The Last Post. Gulp.

FINAL BLUES [apologies ter that Auden mon]

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Everything else seems drowned in fog

Because Fiskyoomon's ending her blog

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky that her blog is Dead,

Put crepe bows round the clock on the market hall

As Darwin and Clive mourn with us all.

Fiskin North, and South, and East and West,

Full working week and no Sunday rest,

Pauline's "my tonight in Shrewsbury" became my song;

I hoped that it 'ould last forever: I was wrong.

Salopians are not wanted, she's spoke ter every'un

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Unplug yer computer,yer know that yer shud;

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

This was how my day began, thank you Shroppiemon, legendary Shropshire Tweeter, whom I've only ever met virtually but you've kept me smiling all year long.  Gulp.  My Tonight From Shrewsbury's final day, down to the Shrewsbury Coffeehouse to write its final post.   Instead of writing though, I drank more coffee than was good for me and talked to friends - which is why I'm writing now instead, crouched over my desk whilst everybody else is out around the town, in the pubs  having New Year's Eve  fun.  

It's been quite a day.  After the Coffeehouse, I went off to Castlefields to watch parents and children engaging in the annual launching of paper boats to float downriver to the weir, spluttering with candlelight and in some cases fireworks.  All those shining faces, those little Shrewsbury people growing up  - what will the future bring for them?  And what will they remember  of 2013?

I'll remember a year the likes of which I don't expect to have again.  Twelve months ago, I started out on this blog not knowing what I'd find except that I'd no doubt it would be interesting.  And interesting it's certainly been! Thank you everyone who's been interviewed for this blog, followed it, retweeted it, 'liked' it on Facebook and encouraged me to keep it going through the year [this especially includes you, Dave].  There have been moments when I've been exhausted, but even then there has always been something about our wonderful town that has kept me going.  

Shrewsbury is a place like no other. I feel privileged to live in it. It's given more to me than I could ever give back, no matter how many My Tonight From Shrewsburys I wrote. Next year it'll be back to my 'day job' [writing novels]. I'll be tapestry-weaving as well for a joint exhibition I have lined up at Nuneaton City Art Gallery in June.  If you want to read more blogs by me, the place to go is the 'Blog' section of my Pauline Fisk website where I post occasionally on all sorts of subjects, sometimes even  Shrewsbury.

And then of course there's the book. Yes, you heard right. The My Tonight From Shrewsbury book. It may not, of course, come off [I've been an author long enough not to hold my breath] but talks are underway with a publisher, and something may appear next autumn.  If it does, you'll be the first to know.   

Whatever happens though, My Tonight From Shrewsbury will stay online.  We live in a glorious town, one that deserves being shouted about from the rooftops.  And that's what I hope this blog will continue to do.   

This is the bit where I say goodbye and play the Last Post. Except that I don't want to end the year on a mournful note, so with an eye to the brand new day which is 2014, with all its wonderful new opportunities, I'm playing a Reveille instead:

  

Christmas in Shrewsbury's Indoor Market

Today is slightly better - the sun is shining and the rain's holding off - but yesterday's rain and lashing wind didn't make for happy shoppers. Even in Waitrose and M & S, out of the stormy weather, shoppers failed to look happy.  There was one place in town, however, where the festive spirit was in good supply. Welcome to Shrewsbury's indoor market, one of my favourite places in town.   

Good morning Susan of Pengwern Books, with customer and local resident, Geoff Hardy.  Good to see you looking like you're having fun.

Good morning Carla Risden of Compost & Gooseberry.  Great to see you selling Linda Edwards' lovely cards and prints.

Good morning Birds' Nest Boys - every day of the year your cafe feels like Christmas but now even more so. Thanks for a year of twinkling lights.   

Good morning Ian, of Barkworth's Seafoods.  Your seasonal platters look great. Almost a year ago, Kate Gittings said I should taste your cooked mackerel. You had a real way with mackerel, she said - but I haven't got round to it yet.

Good morning Jean Jones of Antiques & Collectibles. If you're selling a nice piece of Coalport, I'll more than often pick it up, and I've meant to write about you all year long, but it's been a busy year and this, I'm sorry to say, is as close as I've got.

Shrewsbury market has everything from fresh dates to dressed crab, oysters and champagne to coffee and cake, free-from biscuits to home-made chocolates [good morning Julia], books [second hand books and records too], to turkeys, quails [and quail eggs] and even a choice of mobility scooters. You want a new rug? Give the market a try. You need a haircut? Carla's daughter will give you one and she'll give you a shave as well because she runs a proper cut throat barber shop, one of just a handful in the county. And what about Christmas - just about everything you could think of is right here at hand. Shrewsbury's indoor market, with its butchers, greengrocers, florists, fishmonger, pie-men and delicatessen is the place to come.

My Tonight From Shrewsbury could have devoted its entire year to writing about Shrewsbury market, its stallholders and its bustling life.  Every stall has its story. It would have been great to tell them all.  This isn't one of those synthetic pop-up markets you get in city centres with imitation log cabin-type bars with plastic windows, German sausages and beer at £4 a pint. This is a proper market. A market operating at the heart of town life, with a distinguished history and a future too. Happy Christmas, Shrewsbury Market.  Thank you for another great year.

The Castle Gates Library

A while back I wrote a post on Shrewsbury School’s Ancient Library, now here I am writing about the Castle Gates Library which is housed in what used to be the old Shrewsbury School.  It’s a drop-dead beautiful library, housed in one of the finest buildings associated with public lending libraries right across the country.  It’s one of the finest buildings in our town as well. We Shrewsbury folk are lucky to have such a fine library - and the extraordinary thing is that all are welcome, seven days a week, and it can be used for free.

I first joined a library back in the dawn of time when I was nine years old, queuing on my little scooter outside the newly-built library in my home town, waiting for its doors to open for the first time.  I loved the smell of books when I got inside, and I still find myself savouring that smell when I go through the doors at the Castle Gates Library. It makes me feel at home.

But then so it should. I’ve been a member of Castle Gates Library since moving to Shropshire back in 1974. I was a newcomer to the county then, wintering amongst the library’s shelves while my house sale went through.  In more recent years I was to find my own books on those shelves, but back then it was Shropshire Folk-Lore that I stumbled upon, collected by Charlotte Burne, Georgina Jackson’s Shropshire Word-Book and A.G. Bradley’s Book of the Severn, all of which have been invaluable in my writing life, as has that other treasure from amongst those shelves, Brian Waters’ Severn Stream.

As an author, I have much to be grateful for in the Castle Gates Library. But the other day it was as a reader that I met Caroline Buckley, Castle Gates’ Branch Manager, full of questions about the day-to-day mystery of how the library works. 

Caroline said that it depended for its smooth running upon a mass of tiny things. Even before opening to the public there were date-stamps to be updated, newspapers to put out, daily deliveries of requested books and returns to receive and record.  The hour before the library opened was always a busy one. Shelves would be tidied on a rolling rota system, which allowed for every section to be put in order before moving onto the next. 

Then, once the doors were opened, the day would be spent helping people find the books they wanted and use the computers.  For the weekly Story Times, they’d have up to thirty toddlers and accompanying parents, and on the monthly babies’ Rhyme Time the children’s library could become a bit of a buggy park. 

In addition, staff from Castle Gates Library would go out to the smaller libraries around town, like Bayston Hill’s library and the Lantern on Sundorne, and they’d help with activities in these. They were always responding to the time of the year, and to general interests that the public might have – books on sport activities around the time of the Olympics, for examples, or Booker short list displays.  There would be spooky stories on offer on Halloween week, and during the summer holidays there would be reading challenges.

Amid all this activity, one thing’s for sure – the Castle Gates Library might exude peacefulness and relaxation, but behind the scenes librarians are very busy people. In addition to their work in the library, they’re also organizing author events, school visits, book quests, poetry reading and composing competitions – you name it; if it’s to do with books and writing, they’ll be there. In addition, the library provides a quiet place for children to do homework.  It becomes packed during the exam season, Caroline said.  You never know who is going to turn up asking for what obscure piece of information, and it’s your job to help track it down.

Caroline has been at Castle Gates Library for fifteen years and seen many changes over those years.  Nowadays, she says, members of staff come in at a younger age than in her day.  The arrival of the internet, too, has brought about changes in the library.  Fifteen years ago there was no online referencing.  No emailing. No computers.  

Caroline can remember the library back to when she was a child. In those days, when the library included museum artifacts, it had stuffed birds in cases, children’s books in the Hobbes Room and an art gallery upstairs.  Then, in the 1980s a massive revamp took place. Then, in more recent years, the decision was made to open the library seven days a week. However, the biggest change of recent years, Caroline said, was the absorbing back into the Castle Gates building of the Reference Library, because of local government cutbacks.  

‘Some library services have faced far bigger cut-backs than that.  It was a shame to lose the reference library building, but in general terms  we’ve been lucky so far,’ said Caroline.   

It’s the books that count most, of course, buying new ones, repairing old ones – how does that all work? Caroline said that suppliers would put together book lists according to a library’s specific criteria.  Then librarians would go through the lists, which largely happened online nowadays [‘You mean there’s no actually physically handling of books any more?’ I naively asked] and decide whether to knock books off the list or arrange for their delivery. ‘Most days we have new books coming in,’ Caroline said.  ‘You hear in the papers about book funds being cut, but we still have some money left for buying books.’ 

Looking after stock is of vital importance.  When books become too tatty to keep on the shelves they’ll go into book sales.  Some books disappear altogether from the shelves, others - including the classics - will be ordered anew. ‘A considerable amount of time is spend repairing,’ Caroline said.  ‘The binding of a book will often be the first thing to go. A careful repair, or a simple re-jacketing, can give a book months more life.’

According to Caroline, Shrewsbury’s Castle Gates Library has a bit of every sort of book. Crime novels are massively popular, as are thrillers, Booker Prize winners and books that have been made into films. You got to know the regulars, Caroline said, and what they liked. And you followed the reviews and picked up trends. What was the best thing about her job, I wanted to know.  ‘The variety,’ Caroline replied.  ‘Two days in the library are never the same - and you’re never short of a good book to read!’

Shrewsbury Antiques Market

It turns out it's not the Shrewsbury Antiques Market after all. All these years that's what I've been calling it, but if you look on the door it's the Shrewsbury Antiques Centre. Even so, I'll always think of it as one of three hidden markets in Shrewsbury.  If you don't know what you're looking for you could easily miss it. Its entrance is tucked round the back of Princess House, almost opposite to Candle Lane Books, virtually out of sight behind the Jobs Centre.  A veritable treasure house lies underground, but all that hints to it is a pair of glazed doors and steps leading down. Go down those steps, however, and you'll find yourself in a vast underground cavern with antiques and bric-a-brac stretching away in every direction – a cornucopia of collectibles, with always more to rummage through and something new to find. 

I know what I’m talking about here. I’ve been mooching about in the Shrewsbury Antiques Centre for the past thirty years, which makes me almost a lifelong customer because next year SAC will be celebrating its 30th anniversary. The Antique Centre was set up in 1984 by John Lanford, assisted by Matt Smith who, after John died, took up the reins. For those who knew it was there, it proved to be a magnet. Over the years that number has grown too, and now, especially with the current interest in all things nostalgic, the Antiques Centre is a significant part of the town’s tourist trail.  

You’ll find everything down there from fine Coalport cups to costume jewellery, Victoriana - including household items and old toys - to military memorabilia, vintage clothing to furniture. Paintings. Prints. Old cutlery. Old rugs. China. Glass. Kitchen ware. Fishing gear. I could go on.

Some people reckon the basement was originally used as holding cells by the police – that it’s a massive underground dungeon where rumours of ghosts abound.  I was talking about this the other day to John Allen, and he said in all his time down there, both as stall-holder and helping to run the place, he’d seen no ghosts. He had heard, though, that the basement was once conceived as a nightclub, and could well believe that this was true. Structurally, however, the place was much the same today it had been thirty years ago when John Lanford first opened up.   

Currently there are one hundred stall-holders occupying twenty stalls and a variety of cabinets.  For many years those stall-holders remained unchanged. You’d always know what you’d find when you went into the Antique Centre – here vintage clothes, there  furniture, there coins and silverware, here tin biscuit boxes, prints, etc.  Now, however, a wind of change is blowing through the place, with older stall-holders stepping down - some moving on to opening their own shops - and new stall-holders trying their hand. 

The key to becoming a successful collector, according to John Allen, is to always buy quality. And the key to becoming a successful seller is to find things that people didn't have but would like to, given the chance.  ‘If it’s quirky, different and priced well, it will sell,’ John said. 

John Allen knows what he’s talking about. On the one hand he’s a collector with an interest in fine art, especially that of northern artists. On the other hand he’s a stall-holder who has come to selling for 'a bit of fun' after a life in business. It takes a while to get the hang of running a stall, he said. You need to give yourself time once you've set up. Time to find our what sells, and at what price.  You need to understand your market.  You can’t just sell at Miller catalogue prices. It doesn’t work like that. And you have to expect people to try their hand at haggling too.  The deferential ‘Antiques Roadshow’ attitude to pricing is over.  'It’s all 'Bargain Hunt’ nowadays,' said John.  'It’s all what’s the best price you can do? and I’ll give your £2.50 for that. People will haggle over pennies.'

I wanted to know if theft was a problem in SAC. If it was a Birmingham antiques centre, John said, there would be a security guard on the door. But a far larger problem in Shrewsbury came from people picking things up on one stall and discarding them on another when they changed their mind.  ‘Mostly when things go missing, that’s the reason why,’ John said.

Currently the Shrewbury Antiques Centre sees about five hundred customers a day – not bad for an outlet without a shop front. I was interested to know what difference eBay had made to customer figures.  John reckoned its effect was minimal. ‘Ebay provides our customers with an instant price list,’ he said. ‘There’s that. But it can’t compete in terms of seeing items and actually handling them. That’s something the internet can never match.  There are some things you’ll get online that we don’t sell much of – gold, for example – but, when it comes to customer service, a real antiques market rather than a virtual one is hard to beat.’

If there’s something that you want, the Shrewsbury Antiques Centre will put it into their ‘wanted’ book and look out for it on your behalf. They'd found some fascinating items over the years. People’s choices were often inexplicable, John said. There was the young collector of vinyl, he remembered, who couldn’t begin to explain why he wanted a record by the West Midlands Police Choir, and a student looking for a costume for a party who’d no idea what the letters SS stood for.

There have been some amusing moments over the years, and some famous faces browsing quietly amongst the stalls. One night, shortly after Matt had switched off the lights and set the alarm for the evening, a shriek was heard from the bowels of the building and it became apparent that Matt was about to lock in no less than the musical icon that is Jules Holland. Plainly this is a business where you never know what - or who - will happen next.. 

And it's a good business to get into. John said that with interest rates low, along with the current price of antiques, now was a good time for young people to start in the business of buying and selling. The Antiques Centre charges £28 per week per stall and £9.50 per week for a cabinet, which is nothing compared to the risk of taking on a shop. ‘Just a shelf in a cabinet is a good first move,’ John said.  ‘There’s a quiet evolution taking place in the Shrewsbury Antiques Centre at the moment, with room for fresh faces and fresh ideas.’

The Shrewsbury Antiques Centre is big enough to lose yourself in, to know you won’t be jumped on or ‘talked’ into a purchase, yet intimate enough to know the help is there if you want it.  Donna’s great in that respect. Then there’s Sandra or John, Matt or Damon. The faces behind the desk remain more or less unchanged.  Raisa the dog has gone, sadly, but Mavis has come in her place.  Raisa's paws have been hard to fill, but Mavis is doggedly giving it all she's got. She's the Antique Centre's much loved - if not notorious - mascot, who has her own fan club and receives mail from as far afield as the US. 

Mavis is currently awaiting puppies, due on Armistice Day.  Perhaps a post on that grand occasion wouldn't go amiss - especially as My Tonight From Shrewsbury's 'Great Dogs of Shrewsbury' series is looking woefully thin.

Next year, as part of their 30^th anniversary celebration, Shrewsbury Antiques Centre will be fund-raising for a cause of value to us all here in Shropshire - the Air Ambulance Service.  This December, for the first time, it’ll be open on Wednesday evenings for late-night Christmas shopping. If you’ve never taken a trip in time through its doors and down its steps, this could be your chance. 

PS. If you want to know about the other hidden markets I mentioned above, one is the indoor market upstairs in the 1960's market hall, which I’ve already written about on this blog, and will again, I’m sure, because Christmas in that market is a wonder to behold. The other is the Old Market Hall in the Square, which is as unlikely a setting for a cinema as you could hope to find, and I'll be writing  about that too,  later this month.

An Old Shropshire Oak Called Shroppiemon

I first came across Shoppiemon on Twitter back in January. In 140 characters this Tweeter was the living embodiment of Georgina Jackson’s Shropshire Word Book. I’m not native Shropshire born myself, but armed with my own copy of the Word Book I ventured a reply, saying Georgina Jackson would be proud of him. Little did I know what I’d started. Shroppiemon tweeted back almost immediately, with far more grace and verve than I had mustered, saying that his gallus chundering [ie. muttering, collected from Newport] wasna quite of Georgina Jackson’s standard but that I had galvered him [goodness knows where 'galvered' comes from - not everything Shroppiemon writes, by any means, comes out of the Word Book]. After that he started reading My Tonight From Shrewsbury and, the next thing I knew, the blogsite had found an advocate and I had found a friend.

For those of you who don’t know, published in 1879 Georgina Jackson’s Word Book lists words and phrases spoken in Shropshire dialect as it was back in those days. It gives a grammatical structure to these words and phrases, and lists the villages and towns in which they could  be found.  You’d be hard pressed today to find in common useage many of the words Georgina Jackson collected. So much has changed since then, including people’s speech. Even in the forty years I’ve been living in Shropshire, distinctions between village dialects have blurred. Is there anybody left who can tell the difference between Pontesbury voices, for example, and those of the Stiperstones, just a few short miles away? Who knows where ‘Upper Wonner’ refers to any more?  

Shroppiemon, I guess, would know. Regardless of what I write about, he has an uncanny knack of tweeting me that little bit extra and always knowing more.  He describes himself as a collector. It would be great to see his memorabilia exhibited in some way.  Great too, if he ever felt inspired to tell the story of Shrewsbury as he’s seen it through his own eyes.  Shroppiemon is a tweeter with attitude, and it’s attitude as much as anything that makes a good book. Shroppiemon has opinions - and he’s not afraid of expressing them.

Take Princess House for example, a horrid 1960s building [for those of you who’ve never seen it] currently being extended out into our historic town square. Here’s Shroppiemon on the subject of the Secretary of State’s role in this unfortunate state of affairs: ‘The s of s anna gotta look at it. It shudna bin put up in the furst place. Owd nick himsen couldna built a more drodsome pigcote.’

I’ve heard Princess House called a few things, but ‘drodsome pigcote’ beats them all. ‘Sebunctious’ is another of Shroppiemon’s favourite words, and in the interview below he comes up with ‘kerbiffleypump, which I can find no meaning for and I'm guessing is a word entirely Shroppiemon's own.  

If Georgina Jackson were alive today, then Twitter would be in her Word Book, listed as a source of words and phrases alongside Shropshire’s villages and towns. She’d be fascinated by what Shroppiemon’s doing with Old Shropshire, twisting it this way and that, reinventing it to work in new ways for new times.  After all, isn’t that’s what always happens to language? Isn’t that why Jackson recorded it, understanding that it would change? In her wildest imaginings, though, she’d never have countenanced what Shroppiemon’s doing now, putting Old Shropshire on Twitter and giving it a whole new life.

So who is Shroppiemon? I have to come clean and say that I don’t know. He and I have been following each other on Twitter for months now, and I’m no closer now to discovering his identity than when I began. All I can say with confidence is that Shroppiemon is to Shropshire what Batman is to Gotham City - and Twitter is the mask behind which he hides. 

However, after terse negotiations [how could they be anything else at 140 characters at a tweet?] I’m thrilled to be able to tell you that I’ve persuaded Shroppiemon to be interviewed online. ‘Ow do, lass. Here goes nothing,’ he emailed back to me with answers to my questions.   And of course they’re not ‘nothing’.  To the contrary. See for yourselves.  Shroppiemon in his own words. Enjoy. 

1. MY TONIGHT FROM SHREWSBURY:  Where were you born, and where did you grow up? 

SHROPPIEMON: I was born in Cross Houses hospital on my mother's 21st birthday. 'Er obviously didna want a boikin for a present and soon left. This meant that I got ter be that most Shropshire of Shropshireness - granny reared.

I 'ave spent most o'me life in the town of Salop but shroppieoomon says that 'er is still waitin' for me ter grow up.

2. MTFS:  Where did you go to school?  Can you share with us a couple of memories of school days? 

SMON: I went ter Wilfred Owen, then Holy Cross Cof E, an' then the Priory (the owd boys’ school, not the modern 'un). I had such a gud time at school that I forgot ter leave with many qualifications. The more we got towd off at the Priory for sayin' inna, gonna, canna etc the more we said 'em,

3. MTFS:  And town life?  What are your earliest memories of Shrewsbury?  How do you remember it, looking back?

SMON: I dunna think that Salop has changed too much, ter be fair. Salopians 'ave changed far more - the fust couple of verses of "Think For A Minute" by the Housemartins sum this up so well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnLFCY2vWoI 

When we was childers we had a milkmon an' a breadmon, the Corona mon brought pop, Davenports brought beer and Mr Jones brought the veg on his horse drawn dray - an' I miss em all. Havin' worked at the Abbey, the Castle, Clive House, Rowley's House and shops and cafes in the past, I feel that the town is gettin' on jest fine without my meddlin' these days. But I still love ter help promote it, an' the rest o'Shropshire, whenever I con.

4. MTFS: Was Shroppiemon created specifically for Twitter, or was he active before that?

SMON: I am a barley child o'twitter. John Wood Warter wrote "An Old Shropshire Oak" about an anonymous tree watchin' over our sebunctious county an' I thought that through the power o'twitter I could do summat similar. (So far I 'ave bin muchly wrong)

5. MTFS: When and why was the decision made to use Old Shropshire for your tweets? Do you talk the way you write?

SMON: That is a gud question Fitzyoomon,I dunna think that I use it enough, but shroppieoomon thinks that I use it too much.

6. MTFS: Georgina Jackson died before publication of the Shropshire Word Book, and it was her friend, Charlotte Burne [of Shropshire Folk-Lore], who brought it to public attention. Do you know much about these two interesting women, who I presume both came from Shropshire?

SMON: Georgina Jackson was actually thrum Cheshire, Charlotte Burne was a vicar's daughter and moved several times around Shropshire. I anna got a clue when I furst discovered 'em.  They both jest snuck in ter me sub-conscious somehow. They jest allus sim ter 'ave bin thar. I con still remember the kerbiffleypump feelin' when I walked out of Candle Lane books clutchin' my copy of the Shropshire Wurd Book.

7. MTFS: Over the last year there hasn’t been much I’ve written about – and I’ve written on a wide range of subjects – that you haven’t been able to add something to.  Putting it baldly, how come you know so much?

SMON: Ar, I know a little about a lot lass. I love Shropshire and everythin' ter do with 'er, so I love findin' out things that I didna know an' I love ter share it too. I have ter howd me sen back when I realise that I have crossed the very thin line betwixt interestin' others an' borin' em - shroppieoomon thinks that I tend ter realise this too late for 'er likin'.

8. MTFS:  As far as you’re concerned, what’s the best thing about Shrewsbury?  What’s the worst thing about Shrewsbury?  What’s the biggest threat that Shrewsbury faces today?

SMON: Wurst = Princess House. Best = jest about everything else

9. MTFS: Caped crusaders are renown for the things they do for their home towns.  What would you like to do for Shrewsbury?

SMON: How long have I got? I 'ood save the Stew, knock down Princess House - or at least stop 'em filling the bottom in - open a university, restore the Shrewsbury Cut (canal), make all public transport and out-of-town parkin' free of charge, and fund it by dearer parkin' in the loop. I would mek Sunday the day ter be sin in town, a sort of modern version of the monkey walk.

Selfishly I 'ood reinstate the Loggerheads back on the Shrewsbury Town  shirts.

10. MTFS: Is there ever a moment when you’ll feel it’s right to take off your mask and reveal yourself to the people of Shrewsbury?

SMON: It would be more like revealin' me sen ter one or two on twitter than the whole of Shrewsbury.

11. MTFS:  Be kind, Shroppiemon, to those of us who are gnawing away, like a dog with a bone, at who you really are. Give us a clue.

SMON: A clue 'oodna help as I inna well known, but I will buy yer a drink one day lass, shroppieoomon ull join us too.

 MTFS:  Thank you, Shroppie. I’ll hold you to that. And thank you for your support throughout the year. Knowing that you’re out there cheering on the sidelines and retweeting My Tonight From Shrewsbury’s posts has been a massive encouragement.  Writing this blog has been a bit like running a marathon. It needs all the supporters it can get, and what you’re doing is greatly appreciated.  When we meet I reckon I need to buy you a drink too. In the meantime, though, any final words you’d like to say?

SMON: I love anything an 'eveything ter do with Shropshire, not jest Shrewsbury. I collect books, pictures, signs, postcards, owd tat memorabilia, bottles clocks etc

I never realised until ternite how important women are ter Shropshire folklore - G.Jackson, C, Burne, Lady Milnes-Gaskell, M.Webb, E.Pargeter, yer gud sen, H.Stretton, Shroppieoomon, thrum the Caradoc & Severn Valley Mrs Hayward, Jean Hughes. Less famous but equally important, Annie E Smout, Sheila Hamer and Valerie Kilford.   

The oomon I left until last is Val Littlehales. She is an artist, storyteller, teacher, farmer and best of all a poet. She writes and recites her poems in Shropshire dialect (sadly I have misplaced my copy of her live cassette).

Thank 'ee very much for yo'em interest.

regards, shroppiemon

PS. One other addition I'd like to make if possible is to mention how terrible that Mary Webb's Spring Cottage m'appen ter be demolished. They conna, wonna an' inner gonna:  http://www.stcra.org.uk/2013/10/spring-cottage-application-to-demolish/