Now We Are Severn released by Shrewsbury's Up Sewage Creek

The Shrewsbury river campaigners Up Sewage Creek have released a 10-minute film about the River Severn and their work to protect it: We Are Severn.

Shropshire Live says:

The film, which has been produced by award winning Shropshire arts organisation MediaActive Projects, is a collaboration between local people and creative practitioners designed to raise awareness about the state of the Severn. 

It features video footage, animation, and interviews with local river campaigners talking about the Severn and why it is so important to Shrewsbury. 

Up Sewage Creek won't allow the video to be embedded on other sites – good luck with the campaign, guys – but if you click on my photo of the Severn in Shrewsbury above you will to taken to it on YouTube.

Shock as 16 tonnes of soil mistakenly dropped in Shrewsbury

The Shropshire Star, and not for the first time, wins our Headline of the Day Award.

There's more about the scheme to improve the Abbey Foregate area of the town in a BBC News report.

The man in a coracle who retrieved the ball from the Severn for Shrewsbury Town

Shrewsbury Town's old ground at Gay Meadow stood beside the Severn, so loose shots could end up in the river.

This Nationwide report from 1975 is about the man who retrieved the ball when they did.

In which I praise buses and largely tolerate rail travel

I can't remember a single bus turning up late during my 10 days of outings in Shropshire, which is an impressive record.

And let's hear it for concessionary travel for pensioners. Family legend has it that I learnt to read from the West Hertfordshire bus timetable, and I can't help thinking how wonderful getting a card that gave you free travel on any bus would have seemed when I was six. Well, now I have one.

My train to Newport was seriously late because of a track fault north of Shrewsbury, and faced further delay between Ludlow and Leominster. But I had all day, and the recent derailments have emphasised that high temperatures are a risk to safety, so I wasn't going to complain.

I do have two moans about public transport from the holiday. The first is that I had to go through two ticket barriers at Birmingham New Street to change between the train from Leicester and the train to Shrewsbury. Who thought it was a good idea to redesign the station so that is necessary?

A bit of googling this morning has taught me that the way to avoid this is to use the escalators or lifts at the B end of New Street's long platforms, when you don't encounter any barriers within the station. I did it inadvertently on the journey home.

And the second is that when I got on my West Midlands Railway train to Shrewsbury I had to listen to an announcement warning me that three other railway companies sell tickets for this route and that if I had bought one it might not be valid on this train.

I don't think anyone designed this ticketing system: it has just grown like fungus on an October morning.

So, overall, I had a good experience with public transport and an outstanding one with the buses.

The Joy of Six 1566

"Our promise should be: We don’t want power so we can run your life. We want power in order to give it back to you." Roz Savage asks what has happened to Liberalism and what would make it relevant again.

Simon Pearson rightly says that the online left has lost sight of issues like class, ownership and material power: "The left needs to recover the harder ambition that once defined it: taking people divided by culture, race, sex, nationality and countless other experiences and building a common politics around material interests without pretending those differences do not exist. That requires organisation rather than recognition, explanation rather than denunciation and a serious account of ownership and power."

Nathan Ley explains why our streets may flood this winter, and why it won't be because of the council's 'blocked drains': "Dry clay shrinks, cracks, and forms a crust that sheds water instead of taking it in. Soil hydrophobicity is the technical term. The first heavy rain after a long drought doesn't soak away. It runs, quickly, and reaches the drainage network all at once rather than seeping through over several hours."

"A rash wartime policy ordered the detention of hundreds of Manchester Italians in a prison camp in Bury, and sent many to their deaths on a camouflaged military vessel in the Atlantic. Amongst them were ice-cream sellers, bakers, shopkeepers and a priest. Why were they there at all?" Ethan Penny uncovers a forgotten wartime injustice.

"Nuts In May was an accurate and excruciating reflection of the human condition when it was first broadcast in 1976, was still relevant to us students in the 90s, and even today in 2026, has lost none of its power over the viewer. This is a film with tension, outrage and tragedy. That so much perfectly fits into 81 minutes is a tribute to the brilliance of its director, the taut script structure and flawless cast." Adelle Stripe revisit Mike Leigh's 1976 cult classic.

Mike Nevell takes us to Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the world’s first iron-framed building (built 1796-7), and thus the forerunner to the modern-day skyscraper.

Wandering the backstreets of Shrewsbury

After yesterday's exertions on the Stiperstones, I decided to spend today exploring the backstreets of Shrewsbury.

This photo was taken in Belmont, a backwater behind the town's Roman Catholic Cathedral.

Looking down on Clun's parched bowling green from the castle

I've been to Clun today, making use of one of the last workings of the 745 bus from Minsterley to Ludlow. It's going to be replaced by a community transport scheme that sounds as though it may even be better for residents, but it will no longer be possible to get to Clun, as I did today, by catching the early bus from Shrewsbury to Minsterley.

Anyway, here's a souvenir of Clun and of this extraordinary summer. It's taken from the castle mound looking down on the town's bowling green, though 'green' isn't quite the word at present. 

It seems to be a Shropshire thing to have bowling greens on old castle sites. There is one at the top of what remains of Bishop's Castle castle, and the other day I found one in Ellesmere too. In fact, it was seeing the bowling green that awoke me to the fact that I was looking the remains of a castle.

The Joy of Six 1556

"Dartford Warblers skim across the heather before diving into the vegetation, defying all but the quickest observers. At dusk Nightjars churr from the isolated trees or fly overhead, the males clapping their wings in display flight." David Jobbins mourns what has been lost to the fire at Dunwich Heath.

Sam Power explains why Reform UK will find it hard to shake off questions about its donors: "An important thing to note is that the legal onus rests almost entirely on the donor. The party in receipt of the donation simply needs to show that it has conducted a permissibility check on them. In the case of Reform, some of its biggest donors (like Tice) are effectively woven into the party apparatus. This makes it much harder for the party to be seen to be one step removed from the money."

An increasingly narrow English curriculum, with its emphasis on phonics and 'teaching to the test', is squeezing reading for pleasure out of our primary schools, experts in the field tell Lydia Chantler-Hicks.

Rebecca Johns finds that British scientist James Lovelock warned executives of the risks of burning fossil fuels in the 1960s. Rather than share his reports with the public, claims an imminent legal case, Shell responded by funding the Global Climate Coalition – an industry group that pursued multimillion-dollar influence campaigns promoting climate denial and misinformation.

Leanne Tritton reports on the fate of Shrewsbury's Shirehall, the modernist former home of the Shropshire County Council.

"Dirk Bogarde came in for some stick from certain quarters for his portrayal of General Sir Frederick 'Boy' Browning, who was under considerable pressure from Monty to deliver Operation Market-Garden. Dubious about taking Arnhem, Browning stated that they’d be going 'a bridge too far.' He said this before the operation, but there is no scene with Montgomery in the film, instead Bogarde gets the line after the snafu, coming across like an aloof clever-dick 'told you so' type." Tim Pelan looks back to to 1977 and the making of A Bridge Too Far.

Trapped pigeon freed from netting under bridge in Shrewsbury with ‘verbal encouragement’ by firefighters

Our Headline of the Day Award goes to an old friend of this blog, the Shropshire Star.

When I showed the judges this photograph, which has the bridge in question at its centre, albeit in the background, they said: "Oh well, I suppose it will have to do."

Three Lions but no St George's flags

I went for a walk across the town after lunch today and saw this Three Lions flag. What I didn't see was any St George's flags.

Twenty years ago, I was in Shropshire during the 2006 World Cup and I can remember St George's flags in the upstairs windows of houses in some very leafy streets in Shrewbury. I expect the children of the house demanded them for their bedroom windows. This year in Market Harborough, there's nothing.

It looks as though the far right has put us off our national flag by making it a symbol their thuggish politics. They couldn't be more unpatriotic if they tried.

Good Friday in Shropshire

From The Folklore of Shropshire by Roy Palmer:

Until the 1860s, when the well was drained, it was the custom on Good Friday to dip one's hand in the water, deemed good for weak eyes, of St Margaret's well at Wellington. 

Much more recently, comfortably into the 20th century, the congregation of Lords Hill Baptist Church met at Snailbeach in the afternoon and perambulated the area, pausing to sing hymns to the accompaniment of a brass band. 

Until the 1930s, most places of work closed on Good Friday. People traditionally spent the time in their gardens, and this was considered a good time for planting potatoes. Formerly, bread baked on this day was believed to have curative properties. 

Many Shrewsbury families trekked to Haughmond Hill, following the canal towpath to Uffington. Children played and picnicked on the hill until the Second World War ended the custom.

Pollution from Shropshire lead mines still reaches the Severn

This information from an Environment Agency page will come as no surprise to regular readers:

There is evidence of lead mining in the Minsterley area of the Shropshire Hills since pre-Roman times. The importance of lead mining grew during the medieval period and had become a major part of the economy of Snailbeach and Minsterley by the late 16th and 18th centuries, respectively. 

This continued to grow throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, until the 19th century, when the mining activity was at its peak. During the 1870s the Stiperstones area was one of Britain’s main sources of lead.

But the page goes on to say that these long-abandoned mines still present a significant pollution problem:

Minsterley Brook is polluted in its headwaters by cadmium, however after the input of a mine water discharge known as Wood Adit at Gravels, the watercourse is polluted along its length for cadmium, lead and zinc down to the confluence with Rea Brook. 

Hogstow Brook is polluted along its length by cadmium, lead and zinc from its source at the outflow of the Boat Level mine drainage tunnel. Further metal polluted inputs enter the watercourse from Snailbeach. 

After the confluence of Rea Brook and Minsterley Brook, Rea Brook is still polluted at the sampling point at Hook-a-Gate Bridge near Bayston Hill. However, Rea Brook is not polluted, when assessed as an annual average, approximately 8km downstream of Hook-a-Gate Bridge at Coleham in the centre of Shrewsbury. 

Rea Brook flows for 25 miles from Marton Pool near the Welsh border to the Severn at Shrewsbury, passing Minsterley, Pontesbury, Hanwood, Hook-a-Gate and Bayston Hill on the way. 

It is joined at Minsterley by the Minsterley Brook, which rises on Stapeley Hill and runs through the wooded Hope Valley. The Hogstow Brook is a smaller stream that joins the Minsterley Brook shortly before its confluence with the Rea Brook.

There is another page on the pollution of these rivers on Restoring Europe's Rivers, but it's 10 years old and I don't know its provenance.

But, for what its worth, it says:

The mines were worked for mainly lead ores, but also zinc ore and latterly barites until closure in the 1940s, leaving spoil deposits and drainage adits which discharge to Minsterley Brook at various points. The mines are a significant source of heavy metal pollution in the catchment, and the discharges from them represent one of the longest continuous sources of pollution in the whole Severn River Basin.

Environment Agency routine monitoring found there were high levels of zinc in Minsterley Brook over most of its length, exceeding the Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) for the brook (75ug/l). As a result, the watercourse isn't achieving the 'Good status' for water quality as set out in our Severn River Basin Plan. 

The Boat Level adit discharge is the main source of the zinc (around 3000kg per annum) and other heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead, and discharges these pollutants into the Hogstow Brook. Immediately downstream of the Boat Level adit the zinc concentrations are up to 47x the EQS. 

At Minsterley, the zinc concentrations are 8x the EQS. Downstream of the mines, concentrations exceed the EQS for over 15km, until the Rea Brook reaches Hanwood and dilution from other rivers lowers the concentration to below the EQS.

Ecological surveys of the brooks have found aquatic insects were suffering as a result of these heavy metals, which can settle in river sediments. There is also a lower than expected population of small fish species.

To end on a happier note, the pretty little bridge in the photograph above crosses the Minsterley Brook in the churchyard of Holy Trinity, Hope.

For Central Bylines: The forgotten Shropshire tragedy that inspired The Mousetrap

I met the editor of Central Bylines for coffee while I was on holiday in Shrewsbury. "Did you know that The Mousetrap was inspired by a real-life case that took place in Shropshire?" I asked.

So that's what my second article for the site is about.

Too often victims of crime are seen only as victims, so I was pleased to be able to include this from a news report of the trial:

Mrs Connop, who had previously fostered them and their younger brother Freddie in Herefordshire, described them in her evidence as "happy-go-lucky and harum-scarum, but nothing else" and Dennis himself as a "forgiving and sweet boy".

On which note, the photo below, which must be copyright to the O'Neill family, shows (from the left) Terry, Dennis and Freddie O'Neill in their days with Mrs Connop.

I've written before for Lion and Unicorn about the influence of this case on an earlier play: No Room at the Inn. And also about its uncanny parallels with what is now my favourite Malcolm Saville story Seven White Gates.

High Court overturns approval of 200,000-bird intensive poultry unit in River Severn catchment area near Shrewsbury

River Action is hailing a "turning point" for the movement against polluting factory farming. The High Court has overturned the planning permission Shropshire Council granted for a 200,000-bird intensive poultry unit near Shrewsbury in the River Severn catchment area,

The campaign group says:

The case was brought by local campaigner and River Action board member Dr Alison Caffyn, supported by River Action. The judgment quashes Shropshire Council’s planning decision and marks a major turning point in the fight against the irresponsible and harmful spread of factory farms and the protection of the UK’s iconic rivers.

This victory sends a clear message that planning authorities must:

• Assess the cumulative impacts of having multiple intensive agricultural developments in one river catchment before granting permission for another. 

• Consider how livestock production units dispose of the waste from treatment facilities downstream, including from anaerobic digestion plants.

You can read the full High Court judgment online. Shropshire Council, which has been run by the Liberal Democrats since last month's local elections, has announced that it will not appeal against it.

Scantily-clad barrister who appeared at Shrewsbury Crown Court hearing in no trousers gets stern telling-off from judge

The Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Many thanks to the reader who nominated this one. You know what I like.

The Lib Dems didn't just win Shropshire: They won Shrewsbury too

On Thursday the Liberal Democrats won a majority of seats on Shrewsbury Town Council for the first time. The council had been controlled by Labour since 2013.

Shropshire Live quotes Alex Wagner, who won Quarry and Coton Hill ward for the Lib Dems:

"This is a truly incredible result, more than we could have hoped for. We know that we now have a huge amount of work to do and a strong mandate to deliver change for residents.

"We’re going to prioritise protecting local services. Whether that’s investing in keeping Shrewsbury tidy, making our parks the best in Britain, or stepping up to fill the space left by the County Council as it goes through financial turbulence - we’re on your side.

"Thank you to everyone who supported us, and to everyone who turned out to vote in general. This is a mandate for change and ambition in how we deliver services.

"We fully intend to repay the trust people have put in us with hard work all year round."

And the report also gives the voting figures for the town council election:

Liberal Democrats - 10 seats, 8,158 votes, 37.1%

Labour - 4 seats, 4,440 votes, 20.2%

Reform - 1 seat, 4,280 votes, 19.4%

Green - 2 seats, 2,995 votes, 13.6%

Conservative - 0 seats, 1,689 votes, 7.7%

With the Lib Dems also taking control of Shropshire Council after making 29 gains, it was a truly remarkable day for us in the county.

Malcolm Saville visits Shrewsbury in 1963

Malcolm Saville was a Sussex man, but his most popular books were those set in the Shropshire hills.

This advertisement from the Wellington Journal (12 January 1963) shows him making an appearance at a Shrewsbury bookshop to sign books before giving a talk at the town library.

Saville had long worked in publishing - I believe he was even Enid Blyton's publicist at one time - and did not give up that day job when his career as a children's writer took off.

DarwIN Shrewsbury Festival, February 2025

Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809, and the 21st DarwIN Shrewsbury Festival celebrates his legacy with a month-long programme throughout his birth month.

About 40 events are scheduled, including guided tours, music, lectures, art exhibitions and interactive activities

An extensive programme of music and talks will highlight Darwin’s life story, home and garden, impact on modern science, relationship with his wife, Emma Darwin, and musical connections

Interactive educational opportunities for children and families will run throughout February half-term.

Full details here.

Santa's new sleigh delayed by snow and won't feature in tonight's Shrewsbury Christmas lights switch-on

Embed from Getty Images

Sad news from Shrewsbury, but at least the Shropshire Star wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The Joy of Six 1271

"Council estates are not Labour. Tower Estate, which had Labour councillors continually for almost five decades, now has three Lib Dem councillors all elected on around 50 per cent of the vote. Lincoln’s Liberal Democrats have proven we can win anywhere." Darryl Smalley says it’s time for us to march into the council estates.

Andy Cowper on the Darzi review of the NHS: "It’s interesting how much the Darzi review emphasises Lansley’s NHS reforms. It’s also politically smart, because they were a total failure. Choice, competition, and clinical commissioning achieved nothing in the English NHS over the past 12 years. The Darzi review’s main, unstated purpose is about the allocation of political blame. It does that quite effectively."

"The first government minister who kept a cat with him when on government business was Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII. It was said he travelled with a number of cats, took them to Mass and that they sat in at meetings with him. The statue of Cardinal Wolsey in Ipswich shows a cat peeping around his robes." Nicola Cornick sets out the long history of political cats.

"Despite the grave fate that awaits Mary, for the most part Yield to the Night is a quiet film that relies on the emotional dexterity of its star for a narrative engine. At every juncture, Dors was not just convincing, but compelling. It was a mammoth, and yet searingly intimate, performance." Chloe Walker celebrates Diana Dors' wonderful performance in the anti-death-penalty film Yield to the Night (1956).

Matt McManus wants the left to read the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre.

Shroppie Mon will tell you all about a Shrewsbury dragon.