Titterstone Clee Hill
| Titterstone Clee Hill | |
|---|---|
| 300px The summit under snow, with radar station beyond. | |
| Elevation | 533 m (1,749 ft) |
| Location | Shropshire, Template:ENG |
| Range | Shropshire Hills |
| Prominence | 232 m |
| Topo map | OS Landrangers 137, 138 |
| OS grid reference | SO591779 |
| Listing | Marilyn |
Titterstone Clee Hill, sometimes referred to as Clee Hill or Titterstone Clee is a hill in the rural English county of Shropshire, rising at the summit to 533 m above sea level. It is in the Clee Hills, in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Titterstone Clee Hill is beaten in height by only 7 m by the nearby Brown Clee Hill. The nearest town to the hill is Ludlow.
Geography
Titterstone Clee is the third-highest hill in Shropshire, beaten only by the nearby Brown Clee Hill (540 m) and Stiperstones (536 m). Much of the higher part of the hill is common land, used for the grazing of sheep (which are said to "plague" the area!), air traffic control services and working or disused quarries. The summit of Titterstone Clee is bleak, treeless and shaped by decades of quarrying. Many of the structures still remain, and lend to the ghostly atmosphere of the hill top, especially during the prolonged winter fogs that descend over the hills.
The weather on Titterstone Clee Hill can be particularly hazardous, with locally infamous fog and drizzle being commonplace. Snow can also cause problems in winter, as it often lasts for weeks or even months before melting, as well as gales.
Most of the summit of the hill is effectively man-made, the result of years of quarrying dhustone (dolerite) to be used in road-building. Also, many derelict quarry buildings are scattered over the hill, now used only by sheep sheltering from the worst of weather. Combined, these give the summit of the hill an eerie, other worldly feel.
The A4117 between Cleobury Mortimer and Ludlow runs along the southern slope of Titterstone Clee, and rises to around 380 metres above sea level at its highest point on Clee Hill Common. Because of this, the road is often affected by snow in winter.
The small village of Cleehill lies on this road as it crosses the hill, and at 380 m above sea level, it is home to the highest pub in Shropshire [citation needed], "The Kremlin".
From the hill it is possible on a clear day to see west to Snowdonia, north to the Peak District, north east to the Black Country, east to the Cotswolds, south east to the Malvern Hills, south to the Black Mountains and south west to the Brecon Beacons. The hill is said to provide one of the best views in England on a clear day.
History, quarrying and land usage
Over the years Titterstone Clee has been subject to much quarrying for Dhustone or Dolerite. It is because of this that the hill is littered with many of abandoned quarries and mine shafts, one of which in particular have now flooded to form a lake. The largest quarries have sheer drops of up to around a hundred foot.
Before the Second World War, the area could even have been described as industrial, because of all the activity because of quarrying. Men even came from Bridgnorth and Ludlow to work in the quarries, and the village of Dhustone on Titterstone Clee was built especially for the quarry workers. Crumbling remains of quarry buildings now litter the hill, reminders of a bygone industry that once employed more than 2,000 people here. The incline from an old railway is still up on the hill, and the structure under which the wagons were filled with stone still remains also, right next to the modern day car park. In the past the quarries have also been worked (on a much smaller scale) for coal and limestone.
Early in the 20th century, a second quarry opened on Titterstone Clee Hill and an aerial ropeway was built to carry to stone off the hill to the railway at Detton Ford. The footings for the tall pylons which supported the wires still remain near the summit, parallel to the modern day track to the radar domes.
Titterstone Clee is still quarried, but on a much smaller scale than in its heyday on the lower slopes behind Cleehill village. It began again in the late 1980s, 50 years after the Dhustone quarry closed, and some old workings have been restored. The main buildings of the quarry are just visible from the A4117.
Several radar domes and towers operate on the summit of the hill. The radar arrays are part of the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) radar network, and one of 30 overlapping sites across the country controlling UK airspace. The ones on the Clee Hills monitor all aircraft within a 100-mile radius. The domes and masts are well-known local landmarks, with one in particular often being nicknamed "the golf ball" because of it looking like a giant tee-ed up golf ball. They can be seen for many miles, even from some parts of The Black Country. The receivers on Titterstone Clee are connected underground to the transmitters on Brown Clee Hill.
While the 20th Century triangulation pillar marks the summit, just to the left of it is the remains of a Bronze Age cairn, dating back up to 4,000 years and indicating that the summit was a likely ceremonial site. Although badly damaged by quarrying, Titterstone Clee's Iron Age hill fort has fared better than those on Brown Clee. It is of note in that the walls of the fort are made up of stone blocks, instead of earth banks. Also near the summit is the "giants chair" - a pile of boulders left behind in the ice age.
Titterstone Clee is popular with walkers, but on a much smaller scale than neighbouring hills such as the Long Mynd. Walkers can access the summit by taking the A4117 from just past Bewdley and Ludlow. About three quarters of a mile to the Ludlow side of Cleehill village, turn right up the single-track road signposted "Dhustone" and "Titterstone Clee summit". Drive to the top of the track and park on the old railway yard near the old quarry buildings. To walk to the summit follow the track around the radar installations.
