Days Out ÿ Pick-your-own whinberries on the Stiperstones

Beware of higglers with wiskets

We had come to the Stiperstones in Shropshire in search of whinberries, but the chimneys of the old lead mine at Snailbeach distracted us and took us up the heather-covered hillside.

Many of the workings – Black Tom Shaft, the engine house, the railway line which took the iron ore to the (former) main line at Pontesbury – can still be seen. Nearby is a row of tiny, irregular cottages clinging to the edge of the hill, homes to some of the 500 miners employed by the mine in its heyday at the turn of of the last century.

Whinberries, as bilberries are known in these parts, were an important part of the economy, along with the mining. Whole families would turn out in the summer holidays to pick them to earn extra some money. Buyers, known as "higglers", would patrol the area in horse and carts, pack the berries into wicker hampers – "wiskets" – and take them for despatch to Minsterley Station.

We began our search for whinberries at the Stiperstones Inn, where whinberry crumble and whinberry pie are always on the menu. A whitewashed down-to-earth pub, part of the building has been turned into a post office and warren-like village store, selling everything from Christmas pudding to babies' clothes.

And whinberries. The Stiperstones Inn buys up most of the crop that is now harvested. Landlord John Sproson reckons that, in a good year, an expert picker can make up to £2,000 in the season, which lasts until the second week of September. But now the pickers are mainly pensioners, using a variety of methods. "Some pick clean, one berry at a time," said John Sproson. "Others use a comb, and then a hairdryer with an attachment to get rid of the twigs and leaves."

We were apprehensive about going whinberrying on the Stiperstones. Almost every leaflet we picked up from the well-stocked bookshelves in the inn warned of lightning strikes. The landlord told us that such excessive caution was probably due to the fact that several years ago a walker was killed by lightning on the exposed ridge of the Stiperstones. (Or perhaps it was the higglers protecting their patch.) But today the sky clear and blue.

We parked the car at The Bog car park and made our way up a grassy path towards the stones, quartzite tors which are scattered along the ridge: Cranberry Rock, Manstone Rock and the Devil's Chair. Right on the top we could see a patchwork of fields across to Wales one way and the smooth green hummocky mounds of Long Mynd in the other direction.

Exhausted from our efforts, we retreated to The Bog Visitor Centre, open every summer in an ex-village school with displays about Mary Webb and Malcolm Saville, who wrote about this area. They sell extraordinarily good cakes here, too (Stiper-scones, Bog Bake and Wild Edric's tart).

We did find whinberries – and cranberries and wild raspberries, too. But we ate them right there on the hillside and then went back to the Stiperstones Inn and bought a 2lb bag from its freezer to take back home with us. Such is the cosseted nature of life today.

Stiperstones Inn, Snailbeach, Shrewsbury SY5 0LZ (01743 791327; www.stiperstones.co.uk). The Stiperstones Shuttle bus runs weekends and bank holidays until 27 October. Stiperstones Shuttle and Stomp (01588 660618). Shropshire Tourism (01743 462462; www.shropshiretourism.info). Cricklewood Cottage (01743 791229; www.SmoothHound.co.uk/hotels.crickle), an 18th-century house with a riverside garden at the foot of the Stiperstones in Plox Green, offers b&b from £26 per person per night.