Highlights of a busy day 12 included a lunchtime visit to Much Wenlock in Shropshire and a site with special significance for the Olympic Games. Dr William Penny Brookes established the Wenlock Olympian Games there in 1850.
When Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, visited Much Wenlock in 1890, a tree was planted in his honour on the Linden Field, the site of the annual Games. Today’s visit by the Olympic Torch Relay included a stop at the ‘De Coubertin Oak’.
Shropshire-based Olympic bronze medal winning archer Alison Williamson, set to compete for Team GB for the sixth time this summer carried the Flame in Much Wenlock.
Later in the afternoon the Olympic Flame took in the historic Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage site. Torchbearer Lydon Flavell from Wolverhampton, carried the Flame across the Ironbridge Gorge. He was nominated for his courage and determination after losing his wife to breast cancer two years ago.
Earlier in the day the Flame took a trip on a canal boat on the Pontcysllte Aqueduct and Llangollen Canal.
There were 119 Torchbearers carrying the Flame today. The first Torchbearer of the day, at the Queen’s Park suspension bridge in Chester, was aspiring badminton player Jennifer Moore, who is 16 and from Chester.
The day ended at an evening celebration in Stoke-on-Trent, where Olympic Hockey gold medal winner Imran Sherwani from Rugeley lit the cauldron.
On Day 12 the Flame was carried through the following communities:
Chester, Wrexham, Rhostyllen, Acrefair, Trevor, Oswestry, Pant, Llanymynech, Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Cressage, Much Wenlock, Benthall, Broseley, Ironbridge, Telford, Newport, Gnosall, Haughton, Stafford, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent.
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