Shropshire April 2013 - Shrewsbury

Darwin Memorial and Welsh Bridge

Tuesday 16th April - dry, brightest later in the day and during the evening.

Slow journey along A49 to Shrewsbury. Before bypass, cut through residential Bayston Hill to avoid queue on A49 downhill to join bypass. Back on the main road in from the south, turned into retail park for park & ride into town centre. Got off in the main shopping area near the square. Into the seen-better days shopping mall / Riverside Mall (most of the shops empty) to find toilets. Shopping area / town centre otherwise very busy. 

Old town / town centre, built within a tight meander along the River Severn, presumably starting with the Castle, built out of local red sandstone (Permian). All very sensibly on a hill above the river. The floody trouble started when the town grew outside the confines of the meander and on to the floodplain. Repeated major flooding incidents between the 1940s and early 2000s. Some new flood defences - walls / floodgates protecting the new development on the west side of the Welsh Bridge, built within the last ten years, but couldn't see anything anywhere else between the English and Welsh Bridges. 

Welsh Bridge

Our time in the town and along the river went very quickly. Walked round the bend between the Welsh Bridge and English Bridge, starting near the latter on the west side. In the old town, numerous alleyways. Some unusual shops,  most notably CR Birch & Son hardware, on our way down the river near the Welsh Bridge shortly after we arrived. This looked like something from another time. Numerous useful goods hanging on the white painted outside wall: all sorts of shovels, brooms, dusters, sink plungers. On the floor near the entrance, plastic buckets of several different colours, galvanised buckets. Near the entrance facing towards the river, Welcome mats, English and Welsh, and Oh No Not You Again.

English Bridge

Keystone on the English Bridge

Quite a bit of new development along the river since my last visit in 2002. As well as the usual, predictable appartment blocks, a new theatre near the Welsh Bridge, Theatre Severn. Also near the Welsh Bridge a new sculpture: Quantum Leap, a memorial to Charles Darwin, made in 2009, to mark the bicentenary of his birth. He was born in Shrewsbury. Around it, in the little garden by the river, a geological timeline, illustrated with various fossils, including trilobites, Ichthyosaur skeleton, sabre tooth cat, crinoid, very near the end of it, near the gate, evolving humans. The other end of the timeline was at the Cambrian, not enough space for the Precambrian, earlier than about 550Ma. The sculpture depicted a backbone, the rib bones coming off it, presumably a dinosaur skeleton. I liked the interplay of abstract shapes, though it was easier to photograph than to draw. I made two attempts, sitting on one of the benches, looking underneath the arch of the spine towards the Welsh Bridge. but really it needed much more time and less of the cold wind. It was a highly complex subject in form, perspective, interplay of positive and negative shape between the rib bones, which all curved round. 

Stonework on the English Bridge

Walking round the bend towards the English Bridge, took the wrong side, outer bend. Not so much because this was further round, but had to detour round more obstacles - fenced off section near Welsh Bridge where people were working. Further round, after the school, had to go up to the road, around the old brewery  - oh so predictably being converted into luxury apartments. Back across the footbridge here and round to English Bridge. In the Quarry Park, the Moscow State Circus were setting up, here until 21st. A big top tent and numerous yellow lorries, though unlike things like the flower show, they weren't taking over the whole park area. 

Reaching the English Bridge, carried on round as far as the railway bridge before turning round and having lunch on a bench. From here, sketched the English Bridgeas we had lunch. Noticed notices in this area about paths not being treated when icy. Near the steps down from the road, a water depth gauge on the rounded brick wall of the building facing the bridge. At road level, a sign warning - in case not obvious - people not to go down there / path impassable during flooding. Everywhere high and dry today, though the Severn still had a good flow, with a definite current.  Where the path ran under the nearside arch, a sizeable sandbank presumably dumped by receding flood waters, vegetation now beginning to grow on it. Quite a bit of other flood transported / deposited debris  all along the river here: several sizeable chunks of trees, branches still growing, buds about to burst. Two swans nesting on the one of the chunks below the English Bridge. Quite a bit of sand, mainly on the inner part of the big bend, grassy debris caught in fences and overhanging branches.

Artwork near the English Bridge

After the river walk and more sketching, had a cuppa in town then walked round some of the alleyways in the old town at the top of the hill. Caught bus back to P&R about 3.30pm, journey fairly slow in town centre traffic. Queues /congestion at A5-A49 roundabout and initial stretch of A49 past accidents on roundabout and roadworks. Back at cottage about 5pm. Sunny evening, sun on Clee Hill, rabbits in field next to garden.