Sabrina Boat comes to the rescue of the Shrewsbury Guided tours.

Shropshire Star

The guided walking tours were due to finish but the people behind Sabrina the Boat are taking up the reigns.  We find out more and learn a few things about some of the buildings and Mick Jagger in wood.

Transcript

00:00Hello Dillon, good morning.

00:02Good morning, how are you?

00:04I'm alright matey.

00:05A face we recognise normally on water.

00:08The Sabrina the boat.

00:09That's right.

00:10We've switched to land.

00:11Yeah, and landlocked Dillon today.

00:13Yeah.

00:14Dilwyn.

00:15What's going on today then buddy?

00:17We've got a few people behind you.

00:18I can see a few laminates, a couple of town maps.

00:21What's happening?

00:22So, as of next Wednesday, 1st May,

00:25we're taking over from doing the guided tours around the town.

00:29Yeah.

00:30The historic tours.

00:31The council can't do them anymore

00:34and we're sort of keen to make sure it continues.

00:37It's very, I mean Shrewsbury's such a special place

00:40and it's one of those places you can walk round and think

00:42oh that's a pretty building,

00:43but there's so many stories isn't there?

00:45So they're kind of quite important aren't they really

00:47to keep these going?

00:48Oh it's amazing really.

00:50I mean we've got 1100 years of history

00:52and there's lots of little cheeky little stories and statues

00:57and if you look up you see all sorts of things

00:59you wouldn't normally do when you're wandering around.

01:02You know the tour guides really highlight these things.

01:05So when will the tours be then?

01:07How does it work?

01:08So they're going to run every single day

01:10from 2.15 and they're 90 minute tours.

01:14We're going to meet here

01:15and then we've got a number of different routes

01:17but it depends on the theme of the tour really.

01:19But the daily tours will be a snapshot of Shrewsbury really.

01:25And do people need to pre-book

01:26or can they just turn up here if there's a tour issue?

01:28They do need to pre-book

01:29and they can do that at the moment via the Sabrina website.

01:32Got you, great stuff.

01:34Right we'll go and say hello to some of the guides.

01:37Hello guides and skippers, how you doing?

01:39Good thank you very much.

01:41Looking forward to this.

01:43Well the sun shines on the righteous,

01:45we're all here.

01:47Sir, a few nice features in the square,

01:49I can see a nice building behind us.

01:51I'm going to test your knowledge now,

01:52shall we have a tootle over?

01:54Is he any good?

01:56Right, come on then, let's test him.

01:58Right, so what is this building?

02:00I know it's pretty, but what is it?

02:02The Old Market Hall,

02:03built in the latter half of Queen Elizabeth's reign.

02:07So 8 years after the Armada.

02:09The extraordinary thing about it in many ways

02:11is that it's still upright

02:12because it's a boggy plain here

02:15and when they put the lift in

02:17they needed to go down 6 metres to get to Bedrock.

02:21So they floated it.

02:23If you look at it,

02:25apart from the fact it's still coming,

02:27it also has got

02:29one of only two statues in the country

02:32in the niche of Edward IV's father,

02:35Richard Duke of York,

02:37who was killed at Wakefield.

02:39And it's also got the three loggerheads,

02:41the three leopards,

02:42the emblem of both Shrewsbury

02:44and of the county of Shropshire.

02:47Oh, that's where the leopards come into it.

02:49That's where the leopards come into it.

02:50And you know they're leopards because they're big cats

02:52and they're looking at you.

02:53You know what?

02:54I know that symbol

02:56but I'm not sure I knew there were three leopards.

02:58Yeah.

02:59Any significance to them being leopards?

03:02Not that I know of.

03:03Yeah.

03:04No, I mean they needed an emblem.

03:05Yeah.

03:06Got it.

03:07And this building now,

03:08is it a cinema now?

03:10It was a coroner's court.

03:11Yeah.

03:12It was converted 15, 20 years ago

03:15to a cinema and coffee shop.

03:17Yeah.

03:18Extremely fine cinema.

03:20And your own personal passion for Shrewsbury,

03:23where did that come from then?

03:25It's just got an awful lot of history.

03:27It has, hasn't it?

03:28It's full of stories.

03:29And full of people who've become famous

03:32in their own right

03:33and have done great things for the country.

03:34Yeah.

03:35And if you include Charles Darwin for the world.

03:38Yeah.

03:39Even though he didn't much like Shrewsbury.

03:41And it's...

03:42Oh, right.

03:43Okay, okay.

03:44As soon as he could.

03:45Oh, right.

03:46That's interesting.

03:48Yeah.

03:49Good point.

03:50Yeah, he did.

03:51I mean, it isn't just for touristy stories.

03:53There's a lot of locals

03:54that could do one of these tours

03:55and I'm sure they'd be very much enlightened

03:57by the end of it.

03:58Yes.

03:59So any particular favourite spot in the town for you

04:02that's kind of picture perfect?

04:03Oh, St Mary's Church.

04:04St Mary's, yeah.

04:05Where they've got the arrow marks on the side.

04:08Yeah.

04:09On the south side.

04:10Oh, wow.

04:11I didn't know that.

04:12Okay, interesting.

04:13And the other thing that's useful

04:14and you could see it now if you wanted.

04:15Yeah.

04:17What people don't do enough.

04:18Yeah.

04:19It's the same with me.

04:20Is look up.

04:21Yeah.

04:22You can see they've got...

04:23You can only see three of them from here.

04:24They've got statues of the members of the household.

04:26Is that the...

04:27Ah, the black and white timber.

04:28So it was an old mansion house.

04:30Well, it was...

04:31No, a mansion of Jack Jones.

04:33Yeah.

04:34And he did so well he bought the one next door.

04:36Ah.

04:37So he was a draper.

04:38That's where all the money comes from.

04:39Yeah, yeah.

04:40And that's statues of who on there you say?

04:41Who are the statues of on the top?

04:43Oh, they're members of the family.

04:44Oh, wow.

04:45That's one way to be remembered, isn't it?

04:47Yeah.

04:48Might get my own little statue

04:49for my little two-bed on Purton.

04:51Well, thank you, sir.

04:52That's right.

04:53That little moment's been quite enlightening for me.

04:54Thank you very much.

04:56Maggie, Maggie Love,

04:57you're going to be one of the guides there, aren't you?

04:58I am.

04:59And we were just having a little chinwag

05:01and go on, tell us...

05:03Mick Jagger lives in his well in Shrewsbury.

05:05He certainly does.

05:06Just fill us in.

05:08In 1990,

05:10the Borough Council allowed a local carpenter

05:13to replace the tie beam up there

05:15with a wonderful installation and carving of the River Severn

05:18with even motorbikes on it.

05:20But what's glorious is the jetted window here,

05:22the supports underneath

05:24are based on Mick Jagger's face.

05:27That's fantastic.

05:29I thought I was observant.

05:32I shall never walk down this alley again

05:34without thinking of the Jagger.

05:36Take a look at Maggie Thatcher.

05:38Oh, wow, yeah, Maggie Thatcher as well.

05:41You'll see the dragon

05:42that's on the dragon beam in Rouse Hill.

05:44I know that, yeah, yeah.

05:46And the reason why it's there

05:47is because the actual structure at that point

05:49is a dragon beam.

05:51Ah, I always wondered why it's a dragon.

05:54So the type of joint is called a dragon beam.

05:56Ah, OK, well, this is fascinating.

05:59OK, so on the front part of the building,

06:02again on the tie beam in the centre there,

06:04you've got a medallion.

06:05And in that medallion,

06:07you've got the carvings

06:09of the two heads back to back to each other.

06:12Yeah.

06:13So that's Heseldorn and Maggie Thatcher

06:15who were back to back over the Poltacs,

06:17which have got the flag saying Poltacs,

06:19again, 1990.

06:21Wow.

06:22And then you've got the other one

06:23which has got the Selopian coat of arms on.

06:26Well, thank you, Maggie.

06:27My pleasure.

06:28This and more is what people can learn

06:30on the Shrewsbury Tours.

06:31Thank you, my dear, thank you.

Category

Transcript

Recommended