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Published: December 17th 2015
Woolly says – as the train started to pull out of the station I sat looking quizzically at Jo and her fumbles. As a torn up carrier bag and strips of card appeared followed by one sock instead of the usual two I really had to wonder at my idea to take her out for the day. It might have looked odd but having a developed a hole in the bottom of my trainer the previous day I was onto emergency measures and unlike the mammoth find it difficult to find people willing to carry me around! Woolly says – Of course people carry me around ….I’m cute! Once the makeshift cobbling had concluded and we were the proud owners of one wet sock I thought it time to start Jo’s education on our day’s excursion. Shrewsbury is a small market town whose centre which has over 660 listed buildings, including several examples of timber framing from the 15th and 16th centuries, so lots of photo’s to take. The town had historically been a centre for the wool trade and brewing, hmmm maybe a few beers to sample as well! Best of all it is only 9 miles (14 km) east of the Welsh border and on the direct train route from Aberystwyth.
Shrewsbury's is thought to have been founded in 800 AD, when the Anglo Saxons settled there. In 1069 the Welsh besieged it but were repelled by William the Conqueror with the help of Roger de Montgomery who was given the town as a gift from William. In 1403 the Battle of Shrewsbury was fought a few miles north of the town centre, at Battlefield… what a brilliant name for a place…. between King Henry IV and Henry Hotspur Percy, with the King emerging victorious, an event celebrated in William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5. During the English Civil War, the town was a Royalist stronghold and only fell to Parliament forces after they were let in by a parliamentarian sympathiser at the St Mary's Water Gate (now also known as Traitor's Gate). By the 18th century Shrewsbury had become an important market town and stop off for stagecoaches travelling between London and Holyhead on their way to Ireland and today they were lucky enough to have me visit! He’s obviously been doing a lot of work for my day out and I hadn’t the heart to tell him that it is a town I know well being only 40 minutes from where we used to live. As we disembarked I caught glimpses of his furry legs as he scurried through the crowds leaving the station until I reached outside to find him looking mournfully at the very wet pavement and obviously waiting to be carried!
Woolly says – Actually it was so that I could check my map as we made our way to the castle. On line it didn’t appear to be a spectacular turreted and fairy-tale type and on arrival it appeared more of official building. It was originally built by Roger de Montgomery in 1070 on the site of the original Anglo-Saxon fortification. Much of it was demolished under the reign of Edward I when a rebuilding and strengthening programme was initiated, he obviously wasn’t very good at that type of thing as most of it disappeared. It wasn’t until 1924 that restoration work was started properly and looking at it I thought they had probably done a good job, it just wasn’t very castley. So not being a thing of great beauty my real reason for being here was the museum which promised me lots of weapons to play with. As Jo stood clicking away I attempted to see the opening times but being somewhat short of stature this proved impossible, giving her a prod she read the notice and looked down at me sadly.
Oh dear, how to tell my small companion that it wasn’t open on a Thursday! Woolly says – WHAT!!!!! Were not back in France again where everything is closed when I get there are we! His careful planning had come unstuck, offering him a snack I suggested that we make our way to the Abbey. Woolly says – HOW does she know there’s an Abbey here!!!!! I looked sorrowfully into my pack of pistachios as we made our way through the rather quant streets. As we wandered I found myself craning my neck to look at the buildings above the shops not the shops themselves, timber framed houses abounded with their distinctive colours up above us. Crossing the road we found our eyes wandering into Shrewsbury’s square and the beauty of the Old Market Hall an Elizabethan building constructed in 1596. The hall would have had two storeys, a large upper room used by the Shrewsbury drapers or dealers in cloth to sell Welsh wool and the lower floor used by farmers to sell their corn. As we rounded the corner the Abbey hove into view, it was smaller than I had thought and appeared to be in the middle of a roundabout.
It’s not quite a roundabout but it is on a small island in amongst the traffic. Woolly says – Well the Abbey may not be big but it was dry and warm as we walked inside I could hear Jo’s trainer squelch, it doesn’t look like her repair work helped much hehehehe. The Abbey was founded as a Benedictine Monastery by Roger de Montgomery in 1083 on the site of an existing Saxon church. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of King Henry VIII the part of the Abbey building which survived continued as a Parish Church as it still is today. The first stained glass window was rather nice with a cheery monk depicted on it, the floor was covered in graves and would have been excellent for some brass rubbing. As Jo sat and pondered I wandered round enjoying the tranquillity of this small place until a loud speaker sounded and a man asked me if I was staying for mass!
Feeling that it was probably close to Woolly needing something to keep up his energy levels I suggested that we wander back towards the town centre and see what we could find. Woolly says – Occasionally, just occasionally she does have a good idea. Our walk took us back to the Old Market Square as we found the Old Music Hall which is now a museum hiding behind the Old Town Hall. Designed by Edward Haycock Snr in 1835 and listed as Grade II, it also includes a medieval shut (a passageway between buildings typical of Shrewsbury), 19th-century police holding cells (which were used to house defendants due to appear at trial in the Old Market Hall opposite) and a 20th-century civil defence bunker. I spied a poster and as I rushed over I could hear Jo talking to a lady, I heard the word Romans and shot round to see where they were.
The lady had informed me that there was a Roman exhibition taken from the excavation at the nearby Roman settlement, Wroxeter. Woolly says – Bubbling with excitement I trotted into the area being indicated, there wasn’t a huge amount to see, lots of coins, pottery and spear heads with a few grave stones as well, but it was well laid out and interesting and it was free! With my paws starting to ache and my tummy making rather loud gurgling noises I needed food. Nudging Jo away from the fascination over the Roman cooking pots we set off to find sustenance. I had actually been looking on our earlier rambles but had yet to find the thing I had in my mind, a little treat for my small friend. Woolly says – Why are we going into Marks and Spencer’s, we never ever ever go in there! I was flummoxed as I struggled to keep up as we passed perfumes, underwear and handbags in quick succession, I caught my breath as the escalator carried me upwards and into the M & S café…… I mean REALLY, I at least expect a pub lunch!!!!
Ok it’s not usually a shop that I visit often but in my quest for something a little different I had spotted a sign for afternoon tea. Woolly says – It might not be pretty and quaint but the tea for two is good, as we munched through our finger sandwiches, scattered the crumbs from the scones and got rather sticky in my case from the cakes we sat and chatted about the year that has been and what we wanted to happen for our next year and the plans that we have. Here’s hoping that we get a good one and to all our FRIENDS, FAMILY AND READERS WE WISH YOU A BOUNTIFUL AND JOYOUS CHRISTMAS AND A MAMMOTH FULL NEW YEAR.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Travels and Stories
Always love hearing what you and woolly are up to. Keep traveling!