England – Shrewsbury (En)
Shrewsbury is home to 660 listed buildings and is most famous as the birthplace of Charles Darwin. His statue stands outside Shrewsbury Library, the building once his school. The town centre is almost an island, surrounded by a bend in the River Severn. Within it are distinctive churches, Shrewsbury Castle, beautiful half-timbered houses and a spacious riverside park known as the Quarry or Quarry Park.
Where to stay
We stayed at Frankwell Main Car Park (52.711844, -2.755313 lat, long), the main car park in the town, next to the River Severn. It costs 70p per hour but is free from 6 pm to 8 am, Sundays and Bank Holidays. We arrived on a Sunday morning, so we didn’t have to pay. It is big for motorhomes and within walking distance of the centre, accessed via a footbridge. We highly recommend it.
What to see
We walked along the river bank into the centre, impressive with its Tudor buildings and beautiful half-timbered houses. Walking through the streets you come to a square where there is a statue of Lord Clive and the Market Hall built in 1595-96, its ground floor was used as a corn market and the upper floor was used by cloth merchants to buy woollen cloth.
Through narrow streets, you reach St. Alkmund’s Church, which we saw inside. From there you walk through more streets with beautiful Tudor houses such as Rowley Mansion from 1677 and the modern Clock Tower.
Our next stop was to see St Chad’s Church which is defined by its unique circular nave. This church is opposite Quarry Park, a huge and beautiful park to walk Asha.
From there, passing through the Tower of the city walls, we arrive at the Church of St. Mary, its very elaborate stained glass windows are worth mentioning.
Crossing a beautiful stone bridge you reach the abbey which has been welcoming pilgrims since the 11th century and lies just outside the Severn Loop.
Walking along the banks of the Severn from where there are incredible views we cross to the other side of the city where the medieval red brick Shrewsbury Castle is located, which houses the Shropshire Regiment Museum, where military artefacts including uniforms and weapons are displayed.
What to eat
The city has elegant bars, cosy pubs and prestigious restaurants. It was Sunday so we decided to go to a pub to eat the traditional Sunday roast. We went to the Bull Inn pub which has a terrace at the front and at the back. I had the roast turkey and Ben had the beef with Yorkshire pudding, delicious and for 12 pounds each!
This concluded our visit to this incredible city. The next day we went to Iron Bridge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with its famous iron bridge, which you can see in the next blog!
