Shropshire 26 - Whitchurch/an Aperol Spritz/a late lunch/the planning is coming together

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It is about Day 700 of Covid restrictions and thankfully not many more of them left. Nearly two years have gone by and we have had enough . There are more problems in the world far worse than a Covid at the moment . Time to move on and get on with life .

I have not found many half decent sayings on my calendar but todays was pretty poignant. Jiddu Krisnamurti came out with a good one " One is never afraid of the unknown , one is afraid of the known coming to an end " How true that is. Covid restrictions coming to an end. How will that affect us in the future? What will happen when we find ourselves abroad for the first time in two years ? Who knows? The unknown though does seem quite attractive and we are ready to embrace it .

We spent lunchtime in the small market town of Whitchurch . Two special celebrations and a meal booked at our favourite restaurant Etsio . We parked up , paid our 70 p parking and headed off for our our booked lunch . I looked down Bargates the approach to the town and decided after our meal I would go for a walk and treat Whitchurch as a tourist would .

The restaurant was not full but did begin to fill up over time . Service seemed slow which was unusual . We were given our menus and our drinks were chosen . The drinks arrived and we were asked if we wanted water . That was brought round and five minutes later the bread. We ordered our meals and waited . Ten minutes went by and nothing arrived . A further ten minutes and finally the next table was served .Perhaps our meal would turn up next . The owner popped over - have a wine on us - we are extremely busy . The meals still did not arrive and a further conversation went on - have two coffees on us . The next tables starters turned up and an hour had gone by and we were beginning to get very hungry . We even contemplated paying the bill and leaving . Eventually the meals turned up . An extremely tasty Risotto a'i fungi and Saltimbuco followed up with a Crema Catalana with raspberries . An Aperol Spritz to remind me of holidays in Italy . The meal was wonderful and worth the wait . But it would have been nicer served up sooner . We normally book another meal out for a month or so down the line but today decided not to bother .

After the meal I walked down the town towards the Almshouses and the Old Grammar School . What did i know about them ? Virtually nothing even though Whitchurch was a town I visited many times over the years. I had walked up and down past the almshouses and school many times . Have you noticed that ? You walk past a place times many and give it no thought at all . It is there and that is how it is . You don't know its history nor do you look it up. YOu just take it for granted and walk past .

I started off at the top of Bargates close to the church Immediately north were the Almshouses. A row of red brick houses built in 1679 founded for six decayed housekeepers . Decayed seemed a very outdated and odd description . . Now they are available for Whitchurch parishioners . The inscription proudly stood in Latin Deo et Pauperibus - Higginson MDCXVII . To God and the Poor . The words were fairly easy to work out Deo - God and it was clear that it related to paupers but the exact saying was harder to work out . . The almshouses had been in constant use certainly from the 18th century and were now listed buildings . The brickwork was neat and tidy with pretty herringbone patterns . They looked stunning in the afternoon sunshine. I wondered what it must have been like to live in one of them . Originally they would have been homely and comfortable and a retreat for the poor of the parish . Now well I guess they were still comfortable having been brought up to modern standards internally . They had no front garden . They opened out onto the street . Did they have a back garden ? I have no idea . There was no way of seeing through the houses to the back yards .

My walk took me down the street to the Old School House which was located between the almshouses and the former school buildings . Built in 1708 of red brick and grey sandstone it was another listed building and matched the old almshouses.

The school was founded by Jane Higginson again the latin date proclaimed it was built in MDCCVIII. I wondered who Jane Higginson was . She was the widow of Samuel and in her will dated 1708 she required the building of a schoolhouse on a piece of ground between the almshouses and the town of Whitchurch . It should be used for the teaching of the poor children of the parish who should be taught to read English and learn their catechism . A teacher was to be appointed a school master not a school mistress who would be paid £10 per annum . A further twenty shillings was to be bequeathed every year to buy English books for the children . I wondered if the money to pay a school master was still available and how it would be distributed . Sometimes these bequeaths are still running . The £10 probably had not been used for some years and was sitting mouldering away in a bank account earning meagre interest . The same for the book money . Was that sitting in a charity to be used by the schools locally to buy books .

The Old Grammar school had been built as late as 1848 to replace the older original Whitchurch Grammar school , It had been originally founded by Canon John Talbot the rector of the town in 1548. I loved style of the building in its mock Tudor clothing . The old Grammar school had opened two years later in 1550 with 10 boys admitted . AGain the girls were not worthy of an education. The building housed one single ground floor classroom so all boys were taught together despite their differing ages. Canon Talbor gave £200 to Thomas Cotton of Alkington Hall to found a school free from church control . He explained that he wanted his school to for the youth of the realm who he was worried about . He felt they were prone to laziness, being sloth and licentious . He blamed their morals on the lack of a good school and his idea was to build one . Whether it worked or not is not known . Again the school needed a good master and he was hired and paid £10 per annum . The building was primarily built in a Jacobean style and was said to be a replica of the original and cost £1595 to build. Modern teaching arrived with a new science block built in 1902. The school closed as late as 1938 when it moved to new premises out of Whitchurch There was a schoolmasters house on site and a coach house . The street was a lovely introduction to the town . I wish I had stopped to look at them before rather than walk by them without giving them a glance . It seemed that Samuels philanthropy was still on going helping with accomodation for the elderly/old and providing help for open spaces and buildings . It has modest money available and held 15K in rental income and had in the last year spent 10K of that . His wife on the other hand wanted to remove poverty for children , for the young and for the elderly , for anyone with a disability and her charity had awarded grants of 40K from a budget of 42K . The legacy of the Higginsons continue long after they have gone .

So returning to fear of the unknown . Where are we up to planning our first trip to France ? Gabby has been insured for another year . We have checked driving licences and all are up to date . We have opened up the garage at the back of Gabby and started to discuss what we need to take with us and what we can leave behind . Do we actually need three electrical umbilical cords for Gabby? No not really so two of them can be removed . We have made a start .

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