A Nostalgic Journey in The View from the Terrace

These last two and a half weeks have been pretty busy and I haven’t had time to post anything until now.
On April 23 we went up to Shrewsbury for 3 days. Hubby said the last time we were there that we should go up in the spring this year so that I could show him the bluebells in the woods on The Wrekin, as I often talk about my childhood visits there. We set off after an early lunch on a warm, sunny, spring day, which was a lovely surprise as the forecast had said it would be cool and overcast. We decided to stop on the way at The Carding Mill Valley in Church Stretton. I used to go there on Sunday afternoons with my parents and my best friend Gina. Sunday was our family day as, though the pub was open 7 days a week, on Sunday we closed at 2pm and didn’t open until 7pm so we were able to have Sunday dinner together as a family and then go somewhere. The Carding Mill Valley was one of our favourite places. Dad would sit in the car by the stream reading the paper while the rest of us climbed the hills. It hadn’t changed a bit.

It was lambing time and the sheep were very tame. They as good as asked us to take their photo!

The next day the weather had changed. It was quite overcast and cooler, but still dry. We decided to go to the Wrekin in case it was raining the following day. We had only driven about half way there before it began to rain. We considered changing our plans but decided to drive to Wellington for an early lunch and see how things were then. We had a lovely lunch at Morrisons and were delighted to find out how cheap their plants were. I bought quite a lot of things for the garden and vowed to keep my eye on Morrisons in Hereford in future, much cheaper than garden centres. The rain seemed to be clearing by then so we set off on the bluebell trail. It was my first visit to The Wrekin at bluebell time for nearly 60 years and it was as beautiful as I remembered.

When I was a child we used to pick the bluebells, though they never lasted more than a day or two at most. They are protected now as they are becoming rarer. I read that half of all wild bluebells are in the UK, the rest being in Northern France and The Netherlands. They always used to be in bloom on my birthday, the third week of May. Over the years the seasons have changed a little and when Cat was little they bloomed on her birthday in late April. She used to go to our local wood and pick some to put on the table for her party, although the shouldn’t have done really as they were already protected then, but they grow in profusion in the wood near our house. They are most abundant in ancient woodland like that on The Wrekin.

That evening we went to the pub where I grew up, The Masonic Arms, to have a drink. I have only been there twice since we left when I was 11, once in 1977 when it looked much the same and again a few years ago when great changes had been made. The ground floor room of our old living quarters are now the new pub toilets. It’s a bit disconcerting to see toilets in your old living room where you used to live with your family. They have also extended the bar into the yard where I used to play, and knocked down an old wing which in my day was just abandoned rooms from the early living quarters in Victorian days. They have now made a beer garden there. Last time we visited I wasn’t able to see the beer garden as the weather was bad, but this time I was able to go outside and see what had been done. It was fascinating, all quite different. The front bar, however, was exactly the same and it felt strange to sit there looking across the road to the familiar house that used to be my auntie’s.

After our drink we went for a walk around the area. The only real change was the amount of parked cars, not so many people had them when I was a child, and the main road, which was much quieter now and is not a main road any more since the new bypass has been built. The road just across from the pub which leads down to the bridge and on to town was just the same. I used to cycle to school this way.

We walked up to the town and wandered around for about an hour. Hubby was trying to find a place where we could get a cup of coffee, which was a bit ambitous considering it was now about 8.30pm in a small market town. We didn’t find anywhere so we walked back to the car and went back to our motel to make our own.

We spent the next day in Shrewsbury town starting with a coffee at St Mary’s Church. It isn’t used as a church any longer but often hosts art exhibitions and concerts. Several of my ancestors were baptised there and it was one of my mother’s favouite churches.

The beautiful Jesse window at St Mary’s

Then we went to the castle where we visited the regimental museum. I had wanted to see the display about the Shropshire Militia as I recently discovered that my 3x great grandfather was in it. Militias were like our modern territorials. The men trained regularly and were called up at times of conflict. They didn’t go on active service, though, they helped to protect the ports and coastline in wartime to release professional soldiers to go to fight the war itself. My ancestor was in Plymouth at the time that his eldest daughter was baptised and it says on the baptismal record that he was in the Shropshire Militia. Until I found that I was really puzzled why a family from Shropshire would have a daughter born in Plymouth. I did find a unifrm for the Militia but it was much later, mid 1800s. My 3x great grandfather served during the Napoleaonic wars.

It was now time for lunch and we wandered through the town looking for somewhere.

Fish St in the old part of Shrewsbury.
We decided on a lovely little vegetarian restaurent called The Good Life. Then we walked to the Quarry Park to see The Dingle in spring a beautiful park made from the centre of an old quarry.


It was then time to go home after our lovely 3 day break.

Last updated May 06, 2017