The official leaving point for this section of the route is the church in Ludlow but I elected to start at the Dinham Bridge, partly because it was a convenient dropping off point and partly because I was being accompanied by my faithful collie, Rosie, who feels the need to lie down and watch every single car that passes. I felt it would take too long even with the short distance involved.

Once over we followed the lane for a short way before breaking off and into open countryside. The lead came off and sure enough Rosie spent the next ten minutes or so charging around the field like her bum was on fire! The route skirts the edge of several fields, following the edge of woodland before breaking off left and heading up to a dirt track which then becomes a tarmac road right the way up to a bridge over the River Teme, a river that rises in mid-Wales and ends its life South of Worcester where it joins the Severn. The Way meanders across various fields, all well signposted and easy going until it meets the Teme again very briefly before heading more Northerly.

Mostly fields and good paths now heading North, we came close to Stokesay Court, then headed into woodland to follow a valley, or Gutter as it is described on the map. This was pheasant breeding country with, literally, hundreds of them milling about then taking flight as we arrived. Rosie did not know which way to turn, with birds running, flying and generally milling about. Soon enough we passed them all and the path took a steep climb through some more woodland, popping out at Aldon, an unremarkable hamlet. There was a short distance of road before we began a long descent through Stoke Wood, being rewarded at the end by a spectacular view of Stokesay Castle, currently owned and managed by English Heritage. There was a minor pause while we waited to cross the railway line, then it was few minutes walk along a tarmac road to the Castle, and more importantly, the cafe. It was coffee and sausage roll time!

Stokesay Castle is not quite the end of this stage, that honour belongs to Craven Arms a kilometre or so further on, but due to the aforementioned obsession with cars, I decided I would forego the pleasures of Craven Arms and cut across the fields on a footpath and join the Shropshire Way again just out of the town for the second part of the days walk. Before that, I enjoyed the coffee and roll, sat outside under a large umbrella watching the rain sweep across the valley and those tourists unfortunate enough to have sat on benches with no cover, run for the building as the rain came down in buckets.