Olympic torch to visit Shropshire twice in one week
The Olympic torch will pass through 14 Shropshire towns and villages next year as it makes its way to London for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games, it was revealed today. The Olympic torch will pass through 14 Shropshire towns and villages next year as it makes its way to London for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games, it was revealed today. The flame will visit the county twice as it makes its way from Greece to the capital with torchbearers carrying the flame through Ludlow, Clee Hill and Cleobury Mortimer on May 24. And it will return to the county on May 30 when it will pass through Oswestry, Pant, Llanymynech, Shrewsbury, Cressage, Much Wenlock, Benthall, Broseley, Ironbridge, Telford Town Centre and Newport. Nationally the flame will pass through more than 1,000 villages, towns and cities on its 70-day, 8,000-mile relay in the run-up to the games, starting at Land's End in Cornwall.[24link]
The Olympic torch will pass through 14 Shropshire towns and villages next year as it makes its way to London for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Games, it was revealed today.
The flame will visit the county twice as it makes its way from Greece to the capital with torchbearers carrying the flame through Ludlow, Clee Hill and Cleobury Mortimer on May 24.
And it will return to the county on May 30 when it will pass through Oswestry, Pant, Llanymynech, Shrewsbury, Cressage, Much Wenlock, Benthall, Broseley, Ironbridge, Telford Town Centre and Newport.
Nationally the flame will pass through more than 1,000 villages, towns and cities on its 70-day, 8,000-mile relay in the run-up to the games, starting at Land's End in Cornwall.
Today's announcement was welcomed at launch events in Much Wenlock and Ironbridge by county officials who described it as a 'great honour' to have the flame visit the county and added it would be a 'once in a lifetime chance'.
Shropshire Council said there would be a special welcome for the torch in Much Wenlock, where Doctor William Penny Brookes founded the Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850 and inspired the revival of the modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.
Councillor Steve Charmley, from Shropshire Council, said: "By passing through Shropshire the flame will offer everyone a chance to celebrate and take part in the countdown to the biggest cultural festival to happen in the UK for years."
By John Kirk
