2021 News
Silkin Way Survey
Telford & Wrekin Council is planning an upgrade on the Silkin Way and there is a survey you can fill in to give your views. Please visit this page for more information and the link to the survey.
Deadline: November 30th.
2021 AGM 28th October Coalbrookdale
The 2021 AGM of the FRIENDS OF TELFORD T50 50 MILE TRAIL
will be held in Coalbrookdale Community Centre on 28th October at 7 pm.
All friends welcome, please come and give us your ideas for the future of the trail. There will be cake. It would help for catering purposes if you could register here.
If you would like to sign up as a Friend (no charge) please click here
The formal calling notice is going out to Friends via Mailchimp on 30th September.
T50 becomes the T53 for one day only
Update: We did it, all went well .
We are fundraising for Children in need. As the theme for the Countryfile ramble this year is based on age, and Telford is now 53, we have extended the trail by 3 miles for this day, October 10th, only.
We aim to have 21 named people walking or running each of 21 legs.
In addition all are welcome to join in using any part of the trail.
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Full details here, and register here.
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Most importantly the fundraising page is here .
Relay Presentations
On September 21st our chair presented Telford Athletics club with the Open Relay Challenge trophy , and Telford Harriers in a time of with the mixed trophy for the Spring 2021 Relay Challenge. Their times were an amazing 6 hrs 10 mins and 8 hrs 41mins respectively.
Free Certificates
Special one-off, limited term offer. Have you got, or would qualify for, a certificate like this?
If so, would you like a professionally printed version? No charge for collection in Wellington, or elsewhere in Telford by arrangement, or could be posted at cost.
If so, please contact Naomi, by email (if you got the certificate that way) , message to the Facebook page or contact form on the website by Tuesday 7th September. Now extended to October 7th.
Report from the Coalport Champion
Sue, one of our champions on Stage 1, has reported an increase both in the owl population and in sightings of badgers at dusk in the Coalport section of the T50. She has also sent us images of the mother and young moorhens on the canal adjacent to the China museum, adding "it's the first year we have seen then successfully fledge some of their brood (attrition rate usually being quite high there)". Two of the original five youngsters have survived.
More Relay News
Telford Athletics Club (TAC)'s time of 6 hours 19 minutes was unassailable in the 2021 Spring Relay. After some debate we have decided to award TAC the open trophy and award the mixed trophy to Telford Harriers with their time of 8 hours 41 minutes, which was only four minutes faster than Shropshire Canicross. They were followed by Absolutely Barking Agility Addicts in 9 hours 19 minutes (a time that would have won the first event),
Not part of the event but Bowring Running Group completed an asynchronous relay as part of the Great Telford Run in late July in a creditable time of 10 hours 47 minutes,
We have announced the dates for the Autumn Relay as September to November. The rules and team organisers' notes are on the relay page .
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"Jim's Gate" in Muxton was opened on June 26th 2021
Jim's gate was opened on June 26th in Muxton after a walk along the T50 from Granville Country Park.The gate is to honour the memory of Jim Cox, one of the T50 consortium team who died suddenly last year. As an active member of the LDWA his experience of long distance trails was invaluable in helping devise, test and waymark the route. One of the Friends of Granville Country Park, he also contributed a lot of information to the guidebook. The event, held under Covid guidelines, was attended by Jim's son, the T50 committee,and representatives of the local church, the Friends of Granville, the Long Distance Walkers Association and Walking for Health- Telford and Wrekin, He was a lovely man and we all miss him.
Jim
Charity Events Coming Up
As we pass our third anniversary it is good to see the trail so well used by individuals and groups and also as a fund raising vehicle.
Two events we know about are :
The Telford & Wrekin Macmillan Fundraising Group are running a virtual T50 sponsored walk for 2021 and trying to raise £500.
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Also, Telford Centre Rotary are holding "The Great Telford Run" in July.
One of the options is a virtual T50.
We know at least one group is planning to do the whole route as a physical relay as part of this event.
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Fastest Known Times set in April/May 2021
It's been busy recently on the trail. On April 18th Telford Athletics Club (TAC) set a new fastest time for the relay challenge in 6 hours 10 minutes, they actually fielded a mixed team (at least 3 females, at least 3 over 50). On 29th May, Nichola Jackson and Gareth Jones ran the trail in one go in 12 hours 35 minutes (the fastest known time by a female), On 30th May Jon Bowie set a new fkt in 8 hours and 8 minutes.
There is a global fkt website with an entry for our trail, see https://fastestknowntime.com/route/telford-t50-united-kingdom
There is a page here for diversions and known problems. We will endeavour to keep this completely current. Please let us know of anything you think should be on there.
Relay News
We now have perpetual trophies for the open and mixed classes, these were presented for Autumn 2020 In May 2021
We have moved the dates for the Spring Relay back by a month to April to June, this is so that we can hopefully have groups of 6 outside which will cover the handovers.
The new rules and team organisers' notes are on the relay page .
New for this year there are links to RunGo routes for each leg separately on the relay page
Earlier items- still relevant
Circular Walks
Spurred on by the Covid 19 restrictions we have made progress on circular walks based on the trail, there is still more work to be done but you can see our progress here.
New File store for the GPX files and new mapping
Spurred on by developing the circular walks we have made a file share available so that all the GPX files are in one place and there is no need to visit the OS site to download them.
Also we are trying RunGo to give turn by turn directions for the circular walks. These can, and will be, customised. So far it seems to be very good, it has a facility to reverse the route, would have saved hours of work last year.
Water on the trail
We were told that there would definitely be a water fountain near Telford Town Centre visitor centre by Easter 2020. This is now on hold.There is a list of refill stations on or very near to the trail here
Roll of Honour / Hall of Fame /Certificates
If you have completed the trail, no matter how long it took you, and you would like to be listed on this page please contact us, If you would like a certificate like the one pictured , please tell us the date (or e.g. March- July 2019) , and anything special like a charity you supported or your time. We will email the certificate to you as a pdf. There is now a gallery of photos of finishers too,
Guide Book Launch & Walk- July 27th 2019
We have launched the new 84-page guidebook to the trail, written by Anne Suffolk. As well as the route description, the guidebook includes details of the history and the ecology along the trail. All this for just £5.00. The book was launched by Cllr Carolyn Healy , Telford & Wrekin Council's Cabinet Member for Visitor Economy & The World Heritage Site, in the foyer of Southwater library at 10.30 am on July 27th. To celebrate the launch, we held a rather wet 4-mile circular walk, incorporating the start and end of the trail and Randlay Valley. The guide book is now available at the Town Park Visitor Centre , Seaton Sports, and Perry's Cycles in Wellington, Greenfields Farm Shop, all the Ironbridge Museum Trust shops, Pengwern Books in Shrewsbury or by post (plus £2 for postage & packing) here or on Ebay. New: it is now in Waterstones in Telford Town Centre
Bus Services
There were significant changes to the Bus services in July 2018. The bus information on leaflets 1:2, 2, 4 and 5 is a bit out of date but AFAIK the information here is correct. We found the Arriva site confusing and the on-line planner doesn't seem to deal with the new route 19 at all well. In September Wellington Walkers are Welcome showed that the whole trail could be walked in easy stages entirely by bus from Wellington.
This site http://www.telfordpublictransport.co.uk/ seems to be up to date and accurate.
Flickr Group for the Trail
There is now a Flickr Group with some great photos https://www.flickr.com/groups/telfordt5050miletrail