Introduction
R and I spent a long weekend in Shrewsbury, mainly because we like the Brother Cadfael books (and TV series).
Friday
We arrived in good time to check into the hotel and then walk around town. There are many old buildings (none quite as old as the Cadfael setting) and it’s slightly touristy, but is otherwise a relatively normal English town.
Saturday
In the morning we went to see the Abbey Church. Luckily I already knew that there is almost nothing left of the abbey, or we would have been rather disappointed. It was mainly demolished on behalf of Henry the 8th, and Thomas Telford’s new main road finished the job. The church part was almost literally sawn in half, with only the part that was used as a parish church allowed to remain. It was later extended a bit, but remains smaller than the original.
Following a book of Cadfael walks (so? we aren’t proud) we took a short diversion to the church of St Giles, which exists but was also rebuilt since medieval times (although it does supposedly incorporate part of the chapel of the original leper hospital).
Along the way we passed the Shropshire Council offices and, outside them, Lord Hill’s Column, which is taller than Nelson’s Column.
The church itself was not particularly exceptional (we didn’t see inside). We returned across the English Bridge and back into town, where we walked around some more.
We visited the town museum (no pictures). It was actually quite good, but crawling with children for a Harry Potter Hallowe’en event.
The town also has a castle, but according to Wikipedia ‘little of this original physical structure remains’. It’s now a regimental museum, which we didn’t have time to visit.
By the way, we finished the day with a really good Italian meal in La Lanterna restaurant - chosen by our usual Saturday night technique of leaving it too late and eating at the only place that had a table free. Lucky!
Sunday
On Sunday we did a walk I planned, mainly along the path by the Severn. We began by heading north along the main road past the station.
The road passed a large derelict industrial building, which was once a flax mill and then maltings (presumably among other things). It is being restored and has a visitor centre, but we didn’t have time to visit.
There used to be a canal in Shrewsbury, now mainly filled in, and the next part of our route ran along the old canal.
The entire rest of our route then ran along the Severn towpath, first taking us back into Shrewsbury.
The most exciting structure on the river is the railway bridge, which was obviously extended at some point and is really quite impressive.
We then followed the river path around the loop that almost encircles Shrewsbury.
Monday
We had time on Monday morning to visit the (free) Roman part of the town museum.
We took another short look at the old St Chad’s church while waiting for a boat trip.
The short boat trip was quite pleasant.
We also visited The Dingle, a landscaped garden in the centre of The Quarry park - we hadn’t had a chance to see in there before because, bizarrely, they lock the gates halfway through the afternoon.
Heading for the station, we went along a path by the castle called The Dana.
That’s all; we took the train home. I thought it was quite an interesting trip, even though there is pretty much nothing left from the time of the Cadfael series!
By the way, I visited Shrewsbury once before on my own in 2011 for much the same reason. And took quite a few of the same photos, it seems!