Is this Switzerland? No, I’m in the Shropshire Hills

The peaks around Church Stretton put Victorian tourists in mind of the Swiss Alps – and that tranquillity still exerts a strong pull

The first time I saw the Shropshire Hills it was through a misty car window during a frigid winter drive from Birmingham to Snowdonia. Scrunching up my jumper sleeve and wiping away the steam for a better look, I saw a hazy collection of dull green lumps rising starkly from their pastoral surroundings beneath a blanket of grey cloud. Though my interest had been piqued, this wasn’t the ideal way to view a landscape once described by the Victorians as Little Switzerland.