Shrewsbury

 We spent a lovely day in Shrewsbury on Tuesday.  It's not too far from here probably about fifty minutes drive to the park and ride at Harlescott and then a ten minute bus ride into the centre.

It's a place I'm quite familiar with. I often used to get the bus there and back for shopping when we lived near Market Drayton.  I also used to meet a friend at the station and we would travel on the train to Llandrindod Wells (Llandod as it was known locally) to visit a retired work colleague.

 I love the old streets, quaint alleyways and old buildings.  The names of the streets like Wyle Cop and Dogpole that conjure up times gone by. We'd decided we wanted to visit the Museum to see how it had changed since our last visit and also walk along the riverside to The Dingle, Percy Thrower's garden.

Above The Bear Steps

The Old Market Hall

The Museum and Art Gallery

Wyle Cop

The English Bridge, the Welsh Bridge is on the other side of the town.

The walk through The Quarry towards The Dingle.

Along the Riverside.

Shrewsbury School Boat Club near the Kingsland Bridge.

In The Dingle

I loved the water features in the middle of the lake.

I liked the steel sculpture of a Heron below.  Apparently it is 8ft tall.

Below the more formal gardens.

After our walk we had a lovely lunch at the Museum café and a good look around the displays before catching the bus and heading home.  I did take a few photos in the Museum but it was difficult due to the lighting and reflections

All for now.

St Chad's, Old and New

Below is the Lady Chapel the only part of the old church of St Chad which remains standing after it collapsed one night in 1788.  By the end of the 18th century the building was falling into disrepair and cracks had appeared in the tower,  the famous engineer Thomas Telford warned that the church would collapse and not long after it did.  

During the time of King Offa of the Mercians (757-96) there was a monastic college on this site whose church was dedicated to St Chad, the first Bishop of Mercia.  In 1148 it was replaced by a much larger church.  Below, open to the elements are the arches of the sedilia.  The remains stand on an incline at the top of Milk Street just off Wyle Cop in the centre of the town.

A site was chosen, on a hill in the loop of the River Severn as it runs through the town, for a new church dedicated to St Chad and the foundation stone was laid on St Chad's day, 2nd March 1790.  Stones from the old church were used in the foundations.

Charles Darwin famous naturalist and  author of 'On the Origin of the Species' was baptised at the church in 1809 and attended services there with his mother, Susanna, daughter of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood. 

There were some fascinating grave stones in the church yard, I was amused by the name on the one above.

Some of them were very elaborate.

With their classical influences and designs.

Some were very plain, now who is buried here?  Oh?  never!

Ebenezer Scrooge? Bah, humbug!  Well, no not really!  The stone is a prop which was used during the filming of a TV adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel  'A Christmas Carol' in 1984.  Apparently George C Scott was Scrooge and David Warner was Bob Cratchit.   It is in fact a real stone of the correct period which had been so worn away that they were able to inscribe over it.  If you look closely you can see the vague outlines of some writing on the bottom of the stone.  I wonder whose stone it was?

A Walk by the River Severn

We decided that today we would visit Shrewsbury. It is one of my favourite towns and only 40 minutes away from where we live. We always drive to the Park and Ride and take the bus into town. It was such lovely weather that we decided to walk along the riverside path from the Welsh Bridge -



to the English Bridge. As you can see the river was very high and in places was lapping over the paths.



It was really too bright to take photos. Many of the willow trees were dangling into the river.



and the grassy banks were soaked.



We saw many different species of water birds including a cormorant but that was too quick for me to photograph as it went dipping and diving over the swollen river.



The gulls were having a great time. We passed this house on our walk it was called Julian's House. Lucky Julian.



This is Marine Terrace taken from the English Bridge you can see where the river has covered the pathway below.



Last, but not least, Shrewsbury Abbey church, nearly all that is left of the Abbey buildings, the little tree in front had white blossom on it!