Manor Holding Cottage is a Grade II, half timbered, cottage farmhouse in the old royal forest of Wyre This ancient oak forest stands astride the River Severn, south of Iron Bridge Gorge. The beautiful countryside around it, inspiration for Tolkien’s ‘Shire’ and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is rich in historic settlements and other places of interest. . The cottage stands in 2ha of wild flower meadows and ancient orchards, frequented by fallow deer, including part of the Wyre Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), one of the largest in England. Hidden 100m off a bumpy forest track, rustic seclusion is guests' first impression. The forest is laced with foot, cycle and bridle paths, connecting right to the door of the cottage. These include Sustrans’ Mercian Way NCN45, the Sabrina Way long distance bridleway, Worcestershire Way and Severn Way. The first EU designated UK “Geopark Way” (Abberley and Malvern Hills), follows the cottage drive en route between Bridgnorth and Gloucester. Other attractions include Cleobury, Highley Lido, Bridgnorth, Ludlow Slow City, Ironbridge World Heritage Site, Witley Ct, Black Country Museum, Brum, Worcester, Shrewsbury

Penny and Nigel Dobson-Smyth have spent the last quarter of a century restoring Manor Holding, with help from our guests and the EU among others. Formerly a group of derelict ruins overgrown in a neglected and almost forgotten corner of the forest, Manor Holding is now described by our guests as, “Gorgeous”, “Idyllic”, “Lovely” and “Home from home”. It is now recognised and designated by English Heritage and Natural England. But the resident wildlife are your real hosts.

Just across the adjacent ridgeway are traces of a large Iron Age settlement at the heart of the ancient Wyre Forest, which sits astride Britain’s longest river the Severn. The forest accommodated several Norman and later deer parks, before developing major coal, iron, leather tanning, and charcoal industries. The modest brook through the middle of the forest once supported more mills than the Severn! Sponsored by Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, her favourite, established two blast furnaces close to Manor Holding. This history leaves a legacy maze of ancient holloways, tracks and boundary ditches, now overlain with long and short distance paths, cycleways and bridleways. But after the Civil War the area declined as industry moved upstream to Ironbridge. The forest, shrunk to 35 ml2 in area much of it designated Ancient Woodland, is home to the largest woodland National Nature Reserve in the country, and one of the most extensive SSSIs. The forest is Worcestershire’s 2nd greatest tourist destination, edged by GoApe, Severn Valley Railway, West Midlands Safari Park (the county’s most popular destination), Bewdley and Stourport.