My first visit to ... Shrewsbury

What a beautiful town it is!

Amazing architecture; such an eclectic mixture of building styles of the last few hundred years.

Four fine churches and a castle.

Bridges of all styles.

Lush greenery and peaceful haven within the town centre; the Quarry Park and the Dingle.

As we walked through the park, along the banks of the River Severn, the sun shone. In the distance, contrasted against the greens and the gold of the wildflowers, there was a dense mass of colour.

We knew what it was before we could see shapes - the children's play area. On a sunny day like this, the play area was packed out with parents, grandparents, child minders and of course, hundreds of shouting, excited children!

We took a long walk around the town, trailed through the passages and walked up 'Grope Lane' (no prizes for guessing why it got that name!). There are so many independent shops to browse, we didn't bother at all with the shopping centres.

We bought fresh produce from the indoor Market Hall, along with a 'vintage' book for my son and some locally produced greetings cards.

(One of my ancestors left Shrewsbury to live in Ancoats, Manchester at the latter end of the 19th Century. I know that modern Shrewsbury completely different than it would have been then. But, industrial, grimy Ancoats would have been a hundred times worse than anything Shrewsbury ever was.)

Will I be going back to Shrewsbury? Absolutely!