In my quest to visit all the counties of England in one year, I dragged G off to the beautiful county of Shropshire on a bank holiday weekend (he hates to leave the house on a bank holiday weekend, he’s English and suffers from Henny Penny syndrome where the sky is always falling). I had a list of places that I wanted to explore in Shropshire and exploring Shrewsbury was at the top of my list…
…ummm possibly so I could eat a Shrewsbury Biscuit! Have car, will travel for food!
^^Can we all thank G for taking an almost respectable photo of me for once…I don’t actually look 9 months pregnant in the said photo…tired yes…pregnant no!
I’d grown up eating Shrewsbury biscuits in New Zealand so it was time I tried them in Shrewsbury and I was lucky to find some gluten free ones (here is my Gluten Free Guide to Shropshire). We enjoyed a mug of tea at the Market Buffet tea room which has been operating for decades inside the Shrewsbury Market Hall and it seems to be a favourite for the locals as it was heaving plus it has some cute little views over Shrewsbury.
The market is located under the 1960’s clock tower…
…and has lots of treats for foodies…
…say hello to a regular sized scones Shropshire style…big enough to feed a family of 6! The stall holder was giggling at me as I took photos of his cakes and scones…you could tell I wasn’t from Shropshire hehe. A word of warning: these aren’t gluten free!
Leaving the market behind we enjoyed the delightful rain and puddles that were springing up all around Shrewsbury…we took this as an opportunity to do a bit of retail therapy…the sky wasn’t the only thing weeping, so were our credit cards…G thought Shrewsbury was really good for shopping and I have to agree. We had a wander around in the rain admiring the beautiful old buildings in the square…
…there was a lot of activities taking place as there was a book festival on and the town was busy…there was a real feeling of community spirit which I’ve found missing in other areas of England…
…to secret little passages…
…beautiful architecture…
…to men with bows in their hair, Shrewsbury had it all!
We popped inside an antiques market and found a million and one pieces that we wanted to buy but held off as we were going to Peru a few days later (we didn’t in the end) so we popped inside The Gallery Tea Rooms for lunch and waited for the rain to move on. Finally the sun arrived so we headed off to explore some more…
^^The BBC Britain instagram account featured this photo yesterday…how cool is that!
…G has realised that the way to make me happy is to let me take copious amounts of photos of wobbly buildings without him nagging or complaining in my ear…
…he had the patience of a saint that day…
…of a saint!…
…or maybe it was because he bought something and knew it was better for him not to complain as he would get a look…my mum taught me well!
Unfortunately it did decide to get a bit overcast again…but on a bright side it makes for better photos so I can’t really complain too much…other than having difficulty trying to balance an umbrella, a ten tonne handbag and a camera looking for a perfect angle!
^^This was my favourite photo from our day out exploring Shrewsbury
I loved the mixture of buildings in Shrewsbury, there’s something for everyone…
…the structured lines…
…a mixture of old and new…
…gorgeous red brick buildings…
…and more wobbly buildings…
…and pretty little churches!
We ended up sitting down on the bench for a little bit enjoying the beautiful colours of Shrewsbury…I told G that I could quite happily move to Shrewsbury…I’m kinda over the whole Tall vs Grande world that we currently live in and just like the simplicity of getting asked if I want a Cup or a Mug of Tea…remember when life was simple?!?
Welcome to Shrewsbury! Such a sweet little place to explore.
We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Telford which was a good base for exploring Shrewsbury, the Iron Gorge and Bridgnorth (more on those soon…I didn’t want to give you all RSI!)
Have you visited Shropshire before? Did you fall in love with the county? What’s your favourite spot in Shropshire?
You can read more about the county of Shropshire via the official tourism page.
xx
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