Pontesbury, although, I think, still a village as far as the powers that be are concerned, is to my mind a town

What is more, it is a small and very pleasant rural town with a history which goes back well over a thousand years, and a parish boundary which stretches to Shrewsbury's suburbs.

To the south of Pontesbury the Stiperstones start. They are rugged with a wild touch to them when winter clouds are low. But the twin summits of Pontesford and Earl's hill have, to my mind, something strange, something mystical about their shape. Both have sites of prehistoric forts and it is no wonder there are legends and stories linked to these hills, the best being the legend and story of the Golden Arrow.

The legend is one of a battle between the kings of Mercia and Wessex in the 7th century. One version of the legend says that one of the kings lost a golden arrow during the battle and whoever found it would succeed to a great fortune.

Sadly, one version reduces the possibilities of success by saying the finder must be the seventh daughter of a seventh son, and then only if she were under twenty and searched in the early hours before dawn. The story came much later, when Mary Webb, who once lived in Pontesbury, and later at nearby Lyth Hall, wrote the best known of her novels, "The Golden Arrow".

It is the church of St. George that gives Pontesbury the feel of a town, for it is a magnificent, mainly 19th century church with origins which go back to the 13th century. I found its looks deceptive, as inside it seemed larger than expected.

The church and well kept churchyard form part of the island in the centre of Pontesbury, around which a one way traffic system operates. One has to call in at the baker's before the chemist's, otherwise yet another circumnavigation is required. Nevertheless, once the sequence of shops is remembered it is a pleasant place to shop with, invariably, parking space outside almost every shop.

GO2 Ltd thank Tim Carrington of S'Shropshire Promotions' for these extracts