Nearly 200 turn out for Severn Valley Country Park's first ever parkrun

A course record has been set and now in its fourth week, the run at the park near Bridgnorth has attracted hundreds of participants from all over the region.

The record, which was set in the week two, currently stands at 17 minutes and 57 seconds to complete the 5k run through the park's idyllic site.

The shop opens early especially for the event to give runners refreshments once they complete the course.

Severn Valley Country Park has thanked organiser and runner William Lloyd, from Alveley, who approached the park and its owners, Shropshire Council, with the idea before creating a volunteer group to organise the event every week.

Park manager Edward Andrews, of Shropshire Council, said: "The idea came from a local runner, Will Lloyd, who's managed to assemble a team of volunteers to put on the event.

"Having taken part, it's a lovely atmosphere with lots of happy runners admiring the beautiful scenes the park has to offer.

"People have travelled from all over the Midlands. We've held three so far with 130 people at the last one so numbers are really good.

"We're really hoping it continues. It will be dependent on Will having enough volunteers to help out so I think the key thing is for people to sign up to support their local park run."

Severn Valley Country Park now joins a number of parkruns organised across the county by volunteers.

The 5k weekly timed runs start at 9am and are open to people of all ages and abilities.

People looking to sign up can do so by visiting parkrun.org.uk/severnvalleycountry