Brown Clee Hill - Clee Burf

The Clee Hills are a range of hills in Shropshire, England near Ludlow, consisting of Brown Clee Hill (540m), the highest peak in Shropshire, and Titterstone Clee Hill (533m). They are both in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The hills stretch over 15 miles and run north - south, and for about this distance the lowest point along the hills is just under 300 metres. Titterstone Clee Hill is around five miles south of Brown Clee Hill.

The south-east quarter is all that remains of the hillfort on Clee Burf. The stone rampart is reduced to a scarp between in places and elsewhere has either been quarried away or dumped upon. Within and without the area of the camp are innumerable hollows which are said to have been made in the search for coal. The alternative interpretation that they are hut circles would imply very close and dense habitation.

From Clee to Heaven the Beacon Burns (1887)

From Clee to heaven the beacon burns,
The shires have seen it plain,
From north and south the sign returns
And beacons burn again.

Look left, look right, the hills are bright,
The dales are light between,
Because 'tis fifty years to-night
That God has saved the Queen.

Now, when the flame they watch not towers
About the soil they trod,
Lads, we'll remember friends of ours
Who shared the work with God.

To skies that knit their heartstrings right,
To fields that bred them brave,
The saviours come not home to-night
Themselves they could not save.

It dawns in Asia, tombstones show
And Shropshire names are read;
And the Nile spills his overflow
Beside the Severn's dead.

We pledge in peace by farm and town
The Queen they served in war,
And fire the beacons up and down
The land they perished for.

"God save the Queen" we living sing,
From height to height 'tis heard;
And with the rest your voices ring,
Lads of the Fifty-third.

Oh, God will save her, fear you not:
Be you the men you I've been,
Get you the sons your fathers got.
And God will save the Queen.

A Shropshire Lad. (1896) - by A.E. Housman,(1859-1936)