That Mysterious Old Canal

WHEN WE WERE KIDS, we were vaguely aware of a long-disused and mysterious old canal.

Its precise history would have been unknown to us, but we knew that it used to come into Shrewsbury through Ditherington.

Why? When? How? – We neither knew nor cared.
We also sort of knew that it used to terminate at The Buttermarket on Howard Street.
I’m also thinking that, back then in our childhood days (1960s, early 1970s) the section that ran into Castlefields alongside the Canal Tavern pub must have been sealed off from the public. Why else would we youngsters not have played along the old towpath?



Volunteers working on the canal restoration

And did I dream this or do I truly recall stagnant water and impenetrable overgrowth seen from Gas House Lane. (Well, mum and dad always used to refer to it as Gas House Lane – that bit of New Park Road leading into Castle Foregate.)
Anyway, I am indebted to Bernie Jones of the Shrewsbury and Newport Canals Trust for getting in touch recently to educate me on all of this.

Those fragmented memories of mine refer of course to the final stretch of the Shrewsbury and Newport Canal, and nowadays you can walk or cycle from Telford Way along the towpath out to Uffington, and you can stroll alongside the Canal Tavern in Castlefields. But what you now see is merely the ghost of a canal.
The Trust is working to restore the canals from Norbury Junction (north-east of Newport) through to Shrewsbury, a project that seems both exciting and hugely ambitious.
The Shrewsbury and Newport Canals were officially abandoned by the 1944 Act of Parliament but they are now under active restoration.

Engineering problems

The Trust was formed in 2000 to return the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals back to navigation. Very little of the line of the canals has been built on and no insuperable engineering problems lie in the way of restoration.
Aims of the Trust are to protect, conserve and improve the route of the Shrewsbury and Newport Canals for the benefit of the community and the environment, with the ultimate goal of restoring a continuous navigable waterway linking Norbury Junction to Shrewsbury.

We are talking about a route covering almost 25 miles and the whole project would cost a whopping £80 million.

Bernie says: "In the current economic climate the major impediment to restoring these significantly important canals, from a heritage perspective, is funding. We have had a feasibility study on the whole of the 24.75 mile length and there are no insurmountable problems that lie in the way. Just finding around £80m is the main challenge. 

Membership

"The short term aims are to keep the project in the public eye and increase our 1400+ membership. This will enable us to leverage funding from various sources as there is such a large and growing number of people behind the project. I would urge people to visit our website www.sncanal.org.uk and take seven minutes to view the video 'Water Adds Value', as this shows that money put into canal restoration is an investment.

"The longer term involves working with numerous stakeholders and for our Trust to be opportunistic by taking advantage of funding packages that become available to do some restoration work via Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy agreements, or by other means. As more sections get put back into water, we will reach a ‘tipping point’ where all of them can be joined up and the canals will be navigable once more.”

Visit the trust’s website to find out more.

Cassettes making a comeback? Time to rewind!

CAVE RECORDS, a specialist vinyl record shop in The Parade, Shrewsbury, is looking to expand its range of cassette tapes.
Hang on a minute. That sounded like a statement from 1973.
But no, it’s true. This is 2016 and they want to expand their range of cassette tapes.
What’s going on here?
Now, I’m sure I’m not alone in having had something of a love-hate relationship with this long-outdated technology. All music lovers of a certain age will well remember the way these tapes used to – every now and then – wind themselves into the machines, and you’d have the devil’s own job trying to salvage the tape without damaging the player.
Often a pencil would come in handy when it came to winding the spools on these pesky cassettes.
Yes, these cassettes were brilliant for making your own personal compilations of favourite tracks, but when they went wrong they were a complete disaster.
So I can’t quite get my head around this resurgence in interest.
Okay, let’s – er – rewind a little bit.
1983 saw the introduction of compact discs.
In 1985 Dire Straits became the first band to sell a million copies of a CD with their album Brothers In Arms.
Sales of CDs took off, the format taking over from vinyl records and also of course taking over from cassettes.
When it became easy to “burn” your own compilations onto a CD, cassettes seemed utterly outdated.
And most of us thought that in 2010 when Sony stopped producing its famous Walkman cassette player, it was all over for the humble cassette. But maybe not.
Firstly, there’s a wave of nostalgia for these things. Secondly, a simple desire on the part of artists to get back to the heart and soul of their music is driving them back to the cassette.
Sales are on the rise as fans flock back, making it clear audiences want a more tangible alternative to Spotify and iPods.
Becki Cave, who runs Shrewsbury’s Cave Records, said of cassettes: “It is not our main line but we are seriously considering it as one again, now that it has become so popular.
“We had a small record label in America offer us cassettes by new artists, and they have sold better than some of our vinyls. Cassettes are cheaper for artists to make and it is clever marketing for bands. It has a grungy, underground feel to it.”
Becki said there is now genuine belief that cassettes could follow vinyl back into the mainstream.
“People like having the product in their hand,” she said.
The fact is, sales of cassette tapes are rising so rapidly in the US that the Recording Industry Association of America is investigating ways to track sales for the first time since the early 1990s.
And mainstream musicians have started producing albums on cassette again.
What’s going to be next to make a comeback – the VHS video?
Looking back over my own music collection now, cassettes are extremely thin on the ground. But alongside my hundreds of CDs and vinyl records, I had 182 cassette tapes in 2010. How do I know this? Because I wrote a blog about it at the time.
Very soon after writing the blog, I got rid of almost all of the tapes.
My wife has always thought of me as a hoarder. Should I now tell her that I might have made a mistake in letting go of those cassettes?
I don’t think I’ll bother recording her response.

Wheels in motion for Shrewsbury's summer of fun

Growing up in this wonderful old town back in the 1960s, there was the carnival every year, there was (of course) Shrewsbury Flower Show, and there was the West Mid Show.
And that was pretty much it in terms of big events.
Oh yeah. Circuses would arrive in town from time to time, and fun fairs would occasionally pitch up down on Frankwell, but - hey - look at Shrewsbury today. Just look at all the festivals and other crowd-pleasers we have going on during the year.
I was reflecting on all this as I watched cyclists whizz past me on Sunday during the Shrewsbury Cycle Grand Prix.
This top cycling event attracts thousands of enthusiasts and also professional riders from across the UK.
It’s really quite a spectacle - and brings life and a splash of colour and drama to the town centre on what would otherwise be a very quiet Sunday afternoon.
As the riders flashed by, I recalled how deadly quiet the town used to be during the Sundays of my childhood. In those days, you could have walked from the railway station to the market hall without meeting another human being. If you spotted a cat in those days, it was a big deal.
Yes, yes, I know. I’m going back to an almost forgotten era when the shops didn’t open on a Sunday. 
But the change in mood in Shrewsbury is not just to do with shops being open on Sundays. It’s to do with the fantastic variety of events now populating the ‘Shrewsbury Calendar’.
Just think of what we now have going on in this town, from the Big Busk and the Cartoon Festival in April to the Children’s Bookfest, the Shrewsbury Regatta and the Shropshire County Agricultural & Horse Show in May, plus, as I say, this rather wonderful Cycle Grand Prix.. and we have all this before we even get to June!
And then we have the River Festival scheduled for this coming Sunday, then Shrewsbury Carnival on June 13, the Shrewsbury Half Marathon on June 21, and the amazing Food Festival on June 27 and 28. June also sees the Belle Vue Arts Festival sprinkle its own fairy-dust upon the streets and avenues just to the south of the town centre - and more on this in a moment.
Going into August we have the tremendous trilogy that is: the flower show, the folk festival and the steam rally; three truly superb events.
Into September and we have the Shrewsbury Triathlon and the big music event, Shrewsbury Fields Forever.
Oh, come on, people. There’s really no excuse here for being bored!
There must be plenty of larger towns than Shrewsbury that would be envious of all this.
Just to return to the Belle Vue Arts Festival, by the way, this is now in its 12th year, it gets under way this coming weekend, and there’s just so much going on it’s hard to know where to begin.
This year’s theme is ‘Memories’ and the festival will feature a host of activities including art, photography and poetry exhibitions, workshops, history talks, quizzes, pub walks, and music, as well as the ever popular and successful Open Garden Day and the colourful Scarecrow Trail.
Even if Belle Vue isn’t your neck of the woods, check out the arts festival website and pop along to some of its attractions.

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury.

From tomfoolery to tragedy

The Yongy-Bonghy-Bo and the Canoodling Gnus in a Canoe. What's the connection?
Allow me to explain.
Well, very few people remember it now, but there was a very silly American cartoon series that they used to show on television in this country on a Saturday morning.
It was called Tomfoolery and it was based on the poetry of Edward Lear, with some additional characters inspired by works of Lewis Carroll and Ogden Nash.
My brother and I loved it.
First broadcast in 1970, it featured characters such as the Yongy-Bonghy-Bo and the Umbrageous Umbrella Maker. Other regular characters included the Enthusiastic Elephant, the Fizzgiggious Fish, and the Scroobious Snake.
As I say, it was very silly - very silly indeed.
And all this came flooding back to me the other day as I was given a sneaky look round the latest exhibition at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery - a show entitled Beastly Machines.
Just like Tomfoolery, this show is also very silly indeed.
Being staged until July 12, Beastly Machines is the brainchild of kinetic sculptor Johnny White. Johnny’s sculptures are influenced by current affairs, media-stories, plays on words and comic artists such as Gary Larson and Steve Bell. They are lovingly handmade in his workshop in Derbyshire, often using found or salvaged objects and junk. Initially he used scrap components due to financial constraints but now he uses them for visual and ecological reasons too.
Highlights of the show include a six-metre-long whale which springs into life at the push of a button, a flying pig, the aforementioned two canoodling gnus afloat in a bright blue canoe, and Rover the hound who moves in and out of his kennel when you move a lever back and forth.
Johnny’s creations are humorous, imaginative, irreverent and sometimes very noisy and ‘Beastly Machines’ is a not to be missed exhibition that will capture the imagination of visitors of all ages.
In a nutshell, the exhibition is just a bit of - well - tomfoolery!
There is a total change of mood, however, as we come to another exhibition at Shrewsbury's wonderful museum and art gallery.
Because running throughout June is "The First Casualty of War Is Truth".
Andy McKeown and Maggie Love will this evening (June 11) be talking about their new media installation, which is being staged on the balcony of the art gallery. The installation, which commemorates the 5,286 people from Shropshire’s Roll of Honour who lost their lives during World War I, sets this heart-rending loss alongside the mass media, communications and propaganda of the day.
People are being invited to visit the exhibition and participate in the creation of a visual and audio record of the Roll of Honour by transcribing a single name from the list to a single handwritten Telegraph card and making a voice recording of that person’s name. A single unique voice for each name on the Roll of Honour. The completed cards will be placed below a continuous stream of names, to grow and develop throughout the residency.
Andy and Maggie will also examine the mass media of the era and its impact on the population during the conflict, stripping back historically from now to World War I, discarding technologies (and their impact) along a time line.

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

Belle Vue Magazine is Gaining Ground

I'm so thrilled and delighted that the Belle Vue Magazine is really gaining ground now following distribution of the summer edition (issue two).
Had a couple of really lovely letters today that sort of sum things up:
One came from the Belle Vue Methodist Knit and Nat Group who said: "People in Belle Vue have become very excited by your magazine. It is really highly regarded and valued. Please accept my congratulations on a great production."

Another letter came from Briarfields Residential Home and said: "We were very pleased to receive a copy of the Summer edition of your magazine. I wonder if you would be able to let us have a few more copies as it would be lovely to distribute some around the home for our residents to read. Can you please give me some more information about your magazine, how many issues per year etc. Today we used the 'Where are you now' quiz on page 24 as an activity for some of our residents and we are collating the answers and will be sending in our entry very soon."
Both these lovely responses make me feel the whole enterprise is worthwhile, and that the Belle Vue Magazine is establishing itself as a firm favourite in the area.

Summer 2015 issue of Belle Vue Magazine

And so the second edition of the Belle Vue Magazine makes it into the world.... or makes it into Belle Vue anyway!
Granville the butcher was thrilled to bits at being a cover star.
All being well, the issue should start dropping through 3,200 letterboxes the week beginning June 8.
I think, for me, picking it up from the printers is still the most exciting part of the whole process. I'm quite sure this aspect of publishing a magazine will never lose its appeal for me.
It's a lot of hard work, putting this thing together, but it's also tremendous fun and I actually love every minute of it. Truly, every minute!
Oh, and for those of you who missed out on seeing the launch edition, by the way, here's what it looks like:

Professor Branestawm and A Crisis For Our Libraries

When Professor Branestawm realises he has lost the book he has borrowed from Great Pagwell Library, he comes up with the perfect solution.

He will simply borrow a different copy of the same title from another library and take that copy back to Great Pagwell, and then take it out again the next day and return it to the library from which he had actually borrowed it: Little Pagwell.

Thus he will avoid having to pay a fine for losing the book. But of course it doesn’t end there.

In order to go on avoiding having to pay a fine, he will have to repeat this process every few days: taking the book out of Great Pagwell to return it to Little Pagwell and then borrowing it again from Little Pagwell to take it back to Great Pagwell.

Fair enough. But it gets more complicated.

Because then the professor loses his second copy of the book and then has to take out a copy from the library at Upper Pagwell.

In this delightful farce from Norman Hunter, the professor ends up having to borrow copies from the libraries at Pagwell Town, Pagwell Village, Old Pagwell, New Pagwell, North Pagwell, South Pagwell, West Pagwell, Pagwell Central, Pagwell Hill, Pagwell Docks and Pagwell Gardens.

This wonderful story was written in the 1930s, a time when it would have been quite possible for a place to have a dozen district libraries.

Here in 2015, with crippling budget controls in place, libraries are disappearing all over the country - even in Pagwell, I dare say.

The magnificent Shrewsbury Library on Castle Gates stands as a beacon for a service which has been quietly, unobtrusively loved by successive generations.

But while we here in the county town might not be aware of it, libraries a few miles down the road are under threat.

Pontesbury and Church Stretton spring to mind.

We now hear that libraries could be run alongside GP surgeries as Shropshire Council looks to make a 30 per cent cut in funding.

The ‘health hubs’ would offer general library services and internet access while also being the base for an NHS community care co-ordinator, according to proposals put forward by David Sandbach, a former chief officer at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.

This idea has been backed in principal by officials at Shropshire Council.

The future of Shropshire’s libraries remains unclear with more cuts in funding potentially on the horizon, and the council wanting 22 of its libraries to be taken over by community groups.

Oh dear. In Branestawm’s world, Pagwell Gardens and Pagwell Docks would be merging, Pagwell Town would be in the process of being taken over by the Women’s Institute, and most of the others would be closing altogether.

Speaking during a meeting of Shropshire Council’s health and wellbeing board, Mr Sandbach said Pontesbury Library was one that could benefit from the health hub plan.

At the moment, options for Pontesbury include moving the library into the local school in a similar scheme to Church Stretton where the town library is to shut and be run from Church Stretton School.

For those of us who love books and love libraries, it’s all rather sad.

It strikes me that if Professor Branestawm had been living now, his plan to shuffle books from one library to another would be a non-starter.

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury.

New Chapter for the Lion Hotel

Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Eric and Ernie, and John, Paul, George and Ringo have one thing in common.

They were all guests at Shrewsbury’s Lion Hotel.

Not all at the same time, of course. 

Although, if a spot of time-travelling could make such a thing happen, what a hoot that would be!

Now, this disparate bunch might not have too much to talk about if, through some fluctuation in the space-time continuum, they all met up in the Lion’s elegant ballroom - although… who knows?

At the very least, if they all bumped into each other now, they could discuss among themselves how The Lion has changed since their last visits.

And that’s not all.

Darwin would be able to explain to Morcambe and Wise how Ernie’s ancestors had evolved over the millennia, leaving him with short fat hairy legs.

And The Beatles and Charles Dickens would be able to compare Hard Times (1854) to A Hard Day’s Night (1964). Or perhaps they could join forces to produce 'Oliver Twist and Shout'.

But I’m getting carried away.

However, there is surely one thing on which they would all be united.

They would all be united today in their amazement when told (by their time-travelling co-ordinator) that the Lion Hotel has just been sold to a company in Bangkok. 

You see, nowadays, we’re all used to hearing about ‘the shrinking world’ and about how quickly one can travel from one side of the planet to the other. We’re used to the internet and online banking and multinationals. Deals being made at the touch of a button.

But Dickens and Darwin would surely have been shocked at how quickly things have moved on since their day.

And even since the heyday of The Beatles, technology has been dazzling in the speed of its growth and expansion.

So we citizens of 2015 probably don’t find it odd at all that one of our historic English hotels has just been snapped up by a firm in Thailand.

This kind of thing happens all the time nowadays.

Mmmmm.

Although (and you can call me old-fashioned) it does still rather baffle me, actually.

I just find it puzzling that a firm based in Thailand would have even heard of a hotel in Shrewsbury, let alone wish to buy it!

Anyway, this great hotel has been purchased for an undisclosed sum by the Thai group, the Fico Corporation.

The lovely, Grade I-listed building on Wyle Cop has hit trouble in recent years after its previous owner Howard Astbury was ordered to put it up for sale to pay off debts totalling almost £300,000. It was initially put on sale in 2011 for £2.95 million, but finance firm Duff and Phelps, appointed as trustees of the estate, has not disclosed how much the hotel went for.

Gavin Wright, director at Christie & Co’s Birmingham office, which handled the sale, said: “We are delighted to have secured a sale with an investor who is keen to keep the Lion Hotel operational and refurbish the property. The sale of the hotel demonstrates there are a number of overseas investors with a keen appetite to acquire hotel assets in the UK.”

Fair enough. Or as dear old Eric Morcambe would have said: "Wey-hey! Get out of that! You can’t, can you?”

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Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

The Stew - Ugly Perhaps, But Important

Contrary to popular belief I have lived in places other than my beloved hometown of Shrewsbury.
So when I talk about the architectural gems that have been lost over the decades in Shropshire’s county town, I do so with a sense of perspective.
I have lived in, and know very well, for example, Plymouth and Hull, cities at either end of the country that have much in common, both of them old cities with histories going back to the Middle Ages, both of them devastated by bombing in the Second World War.
The Luftwaffe laid waste to vast areas of these cities which is why, today, we see huge parts of their centres made up of 1950s blocks: unembellished Lego-brick architecture.
Obviously, little old Shrewsbury in sleepy old Shropshire was of no great interest to the German bombers.
But a town didn’t have to be on the enemy’s visiting list to have its historic heart ravaged.
Stafford (another place I’ve lived, another place I know intimately) - like Shrewsbury a county town, like Shrewsbury with a river running through it, like Shrewsbury surrounded by beautiful countryside - has not emerged from the post-war era intact, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the Luftwaffe.
Building for building, Stafford lost far more than Shrewsbury did in the fifties and sixties and nowadays is full of modern shops, banks and building societies where historic (some might say ‘quaint’) buildings once stood. That’s to do with town planning and an all-consuming desire for “modernisation”.
So I know that we’re very lucky in Shrewsbury. So many of our historic buildings have survived.
But that doesn’t mean we can afford to be complacent.
Let us not forget the Raven Hotel, the Crown Hotel, the George Hotel, the Victorian market hall, the original Shirehall in The Square - all gone.
Which brings me to The Stew, not a beautiful building, not a dramatic building, its charms are far from obvious.
But many local people believe The Stew at Frankwell Quay to be important and worthy of preservation. It is a structure that has much to say about the early river trade. It tells a story. And it is a significant heritage asset.
Its fate is set to be decided very soon as a public inquiry comes to its conclusion.
Proposals to demolish it and build at 42-bedroom hotel in its place are the focus of the inquiry.
Last week in this newspaper, Jeremy Cragg, on the letters page, wrote: “There are other sites on the periphery of the Severn Loop where a hotel could be built, if it is actually required, without destroying an historic building. We all want to encourage tourists to the town. They come for a variety of reasons but to see a modern boutique hotel is not one of them.”
Quite so.
If The Stew disappears one day, it will not be mourned in the way the loss of the Raven Hotel is mourned, but that’s not the point. It is a key building in the history of Shrewsbury. Simple as that.
How much do we care? Only time will tell.
You can find out more at: http://www.napierandco.com/thestew.html
But as I always say on these occasions: Once it’s gone, there’s no getting it back.

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

Vinyl Records Make a Comeback

Vinyl records are back in the news again at the moment, and it does my heart good to see several shops in Shrewsbury selling these magical, beautiful discs of black shiny plastic.

Many pop music enthusiasts (myself among them) had suspicions when compact discs came on the scene that, despite all the hype, CDs somehow didn’t sound as “good” as vinyl records.

It was hard to explain, but the suspicion was there, and it wouldn’t go away.

We believed (and still believe) that vinyl offered a warmer, richer, deeper, more human sound.

On compact disc, The Merseybeats lacked their beat, the Rolling Stones didn’t roll quite so sweetly.

Not only this, but it is very hard to fall in love with the physical object that is a CD. It’s cold and clinical like something that might be used in a dental surgery. The case it comes in is similarly cheap and disposable. 

It was hard to escape (especially in the early days of CDs) the notion that the music industry was ripping us off by mass producing these unlovable objects and then selling them at a ridiculously inflated price.

On top of all this, you no longer had the exhaustive sleeve notes, the 12-inch by 12-inch cover picture to admire, and that general feeling that you’d just purchased something worthwhile.

Of course, here we now are in 2015 and even CDs are perceived as yesterday’s technology, ‘old hat’ - superseded by digital downloads that take just seconds to acquire.

So let us perform a little dance in the streets 

to welcome back good old vinyl.

We hear that sales of vinyl records have increased by a whopping, speaker-vibrating 49 per cent over the last year.

We don’t need reminding of course that vinyl was once written off with the advent of first cassettes, then CDs, then MP3 files.

But the return of the black stuff can now be seen everywhere.

In Shrewsbury Market Hall we have the amazing White Rabbit store crammed with thousands of records, and you’ll also find vinyl at Cave Records in The Parade Shopping Centre in St Mary’s Place.

The latter is run by Shrewsbury musician Joseph Cave and his wife, Becki, also a musician.

They were celebrating Record Store Day at the weekend, an international event to place record shops firmly in the spotlight. The idea behind Record Store Day first materialised in 2007 when 700 stores in America came together to mark their culture and celebrate records.

Shrewsbury’s Cave Records specialises in selling albums by artists such as Bjork, Black Sabbath, Aphex Twin, John Coltrane, the Beastie Boys, Radiohead, the Velvet Underground and many others.

Meanwhile, newly-opened sound systems retailer Acoustic Boutique in The Square has now introduced record players into the shop to capitalise on the fresh demand.

Says David Whittaker, of Acoustic Boutique: “Younger people, especially indie-rock fans, are now buying records, and older people are rediscovering their love of vinyl.

“With the perceived quality of vinyl and the hands-on approach of putting the needle to the record, people are enjoying their music the old-fashioned - yet new-fashioned way.”

All this talk of vinyl has got me reaching for my records, perhaps not Bjork and the Beastie Boys, but then I’m probably one of those 'older people' to whom that young Mr Whittaker was referring!

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

The Dog and Pheasant with Alex and a Bunch of Musicians

We’ve all heard stories about little lads being left outside a pub with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps while their dad was inside downing a pint or three.

Well, that’s exactly what would happen to my younger brother Tony and I, many years ago, on a Sunday lunchtime in a corner of Shrewsbury that occupies a special place in my heart.

And that’s partly why it was such a very great pleasure to revisit the Dog & Pheasant the other night.

Happy memories of growing up in Castlefields intermingled with knock-about, good-time, "everyone-join-in!" acoustic folk and pop being provided by the musicians in the corner.

So there I was - accompanied by our youngest son, Alex - listening to singer-guitarist Chris Greve plus his mate Tim on fiddle and other friends on percussion and ukulele. And whilst thoroughly enjoying the music, I couldn’t help but remember myself as a 10-year-old, sitting out the back yard of this pub with Tony, drinking Vimto or Coca-Cola, munching crisps, and (because this is what my brother and I did back then) coming up with ideas for our latest comic-books.

From as far back as I can remember, Tone and I made our own comics, magazines and newspapers out of drawing books, crayons, felt-tip pens, cuttings and Sellotape, glue, sometimes poster paints or watercolours, stickers we’d bought from WHSmith, and of course our John Bull Printing Outfit (something only those of a certain age will remember as an initially exciting but ultimately disappointing Christmas gift).

My very first comic was called Forward. Tone’s first comic was called Budgerigar.

Later there was Pogi (whose central character was a little dog) and later still (and rather more ambitiously) the International Railway Gazette. 

The village at the centre of my model railway layout (Minbury) had its own newspaper, the Minbury Mail, and Tony’s village, built around his Matchbox Motorway, was called Wrekinville, and that too had its own newspaper. Well, of course it did! We had to make our own entertainment in those days!

Thoughts of watercolour paints, felt-tip pens and sticky tape scuttled away as Chris Greve and his mates urged everyone to sing along to the classic folk song, The Wild Rover. His deep Canadian lead vocal is compelling.

Chris and his chums serve up a real mix of songs. At one point they broke into The Monkees I’m A Believer, at another point Chris started to sing a Green Day song and our Alex (who knew all the words) started singing along too. As we soaked up the music, I thought to myself: This is a great pub.

Tucked away in Severn Street, the Dog & Phasant's first recorded landlady (in 1868) was a Mrs Mary Besant, and I cannot help wondering if she might have been an ancestor of the Mr Besant who ran a barber's shop in Victoria Street just round the corner and used to cut our hair when we were little boys.

A couple that local folk might remember are Gordon and Pat Bannister who ran the pub from 1968 until 1971. Gordon had been a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber in World War Two. I wish I'd known this when I was a lad; I could have interviewed him for the Minbury Mail.

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

A Few Days In Llandudno - March 2015

Lord Hill's Column

I was feeling a little dizzy by the time I got to the top.
And, for some reason, as I climbed, I had the children’s rhyme going through my head: Round and round the garden like a teddy bear, one step, two step, tickle you under there!
Blood-sugar levels playing up, no doubt. Thinking about gardens and teddy bears when I should have been thinking about - well, loftier things.
But, yeah, as you climb up the spiral steps - 172 of them - to reach the top of Lord Hill’s Column, you’re definitely going round and round and round and round.
I had the chance to visit on Friday and, for the first time in my life, to climb this superb Shrewsbury landmark and enjoy the spectacular views from the top.
It really is quite a monument.
Built between 1814 and 1816 at the expense of the people of Shropshire, the column was constructed to honour a giant of a man and a local hero: General Rowland Hill, Lord Hill of Hawkstone and Almaraz, who was the Duke of Wellington’s most trusted general in the Peninsular War and at the Battle of Waterloo.
History records that his sincere concern for the wellbeing of the soldiers under his command was evident. The troops actually nicknamed him Daddy Hill.
Not only was Hill a highly-distinguished soldier but he also later became MP for Shrewsbury.
As most Shrewsbury school children were taught for generations, the column is the tallest Greek doric column in England. Another feather in Shrewsbury’s cap.
The panoramic views from the top are indeed wonderful although I was just as impressed by the swirling elegance of the staircase with its fine cast iron banister.
This year is a big year for the big man. It’s anniversary time!
Hill (1772-1842) is being placed firmly in the spotlight by Shropshire Council this summer to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and to emphasise Shropshire’s links with that history-changing conflict.
An online visitor trail and guide to Shropshire’s links with Lord Hill and The Battle of Waterloo with a list of events has just been launched on Shropshire Council’s website – shropshire.gov.uk.
Lord Hill came from a long line of Shropshire landowners and lived at Hardwicke Grange near Hadnall, to the north of Shrewsbury.  His military career was very distinguished and he achieved the rank of Commander-in-Chief during Wellington’s time as Prime Minister.
Several notable portraits of him were painted, and some of these will be able to be seen at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, Shropshire Regimental Museum, St Chad’s Church, and Weston Park near Shifnal, at various times over the next few weeks leading up to the actual anniversary of Waterloo on June 18.
There are, by the way, plenty of other opportunities to climb Lord Hill’s Column over the coming months, although booking should be made in advance as places are limited and tickets will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. The charge is £5 per person and all money raised goes towards the restoration of the monument.
Dates for public opening are: May 25, June 13, July 8, August 16, Bank Holiday Monday on August 31, September 13 and October 3.
Happy climbing!

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and from Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

My Love for the Shrewsbury Chronicle

The Shrewsbury Chronicle has served its community since 1772, through the reigns of nine monarchs, and is one of England’s great weekly newspapers.

But like many of the good things in life, it’s easy to take for granted.

They say that people who live by the seaside hardly ever visit the beach, and of course those of us lucky enough to live in a beautiful town like Shrewsbury rarely look up above the shopfronts to appreciate the lovely architecture above.

The same principle applies.

As it drops through our letterbox each week, how many of us truly appreciate the institution that is the Chronicle?

From quill to pen to computer, journalists have been contributing to this newspaper ever since the days of stage coaches that would take 16 hours to transport passengers from the county town to London. These days, that might sound like a long time to reach the capital, but this was, in fact, an impressive record-breaking run, well-recorded in the local newspaper. The legendary ‘Wonder Coach’ - which would set off from the Lion Hotel - would, during the length of its journey, use a total of 150 horses. It’s easy to romanticise about such journeys, but there were dangers, and, in the early days of coaching, passengers would live in dread of the highwaymen who might attack en route and would cut your throat for a shilling.

Ah, but those were the days!

My own time with the Shrewsbury Chronicle doesn’t go back quite that far.

I joined the paper in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. That year I attended enough street parties to last me a lifetime, and, to this day, I get a little twitched every time I see bunting.

When I wasn’t drowning in a sea of balloons, fairy cakes, and Union Jacks, I was writing up obituaries while my fellow trainee journalist was writing up weddings.

Yes there were features to write too (my favourite) plus stories from magistrates court, the borough council and parish councils, but my over-riding memories of those days seem to revolve around putting the kettle on to make tea for my colleagues, and having to pop next door to the newsagents to pick up the editor’s cigars and his latest edition of the Press Gazette.

We were based in Chronicle House opposite the railway station, and the editor was the gentleman that was Derrick Bourne, a lovely man who nurtured his cub reporters with encouragement and words of wisdom. Patrick Smith and the fearless columnist Ron Nicholas were other big personalities at the paper back then, along with the colourful ("who’s pinched my pencil again!") sports editor Stan Hall and the ever-charming copy-typist Mrs Rogers.

Since then I have worked on many other newspapers from the Sunday Independent in Devon to the Hull Daily Mail in Yorkshire, as well as the Express & Star and the Shropshire Star, but I still have a special fondness for those early days. It might have been a bit like the knock-about Norman Wisdom comedy, Press For Time, but it was a lot of fun.

I have known and loved the Shrewsbury Chronicle all my life, and I’m proud to have been professionally associated with it for almost 40 years. But, yeah, I’m still guilty of taking it for granted from time to time!

Phil Gillam’s gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is available from Pengwern Books, Fish Street, Shrewsbury, and Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery.

Scarlet Twenty play a gig at The Coracle

The Coracle - I've got to be honest - is not a pub I frequent.
There is a very good reason for this. The Coracle is as far away from our house as it's possible for a pub to be whilst still being within Shrewsbury's town boundary.
And the notion of being in a pub all evening and not being able to have a beer or two, well… it's not normally an idea that fills me with joy.

That's why I much prefer pubs within walking distance. I can leave the car at home and I can enjoy a couple of drinks.
Anyway, when the mother of my best friend rang me the other day and invited me to The Coracle to see her younger son’s band (that is to say: my best friend’s brother’s band), I could hardly refuse.
They call themselves Scarlet Twenty and their own Facebook page describes them as: 'Lively duo featuring music from The Ramones to The Killers with a bit of comedy thrown in too. Expect the unexpected from this brilliant band.’
Note those words: Expect the unexpected.
Frankly, I really didn’t know what to expect. But, if I’m honest, my expectations were not especially high. I’m not sure that I can quite explain that last sentence, suffice to say I have only ever known Russell Parry (stage name Chaz - vocal and keyboards) as my mate’s unassuming, quietly-spoken brother. He has something to do with the ice-cream industry. And he’s also written a book recently about the Appley Bridge meteorite, a chunk of rock that fell from the heavens and landed in Lancashire in 1914. He’s married and he has a son, and that’s pretty much all I know about Russell.
And his musical partner - Twig (vocals and guitar) - I didn't know at all.
So, yeah, I suppose I had no option but to expect the unexpected.
And so the lights dimmed at The Coracle, stage lighting provided a smidgen of atmosphere, and the leather-jacketed middle-aged two-piece that is Scarlet Twenty burst into action.
Okay, yes, they are a band heavily reliant upon pre-recorded backing tracks, but, hey, guess what - Scarlet Twenty turn out to be extremely entertaining.
Somewhere beneath all the bluster, there’s real musicianship, and a real determination to give the audience a great time.
Highlights included their energetic version of The Killers’ hit, Human, What A Wonderful World (needless to say, the Joey Ramone punk arrangement rather than Louis Armstrong’s version), and Tell Him (a hit for The Exciters in 1962). These put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces.
It seems Russ (or Chaz) and Twig hadn’t played together in a long time. So yeah, they were rough around the edges, but, as I say, they were terrific good fun. They are a fantastic advertisement for big-hearted amateur rock ’n’ roll.
The main act of the evening turned out to be The Shamones, a tribute to New York punk band, The Ramones. This formidable three-piece is a proper band. Featuring ex-Damned bassist Bryn Merrick, The Shamones are just fabulous, and - if this sort of music is your scene - I recommend them unreservedly.
So, all in all, this was an excellent evening and spoke volumes about the musical talent that lies at the other end of the spectrum from stadium rock and the charts, shedding light on the enthusiasm and hard work of people driven primarily by the love of music.

This is the voice of the Mysterons

Long, long ago... but not as long ago as Fireball XL5 or Stingray or Thunderbirds... there was a brilliant television series called Captain Scarlet.
Of all the Gerry Anderson-produced science fiction puppet series that were so much a part of the 1960s, Captain Scarlet was my favourite.
I think it just came out at the right time for me.
I had already been thrilled and delighted by the three aforementioned puppet-populated shows, each with their very own heroes - Steve Zodiac (with his sidekick, the glamorous Venus) in Fireball XL5, Troy Tempest and Phones (and Marina) in Stingray, and the Tracy brothers and Lady Penelope and Parker in Thunderbirds.
But then came the fearless agents of Spectrum - and I was ten-years-old when this came out in 1967. The colours of the uniforms, the beautiful Spectrum Angels, the majestic Cloudbase, the exciting vehicles (SPVs and SPCs) were intoxicating to me.
I don't think I have seen a TV series since which has knocked me between the eyes in quite the same way.
Little wonder I had to get hold of the DVD boxed set. It's just a shame I don't really know any other Captain Scarlet fans to watch it with me. Oh well....

Curved Air - Backstreet Luv

My job with Shropshire Seniors

My job with the Shropshire Seniors is an absolute joy.

I work in a gorgeous Georgian building in a beautiful part of town, and my colleagues are lovely.

There’s something about this job that makes me truly happy.

I’m laughing a heck of a lot more. I feel friendlier towards the world and the world seems friendlier towards me.

I’m calm. 

I actually enjoy the idea of going in to work – and I haven’t felt that way for a while!

This might sound silly, but there’s something about it that prompts warm, comforting memories of being 12 or 13 or 14 years of age, and walking home from Belvidere School with my dear friend Russ Greenshaw and discussing with him the next edition of our own little magazine - The Entertainer (created with scissors-and-Sellotape, crayons and felt-tips).

Sometimes the memories are not that specific. Sometimes it’s just that feeling of being a child. Just a pleasant feeling that makes me smile to myself.

I think about Robinson Crusoe on television, Blue Peter, The Monkees, and Bewitched, and jam sandwiches for tea.

There’s a beautiful giant tree outside my office window – a Cedar of Lebanon, I am told – with the sunshine beaming through its branches. It’s beautiful. And I have the time to appreciate it.

I haven’t experienced this feeling – certainly not in such a sustained, consistent way, for quite some time. It’s rather wonderful.

I get little flashbacks of Mum and Dad and happy long-ago days in Castlefields.

I’m also getting great memories of being an adolescent, being a student at Tech, and what happy days they were!

Don’t get me wrong. Being a big soft sentimental romantic, I have always carried these feelings with me to some extent, but nowadays they’re not just Sunday afternoon feelings, but constant companions, and I love it.

Castlefields man rescues war memorial from demolition site

Castlefields man George Paget was walking past a demolition site just across the road from the Canal Tavern when he spotted something precious amongst the rubble.
Well, it seemed precious to him anyway.
The item in question clearly meant nothing to the workmen who were throwing everything onto the back of a lorry to be taken away.
This was, we think, about 1965, and the building being demolished was the Methodist Chapel at the junction of Beacalls Lane and New Park Road.
The site is today occupied by the Dulux paint decorator centre.
What had caught the attention of George Paget that day was a memorial stone, honouring Castlefields men who had been killed during the First World War.
George thought it was outrageous that a memorial stone displaying the names of the fallen could be thrown away as scrap. And he decided to intervene.
His daughters are today proud to tell of how their dad rescued the stone.
"I remember quite clearly that one day, amongst all the rubble, there were these men in suits and I asked Mum what they were doing," recalls Janice Oliver, one of George's daughters.
She and her sister, Christina Marshall-Clarke, are telling me the story.
"And Mum told me that these men in suits were de-consecrating the ground. They had to do that, apparently, so that the church could be demolished."
Janice, 70, and Christina, 65, told me that when their dad spotted the memorial stone, he asked the workmen if he could have it. He told them the stone shouldn't go. It should be preserved.
No-one had any objection to George taking the stone so he set about taking it home to his house in New Park Street.
"It was placed against the front wall of our house," said Janice.
"No-one would take it at the time. Even All Saints Church wouldn't take it at the time. There's a lot of protocol about what goes into a church, apparently."
Several years later, explains Christina, Father Maddox agreed to take it into the porch of All Saints Church in North Street.
Janice says: "It took about four men to carry it. It was ever so heavy."
Fast-forward to the present day and the memorial stone rescued by George Paget from that demolition site in the sixties now has a special place within All Saints Church.
"Father Michael Fish decided that they ought to get the stone cleaned up, especially now with all the commemorations going on to mark the First World War. So now it's all cleaned up and mounted on a small plinth. What's more there was a special service on August 4. At All Saints there was already a memorial board with about 90 names on it. And then they were able to add the memorial stone from the old Methodist church, and a speaker came to the service from the Methodist Church and read out the names from the stone."
So salutes all round, then, for George Paget who single-handedly rescued this memorial stone from obscurity.
By all accounts George was a real character and, clearly, Christina and Janice are very proud of what their dad did.
"He was a prison officer at the Dana, but he also kept pigs at the allotment in Castlefields," said Christina. "His favourite pigs were Spotty, Winnie and Patch and they were like pets to us.
"Dad was also a big friend of another Castlefields character, George Jones, the rag and bone man, who had a horse and cart."
Ah, yes. The old days in Castlefields. I was able to tell Christina and Janice that I well remember George Jones with his horse and cart, and I also remember walking home from the Lancasterian School and seeing the demolition of the Methodist church taking place.
Does anyone else out there remember the demolition? If so, I would love to hear from you - or indeed if you just want to share your memories of the old days.
email: philoncloudbase@gmail.com

Pictured below: Janice Oliver and Christina Marshall-Clarke, daughters of George Paget.

Phil Gillam's gentle novel of family life, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, is now available from Pengwern Books in Shrewsbury, Waterstones, and from amazon.

A highly eventful few weeks

Yes. It's been a highly eventful few weeks.
Luckily, I'm one of those people who scribbles everything down, makes loads of lists, keeps a diary, keeps a logbook, takes photographs, messes about on Facebook and twitter and, er, occasionally writes something on this blog.
So it's relatively easy to review what has been a busy and fascinating period. (Well, fascinating to me at least).
But, in a nutshell, since leaving the Shropshire Star on June 27, I've:
1. Researched thoroughly the prospect of writing and producing a Home Handbook guide to trades, shops and services in a specific area of Shrewsbury. (Watch this space).
2. Taken soundings (regarding the Home Handbook) from local businesses in Coleham and Belle Vue (very positive).
3. Completely revamped the study.
4. Continued to write my weekly column (Shrewsbury Matters) for the Shrewsbury Chronicle.
5. Attended an excellent one-day business course at Birmingham Library.
6. Took part in this year's Severn Valley Railway Pub Crawl, organised once again by little brother Tony.
7. Enjoyed a fantastic holiday with my darling wife in Somerset and Bristol.
8. Met and interviewed the charming 92-year-old Mr Charlie Furnival (an old pal of Dad's).
9. Delivered fresh copies of my novel, Shrewsbury Station Just After Six, to Waterstones. Within days I would have the joy of seeing, in Waterstones, my book on the very same shelf as Mary Webb's masterpieces.
10. Secured a wonderful part-time job as Media Officer for the charity, Shropshire Seniors.
11. Enjoyed a fantastic family picnic on a blazing hot day at beautiful Attingham Park.
12. Enjoyed a friendly barbecue at Shropshire Seniors.
13. Attended official opening of the excellent Terence Spencer photographic exhibition at the Museum and Art Gallery.
14. Took Jan, Betty, Alex and Vanessa to the garden centre (nice).
15. Re-established contact with splendid fellow Henry Carpenter.
16. Pushed on with writing of my new novel.
17. Spoke to Laura about artwork for the cover of my new novel.
18. Really useful meeting with small businesses expert at Santander.
19. Carluccio's with darling wife and six excellent friends.
20. The Peach Tree for family brunch.
21. Emailed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (what's unusual about that?)
22. Second meeting with Charlie Furnival (this time with old friend Steve who fancies the two of us producing a coffee table book on old characters of Shrewsbury).
23. Acquired beautiful new desk.
24. Acquired beautiful new computer to put on the desk.
25. Fantabulous journey to Birmingham for birthday treat with Tom (including magical night at the Electric Cinema).
26. Following day, darling wife joins us in Birmingham for super day.
27. Lovely birthday meal at the Shalimar thanks to mother-in-law.
28. Treated myself to a Beatles mousemat!
29. Excellent trip to Cardiff to take Alex back to university. Nice meal. Good trip.
30. Continued looking into setting up my own business.
31. Booked a week's holiday in Pembrokeshire.
32. Jim Gillam Memorial Pub Crawl 2014. A classic!
33. First week working at Shropshire Seniors. Just wonderful!
34. Not forgetting some lovely days in town with darling wife.
35. Loads of lovely birthday presents too!
Not a bad few weeks.