Walk the trails of Wyre Forest National Nature Reserve, one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England

Visit the Wyre Forest Discovery Centre at Callow Hill

Walk the Dowles Brook valley through the forest to the Severn

Wyre Forest is one of the largest ancient semi-natural woodlands in England, now a National Nature Reserve. The Discovery Centre at Callow Hill is the way in, and the Dowles Brook runs down through the forest to the Severn.

Wyre Forest: Ancient Woodland Down to the Severn

Ride the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, opened in 1892, between High Town and Low Town

See the leaning Norman tower of Bridgnorth Castle in Castle Gardens

Board the Severn Valley Railway at Bridgnorth station

Walk the High Street and down the Cartway to the river

Bridgnorth is built in two halves, High Town on the cliff top and Low Town on the Severn below, joined since 1892 by a cliff railway that bills itself as England's oldest and steepest inland electric funicular. The Severn Valley Railway runs steam sixteen miles down the valley from here to Kidderminster, and the leaning remains of the Norman keep sit in Castle Gardens at an angle steeper than the tower of Pisa.

Bridgnorth: The Cliff Railway and the Severn Valley Railway

Swim in the open-air lido, reopened in 2007 and filled with brine diluted to the saltiness of the sea

Find the Norman church of St Andrew where St Richard was probably baptised

Walk the Salwarpe, whose name probably means the river that throws up salt

Droitwich sits on massive salt deposits worked since ancient times — the Romans called it Salinae — and the natural brine underneath holds two and a half pounds of salt to the gallon, ten times stronger than sea water and rivalled only by the Dead Sea. The town's fortune was built on it: the brine baths opened in 1830, for floating in something that dense rather than for drinking. They have long closed, the last in 2008, but the open-air lido, reopened in 2007, is filled with brine diluted to the saltiness of the sea. John Corbett, the salt king, industrialised the trade and remade the town as a spa, and built Chateau Impney for his wife in the French château style; it has been closed since 2020.

Droitwich Spa: The Town Built on Brine Ten Times Saltier Than the Sea

Visit Worcester Cathedral, begun in 1084, and see King John's tomb and Prince Arthur's monument

Tour The Firs, the National Trust's cottage at Lower Broadheath where Elgar was born in 1857

See the Museum of Royal Worcester on the old factory site, with porcelain made in the city from 1751 until the factory closed

Worcester Cathedral was begun in 1084 and holds the tomb of King John and the monument of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother. Porcelain was made in the city from 1751 until the Royal Worcester factory closed in 2009, and the Museum of Royal Worcester, on the old factory site, tells its story. Out at Lower Broadheath, The Firs is the cottage where Edward Elgar was born in 1857.

Worcester: The Cathedral and Elgar's Birthplace

Walk the inner bailey and the round chapel at Ludlow Castle

Climb the tower of St Laurence's church for the view over the Marches

Buy from the butchers and bakers around the market square

Walk the loop of the Teme below the castle

Ludlow Castle, probably founded by Walter de Lacy around 1075, became one of the great marcher fortresses, held by the Mortimers and later the seat of the Council in the Marches of Wales, with a rare circular chapel in its inner bailey. The town below it kept its medieval grid and nearly 500 listed buildings, and made its name again as a food town with a September festival and a run of butchers, bakers and brewers.

Ludlow: The Castle in the Marches and the Food Town

Walk the streets of the Black Country Living Museum, the open-air museum of the Black Country industrial village opened in 1978

Take a narrowboat trip into the Dudley Canal Tunnel from the museum

See the Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo, the listed modernist enclosures by Berthold Lubetkin of the 1930s

Climb the ruins of Dudley Castle above the zoo

The Black Country Living Museum, opened in 1978, is an open-air museum of the industrial villages of the Black Country, with narrowboat trips into the Dudley Canal Tunnel. Beside it, Dudley Zoo keeps Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton buildings of the 1930s, listed modernist animal houses, below the ruins of Dudley Castle.

The Black Country Living Museum and Dudley

Walk across the Iron Bridge over the Severn, built in 1779 by Abraham Darby III as the world's first major bridge of cast iron, and see the tollhouse

Explore Blists Hill Victorian Town, the open-air museum of a Victorian Shropshire town

Visit the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, beside the furnace where Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke in 1709

Walk the Ironbridge Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986

In 1709 Abraham Darby first smelted iron with coke at Coalbrookdale, and in 1779 Abraham Darby III built the Iron Bridge over the Severn, the world's first major bridge of cast iron, with its tollhouse at one end. The gorge has been a World Heritage Site since 1986. The Museum of Iron stands beside Darby's furnace, and Blists Hill Victorian Town, now run by the National Trust, recreates a Victorian Shropshire town.

Ironbridge Gorge: The Iron Bridge and Blists Hill

Tour Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton, the museum of a coal-fired pottery works with its bottle kilns

See Middleport Pottery in Burslem, the working Victorian pottery of 1888

Visit the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley, with its Spitfire and pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard

Stoke-on-Trent is the Potteries, England's ceramic heartland. At Longton, the Gladstone Pottery Museum keeps a coal-fired pottery works with its bottle kilns; at Burslem, Middleport Pottery of 1888 still makes pots; the World of Wedgwood is at Barlaston; and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley holds a Spitfire and pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard.

The Potteries: Wedgwood, Gladstone and Middleport

Explore Warwick Castle, the medieval castle begun by William the Conqueror in 1068 beside the River Avon

Watch the trebuchet, Britain's largest working siege machine, and the Falconer's Quest birds of prey show

Visit St Mary's Church in Warwick, and the Beauchamp Chapel with the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp

William the Conqueror began Warwick Castle in 1068 beside the River Avon, and it now has Britain's largest working trebuchet and a birds of prey show. In the town, St Mary's Church holds the Beauchamp Chapel and the 15th-century tomb of Richard Beauchamp.