Shrewsbury: Beyond My Expectations

After a mid-morning flight from Newquay to Manchester, which included a nice chat with a chap about Thomas Hardy's main novels (Jude, Tess, The Woodlanders, The Mayor of Casterbridge etc.), I found myself heading on a train to Shrewsbury to visit my brother-in-law and his wife and children.

Not long after arriving in Shrewsbury, my brother-in-law immersed me in the town centre, stopping off at a Charles Darwin place on the way:

Have just read that Darwin was born at the family home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury in 1809.

Already, I was picking up that Shrewsbury was something of a red-stone town, with it reminding me of the Devon coastline, more than anything else.

Getting closer to the town centre, Medieval buildings became increasingly visible: 

 

With some (more than reasonable) recent artwork mixed in:

And some older artwork inside a pub (which only accepted cards) too:

 And the beautiful buildings kept on coming:

 With me needing to have my mobile camera at hand all the time:

 Getting to the heart of a traditional market town:

 The Medieval buildings seemed to be everywhere:

And  in Darwin's hometown, there was no shortage of churches:

With the Greek Orthodox church being possibly the jewel in the crown:

Not often you see an Orthodox church holding central position in an English town centre, it was interesting to see.

Shortly afterwards, I saw the incredible design work of the Creator, close up, on a tree on the banks of the River Severn:

 

Of course, I was blown away by the design work of the Summum Bonum (the Highest Good, God Almighty):

I'd never seen it so clear in natural design, this trip was now verging on the mystical. 

And still, there was more to see: 

 

Including Medieval Abbey remains which retained a working chapel, like at Bolton Abbey which I had visited earlier during my trip:

 

Have just read that Shrewsbury Abbey was originally established as a Benedictine monastery in the late 11th century.

From every angle, the remaining Abbey church looked impressive:

 

Have just read that Shrewsbury Abbey was dissolved as a working monastery by Henry VIII in 1540 during the infamous 1536-1541 Dissolution of the Monasteries period, of course.

 

 

Next to Shrewsbury Abbey, there were more recently built buildings which fitted in with the environment well:

 

And not that far away, we came across a Rock music pub that had wonderful Real Ale: 

 

Set beside an unused but NOT dilapidated church:

 

 

Shrewsbury did seem to be a town of churches, no bad thing, of course, and in this sense, the place reminded me a bit of Taunton in Somerset.
 

A massive well done to my brother-in-law for having taken me on such a wonderful, whistle-stop tour of the town, the place was much more than I had expected.