The routes – one four miles long, the other 7.5 – will start at National Trust car parks.

They will partly use the trackbed of the old Great Western railway from Much Wenlock to Craven Arms – already part of the Jack Mytton Way, a long-distance route for horse-riders and adventurous mountain-bikers.

The estimated cost of the work is £4,000 – a very low price for 11 miles of new cycle route. The money will be spent on surfacing, waymarkers, an information board and a leaflet. The Trust is now seeking donations towards the project, which can be made online via justgiving.com – though with only £20 raised so far, the campaign has some way to go!