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  • 26/04/2024
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.

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