As part of Mel and I weekend away in Ludlow Shropshire we drove to Shrewsbury to have a look about. Its somewhere we've always seen on signs on our way to North Wales and wanted to see it for ourselves.
We parked up in the Julian Friars Car Park and walked out onto Beeches Lane and the onto the A5191 and then onto Wyle Cop.
The town centre has a largely unspoilt medieval street plan and over 660 listed buildings, including several examples of timber framing from the 15th and 16th centuries. Shrewsbury Castle, a red sandstone fortification, and Shrewsbury Abbey, a former Benedictine monastery, were founded in 1074 and 1083 respectively by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery. The town is the birthplace of Charles Darwin and is where he spent 27 years of his life.
9 miles (14 km) east of the Welsh border, Shrewsbury serves as the commercial centre for Shropshire and mid-Wales, with a retail output of over £299 million per year and light industry and distribution centres, such as Battlefield Enterprise Park, on the outskirts.
Up on out right we could see St Alkmunds Church, sitting behind the St Julians Centre.
At the very heart of the historic and beautiful town of Shrewsbury stands the church of St Alkmund, which celebrated its 1,100th anniversary in 2012. St. Alkmund’s was founded by Aethelfleda, Lady of the Mercians, daughter of Alfred the Great and one of the great women of the Saxon age. Hemmed in by medieval markets, mansions and bustling, narrow lanes, the church has long been an island of tranquillity and prayer at the centre of the town.
We continue on along High Street.
The town was the early capital of the Kingdom of Powys, known to the ancient Britons as Pengwern, signifying "the alder hill"; and in Old English as Scrobbesburh (dative Scrobbesbyrig), which may mean either "Scrobb's fort" or "the fortified place in the bushes" (or "shrubs", the modern derivate).This name gradually evolved in three directions, into Sciropscire, which became Shropshire; into Sloppesberie, which became Salop / Salopia (an alternative name for both town and county), and into Schrosberie, which eventually became the town's name, Shrewsbury. Its later Welsh name Amwythig means "fortified place"
Over the ages, the geographically important town has been the site of many conflicts, particularly between the English and Welsh. The Angles, under King Offa of Mercia, took possession in 778.
Nearby is the village of Wroxeter, 5 miles (8 km) to the south-east. This was once the site of Viroconium, the fourth largest cantonal capital in Roman Britain. As Caer Guricon it is a possible alternative for the Dark Age seat of the Kingdom of Powys. The importance of the Shrewsbury area in the Roman era was underlined with the discovery of the Shrewsbury Hoard in 2009.
We reach the beautiful 16th Century Square with the Old Market Hall at its centre is formed on three sides by gorgeous high-end boutiques and restaurants as well as the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.
Built in 1596, the Market Hall intended to impress with materials, style and scale. It had two storeys; the large upper room was originally used by the Shrewsbury drapers or dealers in cloth to sell Welsh wool and the lower floor was used by farmers to sell corn.
We walk through to Market Street back onto the A5191 and then down Mardol.
We stop in the Shrewsbury Hotel (A JD Wetherspoon pub) for breakfast.
We cross the A458 road after breakfast and walk along the river to see the Quantum Leap,which is a sculpture situated next to the River Severn in Shrewsbury. It was created to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of evolutionist Charles Darwin, who was born in the town in 1809. The sculpture was unveiled on 8 October 2009 by Randal Keynes, a great-great-grandson of Darwin
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| Quantum Leap Sculpture. |
We walk back up the river to the Welsh Bridge.
he Welsh Bridge is a masonry arch viaduct in the town of Shrewsbury, which crosses the River Severn. It connects Frankwell with the town centre. It is a Grade II listed building.
The bridge was designed and built from 1793 to 1795 by John Tilley and John Carline (whose namesake father was a mason on the English Bridge), who had built Montford Bridge for Thomas Telford. It replaced the medieval St George's Bridge. Four of the arches span 43 feet 4 inches, while the fifth and central arch is 46 feet 2 inches. The bridge is 30 feet wide, and built from Grinshill sandstone. In total it is 266 feet long. It was completed in 1795 at a cost of £8,000.
On the south end of the bridge, on the junction with Victoria Avenue, one of the parapets of the bridge has the words "Commit No Nuisance" chiselled into the stone. This is an archaic injunction not to urinate in public.
We are now walking along the river through a park known as The Quarry.
The Quarry is Shrewsbury's beautiful, 29-acre parkland, encircled by the majestic loop of the river Severn. The Quarry has been Shrewsbury's most important site for recreation since the 16th Century.
At the heart of the Quarry lies the Dingle, a floral masterpiece cultivated by world renowned gardener Percy Thrower, who served as Parks Superintendent for 28 years. Its a delightful sunken garden landscaped with alpine borders, brilliant bedding plants, shrubbery and charming water features.
In the distance we could see St Chads Church.
St Chad's Church occupies a prominent position in Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire. The current church building was built in 1792, and with its distinctive round shape and high tower it is a well-known landmark in the town. It faces The Quarry area of parkland, which slopes down to the River Severn.
We walk beneath the Port Hill Suspension bridge as we follow the river around.
It connects Porthill with the Quarry and the town centre. Next to it on the Porthill side is the Boathouse public house and Becks Field - both Quarry Park and Becks Field are extensive open green spaces largely preserved from building by their propensity to flood. Porthill Bridge experiences significant vibration, even when few people are crossing it - and has done since it was installed. Local pedestrians mostly accept this eccentricity as part of the bridge's charm.
A ferry operated here until the bridge was built in 1922 by David Rowell & Co. One of the posts to which the cable was attached is still visible on the north bank of the river just a few metres west of the crossing. The bridge was opened on 18 January 1923. £2,000 of the bridge's total £2,600 cost was paid for by the Shropshire Horticultural Society.
We walked on with a huge pike kept leaping from the river and crashing back down as followed the river.
We reached the English Bridge.
The English Bridge is a masonry arch viaduct, crossing the River Severn. The present bridge is a 1926 rebuilding and widening (re-using the original masonry) of John Gwynn's design, completed in 1774. A bridge is known to have stood at this spot since at least Norman times. Historically, it was known as the "Stone Bridge". It is a Grade II listed building.
The original Norman bridge consisted of five arches and a timber causeway. A large tower stood on the East bank, housing a gate and a drawbridge. The bridge also supported several shops and houses. Building work on Gwynn's replacement bridge started on 29 June 1769, and comprised seven semicircular arches, 400 feet (120 m) long. This bridge cost £16,000. The 55-foot (17 m) span central arch was built high, to provide headroom to watercraft, but this resulted in steep approaches.
As a result, a new design was put forward in 1921 by Arthur W. Ward, the Borough Surveyor. This lowered all the arches, converting the central one into a segmental arch, reducing the height of the roadway by 5 feet (1.5 m). The new bridge was to be 50 feet (15 m) wide, more than twice as wide as Gwynn's structure (of 23 and a half feet width). It cost £86,000 and was formally opened on 26 October 1927 by Queen Mary, although it had been completed the previous year. Ward's bridge reused the old masonry, each stone carefully numbered, as well as a quantity of new stonework. Concrete was used to 'saddle' the arches and in the foundations.
The bridge is one of two bridges carrying the main east-west route over the Severn as it loops around Shrewsbury; the Welsh Bridge is its counterpart on the other side of the town. Despite the names, both bridges are in England, but the Welsh Bridge is on the side closer to Wales.
Thomas Telford's Holyhead Road, dating from 1815 and connecting London to the main sea-crossing to Ireland, used the English Bridge to cross the Severn here. The road's modern successor, the A5, now bypasses Shrewsbury and the bridge's main role today is to connect the centre of Shrewsbury with the Belle Vue and Abbey Foregate areas of the town.
We continue to walk on and pass under the bridge that carries the railway over the River Severn.
Just after the bridge we take some steps that lead us up to Shrewsbury Prison.
The prison was decommissioned in March 2013, but is now open to the public.
The former prison site, on Howard Street, adjacent to Shrewsbury railway station, is near the site of the Dana Gaol, a medieval prison. The name The Dana is still often used for the prison, as well as being the name of the road to one side of the prison and the pedestrian route that runs from near the front of the prison into the town centre via a footbridge over the station.
The Victorian prison that you see today sits on top of the original Georgian prison, the remains of which are still accessible underneath the current buildings.
A bust of prison reformer John Howard is above the main entrance to the prison. The street leading up to the prison from the main road is also named after him.
We cross the tracks and over to Shrewsbury Castle.
Shrewsbury Castle is a red sandstone castle.
A castle was ordered on the site by William I c. 1067 - a very early date - but it was greatly extended under Roger de Montgomery circa 1070 as a base for operations into Wales, an administrative centre and as a defensive fortification for the town, which was otherwise protected by the loop of the river. Town walls, of which little now remains, were later added to the defences, as a response to Welsh raids and radiated out from the castle and surrounded the town; the area known as Town Walls still has a small section of them and a single tower, known as Town Walls Tower, which is in the care of the National Trust). In 1138, King Stephen successfully besieged the castle held by William FitzAlan for the Empress Maud during the period known as The Anarchy.
The castle was briefly held by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, in 1215. Parts of the original medieval structure remain largely incorporating the inner bailey of the castle; the outer bailey, which extended into the town, has long ago vanished under the encroachment of later shops and other buildings. Having fallen into decay after c. 1300 (at the end of the Welsh wars) the castle became a domestic residence during the reign of Elizabeth I and passed to the ownership of the town council c.1600. The castle was extensively repaired in 1643 during the Civil War and was briefly besieged by Parliamentary forces from Wem before its surrender. It was acquired by Sir Francis Newport in 1663. Further repairs were carried out by Thomas Telford on behalf of Sir William Pulteney, M.P. for Shrewsbury, after 1780 to the designs of the architect Robert Adam.
The Shropshire Horticultural Society purchased the castle from a private owner, then Lord Barnard, and gave it to the town in 1924 and it became the location of Shrewsbury's Borough Council chambers for over 50 years. The castle was internally restructured to become the home of the Shropshire Regimental Museum when it moved from Copthorne Barracks and other local sites in 1985. The museum was attacked by the IRA on 25 August 1992 and extensive damage to the collection and to some of the Castle resulted. The museum was officially re-opened by Princess Alexandra on 2 May 1995. In 2019 it was rebranded as the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum.
In 2019 and 2020 an archaeology project by Shropshire Council and the University of Chester undertook excavations in the castle. Work in 2019 found the remains of the original ditch surrounding the motte of c.1067, along with a range of medieval pottery and two arrow heads or crossbow-bolt heads. Excavations in 2020 failed to locate St Michael's chapel, but did recover evidence of 'high-status feasting', including the bones of a pike and possibly a swan.
I pass Shrewsbury Town Council and Library building on Castle Gates.
Shrewsbury Library is housed in a Grade I listed building situated on Castle Gates near Shrewsbury Castle. The site was the home of Shrewsbury School from 1550 until 1882. The buildings were handed over to the town in 1882 and a free library and museum were opened by the Corporation of Shrewsbury utilizing the building in 1885. The library was moved temporarily to Raven Meadows in 1976 while the site on Castle Gates underwent extensive restorations. The library was re-opened in 1983 by Princess Margaret.
Above the main entrance are two statues bearing the inscriptions "Philomathes" and "Polumathes". These represent students, one coming to learn and the other a learned scholar on leaving. The inscription below is from Isocrates and reads "If you are a lover of learning, you will become learned".
We walk up Pride Hill and back through the Old Market Hall.
We walk back the way we came and arrive back at our car, what a lovely place Shrewsbury is!
