Youngsters learning how to milk a cow. The information with the picture is "Milking school, 1930." The location is unknown, but it's one of a number of pictures which were hanging on the wall for a number of years at the former Three Crowns pub in Wellington until it closed in 2013, so may be Wellington area. The pictures ended up in the Oddfellows Arms, in the High Street, having been bought in a charity sale.placeholder image
Youngsters learning how to milk a cow. The information with the picture is "Milking school, 1930." The location is unknown, but it's one of a number of pictures which were hanging on the wall for a number of years at the former Three Crowns pub in Wellington until it closed in 2013, so may be Wellington area. The pictures ended up in the Oddfellows Arms, in the High Street, having been bought in a charity sale. | Johann Cowley

17 pictures bringing back memories of rural life in Shropshire

By Toby Neal
Published 4th Nov 2026, 08:20 GMT

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Celebrating life and work in the glorious Shropshire countryside

If you ask an outsider to describe Shropshire, they will probably conjure up a vision of a rural county.

Which is, of course, true, despite increasing and never-ending urbanisation. But like everything else, the landscape and agriculture evolve and change, and old ways fade and sometimes die out completely.

Join us on a trip down memory lane - a country lane in this case - as we take a look at some of the people and places of yesteryear who have been part of the tapestry of rural life over past decades.

  • You can enjoy this and more with our weekly FREE Nostalgia Newsletter - with scores of archive pictures and exclusive features on the history of Shropshire and Mid Wales - all sent to your inbox every week. Sign up here
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Thatchers Russell Smith, left, and Martin Weaver, both from Myddle, add the finishing touches to the roof of Rose Cottage, Cockshutt, near Ellesmere, in 1991. The corn pheasant is a traditional feature of thatched roofs, thought to bring good luck to the house. The men worked for Cosythatch, of Baschurch.

9. Men at the top

Thatchers Russell Smith, left, and Martin Weaver, both from Myddle, add the finishing touches to the roof of Rose Cottage, Cockshutt, near Ellesmere, in 1991. The corn pheasant is a traditional feature of thatched roofs, thought to bring good luck to the house. The men worked for Cosythatch, of Baschurch. | Shropshire Star archive

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"Howard Orpe is one of the few champions of the dying art of hedge laying. He has been laying hedges from his home in Claverley as far as Chester for the last 15 of his 45 years, and his latest job was tidying up hedges at the county showground near Stafford,” was the original caption of this March 1971 picture.

10. Making the cut

"Howard Orpe is one of the few champions of the dying art of hedge laying. He has been laying hedges from his home in Claverley as far as Chester for the last 15 of his 45 years, and his latest job was tidying up hedges at the county showground near Stafford,” was the original caption of this March 1971 picture. | Shropshire Star archive

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A shepherds' weekend course at Walford College, near Baschurch, in February 1955. The college was founded as the Shropshire Farm Institute in 1949.

11. Raising the baa

A shepherds' weekend course at Walford College, near Baschurch, in February 1955. The college was founded as the Shropshire Farm Institute in 1949. | Walford & North Shropshire College

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The milking parlour at Home Farm, Attingham, which was installed in 1963 when Eric Dixon moved there as a tenant of the National Trust and turned it into a dairy farm. This equipment was state of the art when it was installed by Fullwood of Ellesmere. It worked until December 7, 2011, when it was superseded by a robotic milking parlour for the Jersey herd. This picture from when it was installed in 1963 was taken to the Royal Show and later hung on a wall at the farm, and for all we know still does.

12. State of the art milking parlour

The milking parlour at Home Farm, Attingham, which was installed in 1963 when Eric Dixon moved there as a tenant of the National Trust and turned it into a dairy farm. This equipment was state of the art when it was installed by Fullwood of Ellesmere. It worked until December 7, 2011, when it was superseded by a robotic milking parlour for the Jersey herd. This picture from when it was installed in 1963 was taken to the Royal Show and later hung on a wall at the farm, and for all we know still does. | Home Farm

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