Another piece from the Midlands, this time featuring Shrewsbury where I stayed for a couple of nights the other week. I had been here a few times before, but with it having been a few years ago, I was curious as to what the pub scene was like these days.... Shrewsbury is one of my favourite towns in England. Not only does it have some cracking pubs, it has an incredible history and is also home to some stunning buildings, whilst its setting in and around a loop of the River Severn gives it, like Durham and its similar relationship with the River Wear, something of the feel of an island, a place apart that moves along in its own individual, time-honoured way. The local poet A.E. Houseman wrote of the town in his famous poem A Shropshire Lad: " High the vanes of Shrewsbury gleam, Islanded in Severn stream, The bridges from the steepled crest, Cross the water east to west" Shrewsbury certainly has a rich history, with Anglo-Saxon roots, whilst the Romans had a settlement close...
I was away last week, visiting one of my favourite parts of the country. And whilst there, I had a day out exploring a couple of attractive small towns and discovered a number of excellent pubs in both.... "Edrychwch arno. Dwed e. Didoli." * I was travelling on a Transport for Wales train between Shrewsbury and Leominster and yet another dual-language train announcement was playing over the tannoy. I'd become somewhat acclimatised to these having travelled down from Manchester to Shrewsbury the previous day, also on a TfW train. And so there would be a lilting gentleman's accent announcing in Welsh that this train was bound for Caerdydd Canolog and would be calling at such stations as Llwydlo and Y Fenny , which would be then be repeated in English by a voice that sounded very much like Nessa from Gavin & Stacey , and although I have been unable to confirm that this was definitely the case, I am sure my ears were hearing correctly! We were passing through ...