CLUN

'Clun' is a small town in Shropshire, England, in the district of South Shropshire. The town is located entirely in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town's name is taken from the river on which it lies, the River Clun. The River Unk joins the Clun near the town.

Contents

Geography

Population

Attractions

Related uses of the name

People

In culture

External links

Geography

Clun is entirely located within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is located on or close to a handful of significant historic routes.
The A488 and B4368 roads cross in the town of Clun. Craven Arms, Bishop's Castle and Ludlow are the neighbouring Shropshire towns, and Knighton, which is in Wales, is to the south. Nearby is Offa's Dyke and the Offa's Dyke Path. Clun Forest is to the west of the town, further upstream of the Rivers Unk and Clun. The Jack Mytton Way passes through the town. So too does The Shropshire Way.
The town is situated in a valley. The Clun Bridge is at 181m above sea level, the town centre is at 185m, while St. George's Church on the south bank is situated at 193m.

Population

The population of the town and the surrounding area (the parish of Clun and Chapel Lawn), according to the 2001 census, is a mere 1086, which is a population normally associated with that of a village. It is said that the population of the town is now smaller than it was during the flourishing days of the wool trade in England. The town is the smallest town in Shropshire and is smaller than many villages in the county. It is also the only town in Shropshire never to have had a railway line or station.

Attractions

Attractions in the town include the Norman Clun Castle (now only a ruin), the fourteenth century Clun Bridge basically a packhorse bridge, most of which is still in the original stone despite being a road bridge today used by all vehicles, Trinity Hospital, built in 1614, and a museum in the town hall. The main church in the town is St George's Church, which is south of the River Clun. There is also a Youth Hostel, "Clun Mill", to the north of the town.
There were three pubs in the town until recently - the Sun, the White Horse and the Buffalo. However, the Buffalo has now closed. Every year, normally on May Day, a traditional festival is held - the Green Man festival. A May Fair is also held, in the grounds of Clun Castle with a May Queen and attendant Green Man.

Related uses of the name

'Clun' is also a term used sometimes for the southwest part of the county of Shropshire. The County Council, since its May 2005 elections, has a single electoral district called Clun which covers about a third of the South Shropshire district. The term "Clun Valley" is also used for the villages along the River Clun - such as Anchor, Newcastle and Aston on Clun.

People

★ Noted playwright John Osborne lived near Clun and is buried at St. George's Church and his tombstone is located to the right of the main building entrance.

★ The Duke of Norfolk is Baron of Clun

★ The Earl of Powis is the Lord of the Manor.

★ Ida Gandy, wife of a country GP locally in the 1930's wrote 'An Idler On The Shropshire Borders' in the 1970's based on her travels locally.

In culture

★ In ''A Shropshire Lad'', A.E. Housman wrote the verse:

★ In Douglas Adams' book ''The Meaning of Liff'', Clun is listed as 'a leg that has gone to sleep that you have to drag around behind you'.

★ E.M. Forster visited Clun, which subsequently featured as Oniton in his novel Howard's End (1910).

★ Sir Walter Scott is believed to have stayed in The Buffalo Inn while writing The Betrothed and The Talisman, published jointly as Tales of The Crusaders in 1825. Clun castle is supposed to have inspired Scott's Garde Doleureuse in that work.

External links

★ Shropshire Tourism The official tourism website for Shropshire

★ Official Local Clun Site

★ Clun May Day Festival

★ Clun Photo Gallery

★ Shropshire Star article

★ History of Clun

★ Photographs of Clun on Shropshire Gallery