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.

A Common Thread

 A Common Thread is the latest exhibition at the Brampton Museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

It is, in fact a three in one exhibition which celebrates modern textile art, home produced items from the museum's collections and photos and information panels about local textile manufacturers including hat makers.

The main exhibition has works from Dr Jack Roberts who is known as JPR Stitch.  In the top photo are the Daily Stitch Towers created over one year from daily stitch drawings.  Here is a -link- to the artist's website.

I always love to see costume in a museum and some of those on display were made locally and donated to the museum.   Above, on the left, is an Edwardian wedding dress with a handmade lace tabard.  The brown Victorian dress was worn by a lady called Ann Whalley for her wedding at St George's Church on Christmas Day 1870.  

Above a floral dress from the 1860s which has been altered a few times.  Perhaps so it could be passed on and worn by others.

It was a lovely display of all sewing crafts, tapestry, embroidery, lace making and knitting.

I was sure there were photos of me somewhere in dresses similar to the one above, I have found a couple of them and put them at the bottom of this post.

Lots of memories in these displays.  I still have my Mum's Singer sewing machine which is dated 1938.  She always had the Woman's Weekly delivered and often knitted cardigans, jumpers and toys from their patterns.

Such a serious little face.  This was taken at our house in Leicester before we moved away to a village in Derbyshire.  I would have been about four.  I still have the teddy bear.

Oh, heavy shoes and socks at half mast😊 This was taken in a London Park, I think. We were visiting my Mum's old school friend who lived in Stanmore in Middlesex.  I remember the bus journey into London.

Well, it's the first of December today.  I must start to think about Christmas.  We had our first card and present in the post on Friday so I must stop dragging my heels and write some cards, buy some stamps and add to the bits and pieces I've already bought to make up larger presents.

All for now.

A few more and a Lazy Fox

Mr Fox has been visiting the garden in the early mornings and evenings.  A few days ago I spotted him relaxing on the top lawn.  I'm glad he feels safe here.

In my last post I promised a few more photos of The Ragged Victorians at the Gladstone Pottery Museum.

I can't remember what character the man above was meant to be.  I love his hat.

The Rat Catcher.  I expect that today he would be called a Rodent Control Operative.

Fallen on hard times

The two girls were really involved in their conversation.

Below the Shepherd in sepia tone

and the girls in black and white

All for now.

Ragged Victorians

 Today the Ragged Victorians were in town so we walked down the hill to find them. 

 They were at the Gladstone Pottery Museum where a Victorian Day was being held.

We could hear the music from the barrel organ as we entered the museum.  

The Ragged Victorians are a living history group re-enacting the lower classes of England in 1851 and very good they are too.  So many different characters.  The sober shepherd, the rat catcher, the fish wife, the policeman, the wounded soldier and many more.

I took loads of photos so I'll share a few now and perhaps do something later with more of them.  I might try to sepia tone some of them or perhaps monochrome.

The Fisherman's wife making nets.

Lavender seller

The Rat Catcher

In the Doctor's waiting room

A friendly hug

The sober shepherd seeking work

Policeman.  

The costumes were wonderful, suitably grubby and well worn, roughly mended shoes clattered on the cobbles.

All for now.

Connections

Little things that connect, that send your mind drifting back into the past. Memories weaving here and there some of them as clear as if it were yesterday.

On Wednesday morning we went up to Leek to look around the shops there.  The museum, for some reason was closed but we ventured into the Foxlowe Arts Centre to look at a local art exhibition.  On the same floor was a book case of second hand books for sale, the title of the one below caught my eye and the memories flooded in.

 

It was 1980 and we were staying in Lyme Regis, a place we both love.  Paul had an appointment with the curator of the Philpot Museum to look at and photograph Pterosaur specimens and I was just fascinated with the story of Mary Anning who spent days on the Undercliffe searching for fossils.  We stayed at a small hotel called the Old Monmouth where creaking floor boards and suddenly opening doors led the other people at breakfast to delcare that they were sure that they had heard 'Old Monmouth' during the night.  The owners had a cat called Cleopatra who more often than not visited the bedrooms, luckily we liked cats, as once or twice we found her curled up in the sink in the corner of our room.  I remember the hotel was across the road from the church and the church clock could be heard ringing each hour.

A very fuzzy and discoloured old photo of me outside the Old Monmouth. Below the Philpott museum both taken in 1980.

 

The day of the appointment arrived and we went in to meet the curator who at that time was the eminent writer John Fowles.  He was interested in why we were visiting and what we were interested in and happy for Paul to identify a fossil for him. He referred us to Dorchester Museum to find another fossil there.  A few weeks after we returned home we had a thank you letter from him.  We still have it somewhere, most probably in a file, in a plastic box in the back of the garage.  Perhaps one day we will come across it again.

The book is full of illustrations by an artist called Elaine Franks with a foreward by John Fowles.

John Fowles of course is no longer with us but - here - is an article about Elaine Franks.