Shrewsbury's Fields of Dreams
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 07. 2022
- No area of Shrewsbury town centre has seen such great change over such a short period of time as the area between the main shopping streets and the River Severn.
It is an area seemingly poised for the biggest changes in its history, but this is a place where big changes have been happening for the last 150 years. So, here’s a chance to find out more about the rapidly changing look and feel of Raven Meadows in a fascinating new video collaboration between Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, Shropshire Archives and the Old Market Hall.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed “Shrewsbury’s Fields of Dreams”, you may wish to explore the subjects covered by it in the following sources without which this video couldn’t have been produced.
Nigel Baker: Shrewsbury: An Archaeological Assessment of an English Border Town (2010)
T.M Brown & Michael D Watson “The Civil War Roushill Wall, Shrewsbury”, Transactions of Shropshire Archaeological & Historical Soc. Vol 66. (1989)
Dorothy Cromarty: Everyday Life in Medieval Shrewsbury (1991)
Joyce Butt: “Red lights in Roushill” in Victorian Shrewsbury ed. Barrie Trinder (1984)
I was born and bred in Shrewsbury decades ago. Still feel an affinity with this lovely town and thanks for producing such quality footage.
Glad you enjoyed it!
A superb trip into the history of Shrewsbury , thank you , watched numerous times
Wonderful, I love history & grew up in Shrewsbury. Often wish we’d never left, lovely town.
Through being born and bred here this video gives a massive sense of nostalgia. 32 years in the town even I have seen some changes. Nothings better than a lovely blue sky, freezing temperature and shrewsburys christmas lights out. There will always be something about this town.
It will likely be because you were born and bred in Shrewsbury that you have such a sense of nostalgia. This video conjures up nostalgia even for those of us who call ourselves Salopians now, but were not originally from this area.
Congratulations to all concerned in putting together such an interesting and informative record of this area of Shrewsbury's history.
Many thanks!
An excellent film. Really enjoyable.
Thank you!
This is marvellous. Thank you. More like this, please!
Fabulously produced, researched and really interesting history of the town. Such a pity about rhe historic vandalism that has occured in quite recent times.
My Great grandparents moved from County Mayo to live in Medlicott Buildings in 1861 census and Phoenix Passage later - very interesting video thankyou
a very good video - well done
Wonderful!
A fascinating video and so interesting to see how the town has changed.
This video was recommended to me as something similar to videos I make about Norwich. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have added Shrewsbury to my list of places to visit. Thank you.
What a delightful and informative video on my home town and how sad to have lost so much history to modernisation. I was lucky to have some of this history told to me from my parents and grandparents so was lovely to see footage of places they knew before me. My mother was born in meadow place and me in Grinshill drive so thanks for explaining it was a type of stone as I often wondered where the name came from! So enjoyed this trip around my childhood. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Loved this video, a nostalgic journey through the town I knew growing up. We went to the Saturday matinee at the Empire and wandered around Rowleys House and Rousehill area which is so different now.
Very well researched and presented. Well done
Thanks for watching
Ill never forget that bridge thoe, wat a lovely view it was if there was one.
Many thanks for this interesting and informative video! Such huge changes from the 70’s when I used to study in Shrewsbury. 💕💕
Glad you enjoyed it!
Remind me when i get my time machine to go punch some sense into the 60's property developers/vandals.
It was amazing to watch credit to you, b&b here too.
Wow, this is wonderful. I am my self working on a 3D model of the area, planning to cover the multi story car park, bt building, the Raven hotel, Horse repository, livestock market and what ever else takes me eye. The starting point for me was the footbridge from Woolies too the car park, which as led to some what more....
Sounds great!
I always loathed that low-rent Riverside Shopping Centre with its Mac Fisheries, Dewhurst's and Green Shield's shops.
Interesting film I will post this link into my groups on Facebook
Thank you!
The music reminds me of the stuff played on the phone during the wait for the local surgery to answer…
Really interesting street names on some of those old maps. When and why did Knucking Street become Hill's Lane? When and how was it decided to rename Old Fish Street into Butcher's Row and St. Alkmund's Place? When and why was Stalls renamed Shoplatch? How did the Pride family wield enough power to have High Pavement renamed as Pride Hill?
I already knew from research towards a GCSE geography project in 1989 that what is now referred to as Wyle Cop was formerly divided between Wyle Cop (the top), The Wyle (the main hill) and Under the Wyle. You can see 'Under the Wyle' on one of these maps but not 'The Wyle'. When did the use of 'Wyle Cop' start to creep beyond the top of the hill to encompass the main stretch of hill that was formerly called The Wyle? After working on my GCSE project, I wrote in to the Shrewsbury Chronicle a letter headed something like 'Compromises on Plans for Town Parking', weighing in to the debate then raging about whether or not cars should be banned from the town centre. It was published, listing my then age (15). I managed to sneak in a reference to The Wyle, and was subsequently complimented by some old folk for using the traditional street names. Fun times!
Many thanks for this comment and interesting questions. We passed them on to Phil to see if he could shed some light and he came back with some answers, which I shall outline below. He did however stress that all this information came from a slightly outdated source, ‘JL Hobbs Shrewsbury Street Names (1954)’. A far better bet might be ‘The Place-Names Of Shropshire Part Four: Shrewsbury Town And Suburbs And The Liberties Of Shrewsbury by Margaret Gelling in collaboration with W. Champion and the late H. D. G. Foxall’. Shropshire Archives will have a copy.
1) When and why did Knucking Street become Hill's Lane? Kockabitinestrete c.1268, Cocabitestret 1299, Knokynlone 1377, Knuckin Street 1657, Mr Hill's Lane 1700, but old name persisted; Nackin Street 1851.
2) When and how was it decided to rename Old Fish Street into Butcher's Row and St. Alkmund's Place? It wasn't; today's Fish Street was Old Fish Street in 1657 but confusion apparently came in when Butcher Row was inaccurately named Old Fish Street by John Speed in 1611
3) When and why was Stalls renamed Shoplatch? It wasn't; - Stalls was Mardol Head - Mardifoldeshedde date unknown, Hokurstalles 1391, Le Stalls 1428, Mardowell Head 1580, but back to Lee Stalls in 1725. In 1825 Street Act Commissioners decreed that it should be called Mardol Head. Shoplatch was Soteplace in 1219, Schetepache in 1295, Sheplache in 1377 and Shoplatch by 1647.
4) How did the Pride family wield enough power to have High Pavement renamed as Pride Hill? Unlikely that they did. Pride family owned a hall and shops in the street (bits still remaining of former within Boots Opticians and neighbours) probably as early as 13th Century, certainly by 1445. Apparently the name Pride Hill was little used until the 19th Century (normally called Single Butcher Row - to distinguish it from nearby Double Butcher Row, (now simply Butcher Row) - on one side and Corvisors' or Shoemakers' Row on the other)
5) When did the use of 'Wyle Cop' start to creep beyond the top of the hill to encompass the main stretch of hill that was formerly called The Wyle? Apparently there has not been any consistency in this until fairly recently. In 1825 The trustees of the Shrewsbury Street Act tried to insist on the division into The Wyle from bridge to Dogpole and Wyle Cop from Dogpole to St Julian's Church but without success.
I hope that helps! Our thanks to Phil for his work on this.
@@shropshiremuseums6912 Brilliant, thanks to Phil for the excellent answers and to you for passing my questions on to him! My mistake about Shoplatch. I was misled by the name 'The Stalls' into imagining a natural progression to 'Shoplatch' via the same linguistic concept of shops or stalls, but it was a false friend. Mardol Head and Shoplatch being a continuation of each other in the same line, 26 years since I left Shrewsbury had given me enough time to forget which was which!
Fascinating about Old Fish Street just being a map-maker's mistake. Also noticed in one of the maps in the video, I think, that it (Butcher's Row) was called Ox Street for a while!
About The Wyle / Wyle Cop and their point of division, what the trustees of the Shrewsbury Street Act proposed in 1825 is in line with my source for my GCSE project back in 1989-90, and seems entirely logical when you consider that 'cop' actually means 'top' and the hill itself is not its top.
There was a similar story with the overuse of the name Barker Street when I lived in Shrewsbury, as I recall - properly it was just the middle section of the stretch from Bellstone to Bridge Street, but the name was overused, and one of the corrections I tried to make in the article I had published in the Shrewsbury Chronicle early in 1990 was to the sign on the multi-storey car park whose entrance was actually in St. Austin's Street - the sign on the side at that time called it the Barker Street car park, and I pointed out the error in my article. I think someone in planning must have been paying attention to the Chronicle, because within a few years, the sign had been replaced by one reading St. Austin's Street. Of course, it's since been demolished, but it wouldn't surprise me if photographs survive of when the multi-storey was still standing and was incorrectly labelled Barker Street.
Phil says:
No problem, glad to help. Just to clarify a couple of issues;
It's worth quoting Hobbs in full on Fish Street; "On Speed's map, Butcher Row is called Old Fish Street; but Rocque more accurately places this at the north end of St Alkmund's Church, with new Fish Street (the present Fish Street) at the opposite end of the church. Old Fish Street led from Butcher Row to the top of St Julian's steps and later became Berrington's Square, from Berrington's mansion in Dogpole, and is now St. Alkmund's Square." It's worth noting that New Fish Street (ref date 1649) and Old Fish Street (ref date 1657) were both used to describe today's Fish Street around the same time. Probably this confusion reigned a few years earlier when Speed did his map in 1610. Clearly confusion reigned in the 17th century!
There is no evidence that Butcher Row was ever called Ox Street, despite it being extremely logical that it might have been, given the vast numbers of oxen that would have met their end there. Hobbs lists these names for the street; Le fflesshomeles 1282, Bocheria 1354, La Bocherewe 1383, Flessheweresrewe 1396, The Fleshe boordes 1580, Butchers' Row 1653, Double Row 1786. However, in 1711 St. Mary's Street was recorded as Ox Lane. This also appears on Rocque's map later in the century and up until 1825. In that year the busybody Trustees of the Shrewsbury Street Act decreed that henceforth Ox Lane "and that part of Dogpole as far as Mrs. Skymsher's house should be known as St Mary's Street". In fairness to the trustees, it should be noted that the street was recorded as St Mary's Street in 1586, so this was the return of an old name - and they didn't sanitise the use of Grope Lane as 19th century prudes did in other towns...
Again, I would suggest checking all this against what Margaret Gelling has to say.
Phil also wanted to add this additional observation:
Modern-day Barker Street does of course refer these days only to the section of road between Bellstone and the junction of St Austin's Street and Bridge Street. Barker Street is first referred to as such by no earlier than 1530. Before that it was part of Romaldesham (slight variations in spelling over the years) which stretched from Shoplatch to the Austin Friary (near swimming baths) and included today's Bellstone, Barker Street, St Austin's Street and St Austin's Friars (but not Bridge Street, formerly Cripplelode).
Watch this space!
For me, the very ugliest building in Shrewsbury is the Market Hall. The previous Market Hall was so beautiful.
What a shame....
architecturally nothing good has happened since when? ugh - the market hall clock tower. darwin shopping centre is a monstrosity - is it derelict yet? now they want to pull down the council office after a fanfare of design only as recently as the 1970's. at least it had a design and is not just a square pile of red bricks. they keep voting in the most un-aesthetic minds possible with no sympathy for the surroundings. i know the future of the high street is uncertain so there is no need to make rush decisions. new plans always involve so many eateries and coffee shops which quite often fail - does no one cook at home anymore? apart from M&S there is no supermarket for the town centre dwellers and that would regenerate nearby shops and the park and ride too.. that concrete sculpture in the gardens by the welsh bridge which i have had explained to me - something to do with darwin - needs gelignite! like so many other towns they keep building the same chain stores on the edge of town and leave the centre to fail. queue more bland brick houses!
Shrewsbury. Not Shrowsbury.
No field of dreams, shack like rest of this run down country.