450 years of Shrewsbury Library history

 

I have visited our county town of Shrewsbury for at least 25 years & often take visitors there because the town is regularly used for filming period dramas. It has over 200 listed buildings, its cobbled streets, churches & authentic black & white buildings photograph very well. 

We were booked to do a course in the Library, & while I knew where it was, I had never been in to it. The entrance is behind the statue of Charles Darwin who was born in our county, went to school there & set off on his famous travels from the hotel on Wyle Cop. 

The Library is a grade 1 listed building, with a long history of over 450 years. 

It was originally a school, founded on a Charter by King Edward VI in 1552 to provide education to the town. 

The earliest part is Riggs hall which dates back to mid 1400's and was incorporated in to the building later on. 

After our course, were advised to go up to the reading rooms upstairs after our course & duly took the broad stairs up to explore.  The windows are set in deep stone walls - solid & ancient. 

What a gem the reading rooms / library was. 

Large open ceilings with bright windows looking down on the town below & across to the Castle & the beautiful railway station. 

The Darwin reading room with its pale vaulted ceiling has windows with heraldic symbols. 

The room was hushed with several adult students working on laptops at the various tables. 

The creamy white ceilings & walls give this space a sense of lightness.

The Old School Room was similar but with dark ceiling beams & oak panelling that students in bygone times when it was a school, had carved their names in the oak. 

I saw one from 1780 & 1860. Preserved for posterity. 

This space was also well used & people were working away quietly at the various tables. 

The oak lined windowsills with views over the surrounding rooftops behind the library - glimpses of sky but not low enough to have distracted the students in times past. 

I love that the students left their names for posterity, probably blunting their compass points as they surreptitiously added their names without being caught by the school master. I wonder how many were in each class & if it was mixed education for both boys & girls? 

I worked in both public & academic libraries years ago & love these spaces with books & quiet spaces. It is something I have always enjoyed. 

I will definitely be back again, to browse the building & hopefully take another course or two. 

Thank you for stopping by, it is appreciated. 

Dee 📚📖📙📘🧑‍🏫📇

Pure & beautiful snowdrops ...

In the midst of the frosty & cold winter, suddenly, the snowdrops poke their pretty heads out & it feels like Spring is on the way. 

No snow to go with them at the moment, but their translucent blooms really are a joy in woodlands & especially in church yards where they often appear en masse. 

The Shropshire church of St James in Shipton always has a magnificent display of thousands of snowdrops & yellow aconites. The solid stone church with its square tower is the perfect backdrop to the delicateness of the tiny snowdrops that are at about 15-25cm tall. 

The church is 11th century and it is a grade 2 listed building so it is always an interesting visit. 

HISTORY: Shipton church is first mentioned c1110, and was probably a small 2-celled church until the tower was added at some time in the medieval period, and which contained 3 bells by 1552. The chancel was described as a 'great ruin' in 1553 and was replaced and rebuilt at the expense of John Lutwyche of Shipton Hall in 1589, as recorded on a brass memorial plaque in the chancel. The new chancel was probably built on the ruins of the old, with openings in the same position. The south porch appears to have been part of the same works. The exterior walls were rendered by 1789. The C18 gallery and C17 pews were removed in 1905-6 when a major re-ordering took place, at which time the walls were stripped of plaster and the present pews were installed.

On a fresh day of just 2C, we made the trip to see them. Brighter skies after several grey days is perfect to set them off against. 

The weathered headstones again providing the contrast that is needed to photograph them against. 

  

The church contains a memorial to the four More children who did the perilous trip on the Mayflower to America. Their story is in a previous blog post - do read it.  

The beloved British poet William Wordsworth's Daffodil poem - I wandered lonely as a cloud - is well known but he also paid tribute to the pretty snowdrop being the harbinger of Spring ... 

How can you not be charmed by the purity of snowdrops on a frosty day? 

The creamy white against the green foliage is a delight, a promise of new life emerging ... 

It is always a delight to see masses of snowdrops, Spring & blue skies might be on the way, 

Dee