Shrewsbury
Jun. 6th, 2019 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeWolfie was in work again early on Monday although we had expected he would be finished around about lunchtime. This turned out to be optimistic, with Wolfie not getting out of work until 5:30pm. This gave me the whole day to explore Shrewsbury as I had to get up with Wolfie at 7:30am to pack the car, with the hotel room only being booked until noon. I had had a terrible night's sleep on account of drinking and terrifying dreams, which have become increasingly common over the last few weeks. Still, I had to take the bags over to the car park, so after seeing Wolfie off, I thought I might as well walk into the centre of Shrewsbury to get some breakfast. What was surprising for 8am on a Monday morning was just how quiet it was, with very few people about. This also meant that very few shops were open, meaning I had to content myself with a Gregg's bacon baguette, which was pleasant enough. Of course, as I went round the very next corner, I spotted a local sandwich shop that was open but then that was just typical.
I popped back to the hotel after breakfast to freshen up before heading out again shortly after 9am. My first target was Shrewsbury Castle, built by Roger de Montgomery in circa 1070 on the narrow strip of land between the two bends on the meander in which the town sits. This was the only part that needed defending against the Welsh as the river acted as a perfect natural barrier elsewhere (indeed it used to be the border), hence its placement there, and you do get a mighty fine view of the railway station from its ramparts. I climbed up to Laura's Tower, only to discover it was closed, while the castle itself was also shut until 10:30am. Inside there was a rather dry military museum detailing the history of one of the local regiments. I visited it for half an hour later in the day when it was open, but military matters aren't really my thing and I had seen much of this before in other provincial museums. The small exhibit detailing the history of the castle was interesting though, and I did enjoy walking around the spacious wooden interior of the museum as this would have formed the Great Hall back in its day. However, the highlight of the visit for me was just walking around the very modest grounds, watching council workers doing the horticulture and an elderly gentleman just sat on the bench, staring relentlessly.
Shrewsbury is a pretty town full of miscellaneous architecture. It has its fair share of Tudor buildings and the Old Market Hall in the centre was a larger varient of the one in Ludlow, but the newer market place definitely has a 1970s vibe to it and looks somewhat incongruous. It was a pleasure just strolling about in the springtime sun and looking at the sights though, with my next destination Shrewsbury Abbey on the outskirts of town. This is just over the English Bridge, a delightful stone construction over the Severn, being one of only two bridges across the river up until the Victorian era. There are now nine bridges in the town, as I was to discover later in the day, but first the imposing red-bricked Abbey was my primary focus. Typically, when I arrived it was closed, but fortunately it was due to open at 10am so I didn't have long to wait. I contented myself with wandering around its rather unkempt grounds and observing the concrete memorial to WWI poet Wilfred Owen, which was completely covered in bird shit. Called Symmetry, it contains excerpts from some of his poems, with plaques on each of the four sides detailing aspects of his life and the monument. Gold writing on purple stone was somewhat difficult to read and the monument was somewhat brutal if I was being honest.
Moving on, I managed to grab my first geocache of the day before venturing into the Abbey proper. The first thing you realise, as evidenced by the grounds itself, was that the original Abbey was a lot longer. Indeed, a good third of it didn't survive the Dissolution of the Monestaries, with the remaining portion largely granted its existence as it functioned as a parish church. A number of Victorian renovations had breathed new life into it although it was interesting that that architect Thomas Telford decided to ram a major trunk road through its grounds, with the original narrower road skirting around it (this still remains too). One of the highlights was a modern stained glass window depicting St Benedict, while the simple high altar was a pleasure too. Indeed, Shrewsbury Abbey is one of those places full of history if you just stratch the surface, as highlighted by the carving of a snake into the base of one of the support columns. Believing to symbolise evil, a dove is also carved into the base of another column now covered by the wooden vestry structure. It's one of those interesting aspects of the place, along with the thick columns near the altar which were built in such a way to support a tower structure containing a bell which would never be built. Also, there is a commemoration to allof the local soldiers who died in WWI and Wilfred Owen's name is on there. Coupled with the road, a few railway lines also run very close to the Abbey, and it was amazing to think how gentrification through the ages and societal changes alter a place. Back in the late eighteenth century there was less of a concern for heritage than there is today, which is why Telford could get away with what he did, and yet now this construction would appear natural.
Upon leaving the Abbey, I decided to take a right after crossing the English Bridge so as to walk by the river. It was a wonderfully sunny morning and the walk was quite idyllic. However, it did result in a rather steep climb back into the city at one point, with me struggling to get up the rather steep gradient. Still, being chased by an old woman certainly helped and after visiting a couple of interesting churches and the Castle Museum, as I already described, I headed back to the hotel to pick up the rest of my things and check out as it was now approaching noon. I was going to phone the recruitment agency in Dusseldorf whose call I had not answered in the Abbey, but I thought it was a day off and I didn't want to be troubled with professional things.
With Wolfie texting me to tell me he was going to be much later than planned, I decided to walk to The Quarry, the huge parkland area which borders the river on one edge of the town. There were a number of geocaches in there, most of which I managed to find, as well as a number of different bridges to observe. Furthermore, it was just a pleasant stroll in the sunshine as you got to see aspects of Shrewsbury life, including Shrewsbury School perched high above the river and its boathouse on its banks. Furthermore, there was a very pleasant botanical garden and water feature area at the heart of The Quarry called The Dingle, and it was a pleasure just sat on one of the benches listening to the sound of the waterfalls in the sun. Indeed, it was great just to be able to walk around aimlessly with no real plan or sights to see, just taking in the wonder of a late spring day. This didn't mean I didn't do anything though as I checked out the genteel Englishness of the bandstand and a hook which was clearly used for loading and unloading things off the Severn. I also got my first glimpse of St Chad's Church, one of the few round Georgian churches in the country (plus the only one that is Grade I listed) and the place where Charles Darwin was baptised in 1809. Interestingly, it was also the place where A Christmas Carol was filmed in 1984 and in the graveyard you could still see the grave of Ebenezer Scrooge, which made for an interesting connection.
Feeling hungry by this point, I decided to head to Say Cheese, a grilled cheese place we had noticed as we took the bus to Ludlow on Sunday (plus I had walked past the place on the way down to the Abbey). I opted for a three cheese mix plus aioli, blue cheese and red pepper, which was one of the most wonderous meals I had ever tasted. The cheese was perfectly gooey but chewy and the pink coleslaw was a highlight too. I had a very pleasureable time sitting in here on my own as the two members of staff - I was hopelessly outnumbered - listened to their pop music radio station. It was quite relaxing all told though, a real sense of tranquility in an odd sort of way, and I didn't really want to leave (I could have gone to Wimpy but thought that as there is one in Huddersfield, the pull was far less). However, I had a few more sights to see before I was done and I told myself that I might as well go on a boat trip as Wolfie was still hopelessly delayed. These left a marina next to The Welsh Bridge at the start of The Quarry on the hour, every hour, so I ambled my way over there for the 3pm sailing. You could book a ticket in advance but I thought I might as well chance it, which proved useful as there was no order to how we embarked and there were only twenty-nine of us for 116 lifejackets. This meant I managed to secure a table of my own on the top deck, ordered a bottle of Punk IPA and sat back and watched the world go by. We chugged around to The English Bridge before the tour began, with the captain detailing most of the sights I have already described as we headed back the way we had come. There was one loud lady with a party of six on the boat talking about her Severn Mile swimming challenge, which confused me as I thought she meant seven mile initially, while a number of other people on the boat were friendly and I had a little banter with them. I also got a free map of Shrewsbury which I had to anchor down with my beer as it kept blowing away.
Once back on dry land forty-five minutes later, I made my way towards the railway station, with the intention of visiting the market town of Whitchurch about twenty minutes north. This made sense for Wolfie as he was working north of Shrewsbury, and would drive past Whitchurch anyway. On the way there, I spotted a monument to Darwin by the Severn, which looked like a bridge or spine of bones made out of concrete. Around it were the various palaeographic periods and the key lifeforms in each of them. Upon discovering that the train I wanted to take was cancelled, I also got chance to squeeze in The Dana, an old medieval prison, with this iteration being opened in 1793. Closed in 2013, it now houses a number of prison tours but alas I did not have time to check them out. Contributing to this was that the main footbridge to The Dana was closed, meaning I had to walk all the way around, which was annoying.
Wolfie phoned me while I was standing on Shrewsbury station to tell me he would be another hour. As I had already bought a rather extortinately priced ticket to Whitchurch, I thought I might as well go, arriving just after 5pm. I probably shouldn't have bothered. It's a nice little town full of neat shops, but all of them were closing by the time I had made the ten minute walk from the station, and while the church was rather neat (and a pigeon flew out of the main door scaring the shit out of me), it was very typical of churches in towns of this type. Still, I did manage to get a few more geocaches and as I was wandering around, fortuitously bumped into Wolfie, who was driving into a Tesco car park. This was lucky and after we had grabbed some food and he had had an impromptu job interview, we decided to head the two hours back home. It had been a great weekend for me, but less so for Wolfie what with his work, although I do know he was appreciative of the afternoon we had spent in Ludlow. No doubt, he'll get chance to visit Shrewsbury properly some other time. I hope so, as it really is a nice place with a good mix of urban and rural at its heart.
I popped back to the hotel after breakfast to freshen up before heading out again shortly after 9am. My first target was Shrewsbury Castle, built by Roger de Montgomery in circa 1070 on the narrow strip of land between the two bends on the meander in which the town sits. This was the only part that needed defending against the Welsh as the river acted as a perfect natural barrier elsewhere (indeed it used to be the border), hence its placement there, and you do get a mighty fine view of the railway station from its ramparts. I climbed up to Laura's Tower, only to discover it was closed, while the castle itself was also shut until 10:30am. Inside there was a rather dry military museum detailing the history of one of the local regiments. I visited it for half an hour later in the day when it was open, but military matters aren't really my thing and I had seen much of this before in other provincial museums. The small exhibit detailing the history of the castle was interesting though, and I did enjoy walking around the spacious wooden interior of the museum as this would have formed the Great Hall back in its day. However, the highlight of the visit for me was just walking around the very modest grounds, watching council workers doing the horticulture and an elderly gentleman just sat on the bench, staring relentlessly.
Shrewsbury is a pretty town full of miscellaneous architecture. It has its fair share of Tudor buildings and the Old Market Hall in the centre was a larger varient of the one in Ludlow, but the newer market place definitely has a 1970s vibe to it and looks somewhat incongruous. It was a pleasure just strolling about in the springtime sun and looking at the sights though, with my next destination Shrewsbury Abbey on the outskirts of town. This is just over the English Bridge, a delightful stone construction over the Severn, being one of only two bridges across the river up until the Victorian era. There are now nine bridges in the town, as I was to discover later in the day, but first the imposing red-bricked Abbey was my primary focus. Typically, when I arrived it was closed, but fortunately it was due to open at 10am so I didn't have long to wait. I contented myself with wandering around its rather unkempt grounds and observing the concrete memorial to WWI poet Wilfred Owen, which was completely covered in bird shit. Called Symmetry, it contains excerpts from some of his poems, with plaques on each of the four sides detailing aspects of his life and the monument. Gold writing on purple stone was somewhat difficult to read and the monument was somewhat brutal if I was being honest.
Moving on, I managed to grab my first geocache of the day before venturing into the Abbey proper. The first thing you realise, as evidenced by the grounds itself, was that the original Abbey was a lot longer. Indeed, a good third of it didn't survive the Dissolution of the Monestaries, with the remaining portion largely granted its existence as it functioned as a parish church. A number of Victorian renovations had breathed new life into it although it was interesting that that architect Thomas Telford decided to ram a major trunk road through its grounds, with the original narrower road skirting around it (this still remains too). One of the highlights was a modern stained glass window depicting St Benedict, while the simple high altar was a pleasure too. Indeed, Shrewsbury Abbey is one of those places full of history if you just stratch the surface, as highlighted by the carving of a snake into the base of one of the support columns. Believing to symbolise evil, a dove is also carved into the base of another column now covered by the wooden vestry structure. It's one of those interesting aspects of the place, along with the thick columns near the altar which were built in such a way to support a tower structure containing a bell which would never be built. Also, there is a commemoration to allof the local soldiers who died in WWI and Wilfred Owen's name is on there. Coupled with the road, a few railway lines also run very close to the Abbey, and it was amazing to think how gentrification through the ages and societal changes alter a place. Back in the late eighteenth century there was less of a concern for heritage than there is today, which is why Telford could get away with what he did, and yet now this construction would appear natural.
Upon leaving the Abbey, I decided to take a right after crossing the English Bridge so as to walk by the river. It was a wonderfully sunny morning and the walk was quite idyllic. However, it did result in a rather steep climb back into the city at one point, with me struggling to get up the rather steep gradient. Still, being chased by an old woman certainly helped and after visiting a couple of interesting churches and the Castle Museum, as I already described, I headed back to the hotel to pick up the rest of my things and check out as it was now approaching noon. I was going to phone the recruitment agency in Dusseldorf whose call I had not answered in the Abbey, but I thought it was a day off and I didn't want to be troubled with professional things.
With Wolfie texting me to tell me he was going to be much later than planned, I decided to walk to The Quarry, the huge parkland area which borders the river on one edge of the town. There were a number of geocaches in there, most of which I managed to find, as well as a number of different bridges to observe. Furthermore, it was just a pleasant stroll in the sunshine as you got to see aspects of Shrewsbury life, including Shrewsbury School perched high above the river and its boathouse on its banks. Furthermore, there was a very pleasant botanical garden and water feature area at the heart of The Quarry called The Dingle, and it was a pleasure just sat on one of the benches listening to the sound of the waterfalls in the sun. Indeed, it was great just to be able to walk around aimlessly with no real plan or sights to see, just taking in the wonder of a late spring day. This didn't mean I didn't do anything though as I checked out the genteel Englishness of the bandstand and a hook which was clearly used for loading and unloading things off the Severn. I also got my first glimpse of St Chad's Church, one of the few round Georgian churches in the country (plus the only one that is Grade I listed) and the place where Charles Darwin was baptised in 1809. Interestingly, it was also the place where A Christmas Carol was filmed in 1984 and in the graveyard you could still see the grave of Ebenezer Scrooge, which made for an interesting connection.
Feeling hungry by this point, I decided to head to Say Cheese, a grilled cheese place we had noticed as we took the bus to Ludlow on Sunday (plus I had walked past the place on the way down to the Abbey). I opted for a three cheese mix plus aioli, blue cheese and red pepper, which was one of the most wonderous meals I had ever tasted. The cheese was perfectly gooey but chewy and the pink coleslaw was a highlight too. I had a very pleasureable time sitting in here on my own as the two members of staff - I was hopelessly outnumbered - listened to their pop music radio station. It was quite relaxing all told though, a real sense of tranquility in an odd sort of way, and I didn't really want to leave (I could have gone to Wimpy but thought that as there is one in Huddersfield, the pull was far less). However, I had a few more sights to see before I was done and I told myself that I might as well go on a boat trip as Wolfie was still hopelessly delayed. These left a marina next to The Welsh Bridge at the start of The Quarry on the hour, every hour, so I ambled my way over there for the 3pm sailing. You could book a ticket in advance but I thought I might as well chance it, which proved useful as there was no order to how we embarked and there were only twenty-nine of us for 116 lifejackets. This meant I managed to secure a table of my own on the top deck, ordered a bottle of Punk IPA and sat back and watched the world go by. We chugged around to The English Bridge before the tour began, with the captain detailing most of the sights I have already described as we headed back the way we had come. There was one loud lady with a party of six on the boat talking about her Severn Mile swimming challenge, which confused me as I thought she meant seven mile initially, while a number of other people on the boat were friendly and I had a little banter with them. I also got a free map of Shrewsbury which I had to anchor down with my beer as it kept blowing away.
Once back on dry land forty-five minutes later, I made my way towards the railway station, with the intention of visiting the market town of Whitchurch about twenty minutes north. This made sense for Wolfie as he was working north of Shrewsbury, and would drive past Whitchurch anyway. On the way there, I spotted a monument to Darwin by the Severn, which looked like a bridge or spine of bones made out of concrete. Around it were the various palaeographic periods and the key lifeforms in each of them. Upon discovering that the train I wanted to take was cancelled, I also got chance to squeeze in The Dana, an old medieval prison, with this iteration being opened in 1793. Closed in 2013, it now houses a number of prison tours but alas I did not have time to check them out. Contributing to this was that the main footbridge to The Dana was closed, meaning I had to walk all the way around, which was annoying.
Wolfie phoned me while I was standing on Shrewsbury station to tell me he would be another hour. As I had already bought a rather extortinately priced ticket to Whitchurch, I thought I might as well go, arriving just after 5pm. I probably shouldn't have bothered. It's a nice little town full of neat shops, but all of them were closing by the time I had made the ten minute walk from the station, and while the church was rather neat (and a pigeon flew out of the main door scaring the shit out of me), it was very typical of churches in towns of this type. Still, I did manage to get a few more geocaches and as I was wandering around, fortuitously bumped into Wolfie, who was driving into a Tesco car park. This was lucky and after we had grabbed some food and he had had an impromptu job interview, we decided to head the two hours back home. It had been a great weekend for me, but less so for Wolfie what with his work, although I do know he was appreciative of the afternoon we had spent in Ludlow. No doubt, he'll get chance to visit Shrewsbury properly some other time. I hope so, as it really is a nice place with a good mix of urban and rural at its heart.
