Back to Shrewsbury

With time on our hands waiting for the canal to reopen we decided to go to Shrewsbury for some window shopping.  The bus was full of ‘oldies’ and it was somewhat of a surprise to see a few of them had to pay for their tickets.  I didn’t think we looked THAT old! 

On this visit we attempted to see parts of the town not covered during our previous trip.  Whilst walking down High St we noticed the Old Market Hall, constructed in 1596, it was refurbished for £1.7m in 2004.

It was built from stone quarried in north Shropshire and used by local wool merchants as a venue for selling their fleeces.  There is a statue of a knight above the main arch and a plaque to the left states. The sculpture was originally located on the Welsh Bridge and it was moved to its current location on the orders of the town mayor in 1771.  It is believed the statue is of Richard, Duke of York (died 1460), which would make it the only one of him in the whole of England.

To the left of the hall is a shop which Jan wanted photographed for our boating friends Les & Jaq. They will understand why!

We found we’d wandered away from the shopping precinct and then I noticed the polar bears on the roof of a building across the street.

The building has the name Morris on a brass plaque.  A quick search on Google indicated it’s a 5th generation family business involved in property development and management.  The company also owns Morris Oils which most narrow boaters will recognise.  But why the polar bears? The only reference I could find was “guests were invited to witness the Christmas light switch-on of the well-known Morris polar bear lights which each year descend from the arctic and take up residence on Morris & Company roof”  It appears they are annual Christmas decorations.

Now I’ve previously photographed this next building.

But it was only today that I noticed the lizard!

OK….. maybe it’s a small dragon!

After the four recent storms the River Severn is very high. 

I had wanted to visit the castle however we ran out of time.  I did manage to get a distant photo from the bus station.

I’m interested in it’s strategic position and history.  Then Jan mentioned the castle was used during the filming of the TV series Cadfael. Jan has all the episodes on DVD.  Perhaps we’ll be able to visit the castle another time.