# Shropshire

URL: https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/car-hire/shropshire

Performance & Prestige has no depot, branch or rental counter in Shropshire and holds no premises there. Every lease is delivered to an address you choose and collected from it afterwards.

Shropshire has the best hill roads in the Midlands and one of the more awkward county towns to hand a car over in, which makes it a place worth planning rather than assuming. We deliver into Shrewsbury and the villages around it, to Telford and Newport, to Church Stretton, Craven Arms and Ludlow down the A49, to Bridgnorth, Much Wenlock and Broseley, and out to Oswestry, Ellesmere and the Welsh border. Many addresses here are farms, converted barns and country houses reached by a track rather than a drive. Over a three-month term the car spends its weekends on roads that people travel a long way to drive, which is a large part of why anyone keeps one here. We hold no premises in Shropshire and there is nothing to collect from anywhere.

Typical delivery: Shrewsbury and Telford behave completely differently and that is the first thing we look at. The county town sits inside a loop of the Severn, reached over a small number of bridges, with a one-way medieval core and streets steep enough to matter. Telford is new-town road network and is straightforward almost everywhere. Out in the hills, the last mile decides it: a track, a ford or a cattle grid changes the plan. In a wet winter the river is a factor in its own right. The window is worked out with you and confirmed by a person before anything is committed.

In Shrewsbury we pick the handover street deliberately. The hills down to the bridges are steeper than they photograph, the core is one-way with short stopping windows, and a car standing in the wrong place on a market day is everybody's problem. Ludlow is a smaller version of the same thing, with the square taken by the market on its days. Country addresses are usually easier and occasionally not: a stone gateway built for a cart, a cattle grid, a ford that runs deeper after rain, or a loose rubble track all mean the car comes in driven and slowly rather than on a transporter. Tell us which of those applies.

Postcode areas covered: SY, TF.

## What is the Burway actually like?

It is the road from Church Stretton onto the Long Mynd, and it is the most demanding piece of tarmac in the county. It starts with a cattle grid, then climbs as a single track along the side of the hill with an unfenced drop on one side, few passing places and no barrier anywhere. Sheep stand in the road as a matter of routine. In cloud, ice or a busy weekend it is genuinely dangerous rather than merely exciting, and meeting something coming down means one of you reverses. Go up early on a clear morning, take it at walking pace, and enjoy the view rather than the drive.

## Which other roads here are worth the trip?

The B4368 through the Clun valley is the one locals name first: quiet, flowing and empty on a weekday. The A488 under the Stiperstones is rougher and more dramatic. Wenlock Edge on the B4371 runs along the escarpment with long views off one side. The A49 is the fast north to south spine and a useful one. West, the A458 and the A5 put the Welsh hills inside a morning. Almost all of it is two-lane, hedged or walled, and shared with tractors, horses and a good number of cyclists at weekends.

## Does the Severn really close roads here?

It does, most winters. Shrewsbury and Ironbridge both sit on the river and both see riverside roads and car parks go under when it rises, with barriers going up and diversions that are considerably longer than the distance suggests. The gorge roads are steep and narrow and become the alternative route when the low ones shut, which does not suit them. If your address is near the water and the agreement runs through the winter, tell us where the car will actually sit, because a drive that floods is a poor place to leave one for three months.

## Where does a handover work in Shrewsbury and Ludlow?

Somewhere flat and pre-agreed. Shrewsbury's centre is a medieval loop with one-way streets, steep hills down to the bridges and enforced stopping restrictions, so the practical answers are a hotel forecourt, an agreed bay or a street just outside the loop. Ludlow's centre is narrow, partly cobbled, and given over to the market on market days. Suburban and village addresses at Bayston Hill, Bicton, Bomere Heath or the Wenlock side are far simpler, because there is usually a drive and no clock running on the paperwork.

## Is a clean air charge a factor from Shropshire?

Not within the county, which runs no charging zone of its own. It becomes a question on the routes out, because the motorways east lead into a city scheme that does charge private cars falling short of its standard, and other cities on a longer trip run their own. Modern petrol performance cars generally meet those standards, but generally is not something to book on. We confirm the position for the exact vehicle before you commit, and say plainly which charges we settle and which are billed on to you.

## How far does the same run reach across the county and over the border?

Shrewsbury, Telford, Newport, Market Drayton, Whitchurch, Wem, Oswestry, Ellesmere, Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Ludlow, Bridgnorth and the villages between them, plus the country-house and barn venues that fill the summer. Over the border, Welshpool, Montgomery and the Marches towns are no harder. Delivery here and collection in Cheshire, Birmingham or north Wales is one arrangement rather than two. If the address is a farm with a yard rather than a house with a drive, say so with the postcode and we will plan the last part around it.

*Pre-launch note: the driver criteria, deposits, excesses and mileage allowances quoted here are read from Performance & Prestige's own catalogue data, which is still being confirmed with the owner and the insurer. Read them as the shape of the figures rather than as a quotation. What binds is your written quote and your agreement.*