10/09/2026
Shropshire hills for DofE today with Get Outside the Classroom. Very much in the Welsh Marches - territory with a strong Welsh influence, run by Anglo-Norman Marcher lords in medieval times. What could sound more Welsh than ‘Caer Caradoc’? The Iron Age hillfort captured behind me in the first picture.
History treat today was learning about the eccentric aristocrat ‘Mad Jack’ Mytton, after whom a walking and riding route across the Long Mynd is named. He’s the one riding a bear to dinner in the last picture - as you do!
Born into a very wealthy family in 1796, Jack inherited Halton Hall near Oswestry and 132,000 acres in Shropshire and across the border in Dinas Mawddwy. He was expelled from Westminster School after one term for fighting a master, and also from Harrow after 3 terms. His private tutors fared little better, one of them finding a horse in his bedroom as a practical joke.
After embarking on the ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe and a military career, Mytton was elected as MP for Shrewsbury in 1819, after offering voters £10 notes. Imagine a prominent politician trying to win votes with cash bribes today! Can’t think who that reminds me of… 😳
Jack attended Parliament for just 30 minutes before finding the debates boring and hard to follow - not helped by the early onset of deafness. Given the priorities of the day, Jack’s dubious characteristics did not prevent him from being successively appointed High Sheriff of Meirionethshire, Shropshire and the Mayor of Shrewsbury. He was also made treasurer of Salop Infirmary, despite the fact that he squandered his vast personal fortune and had to flee into exile in France to avoid his creditors, eventually ending up in prison on his return to England due to his inability to pay his debts. Here he died in 1834, aged just 37 a “round-shouldered, tottering, old-young man, bloated by drink, worn out by too much foolishness, too much wretchedness and too much brandy”
The Footpath/bridleway commemorates Jack’s love of riding. It is said that he once rode a horse into the Bedford Hotel in Leamongton, up the grand staircase to the balcony and then leaped, still riding his horse, over the diners and through the window.
