Busby & Fox, Jon Ronson, the Half Marathon - Issue #007
This week in Shrewsbury: new names above old doors, quiet heroes getting their due, and a town that keeps finding room for one more. Welcome to The Bridge, which this week adds two new sections, Babies & Toddler and Pets.
Thank you for reading The Bridge — written by the town it covers and kept going by our patrons.
— The Town This Week —
Busby & Fox takes 13 The Square
Photo: Shropshire Live.
The shop at 13 The Square that Carvèll left on 27 August already has its next name: Busby & Fox, an independent womenswear label from South Devon, opens there this winter. It is the brand’s first shop in Shropshire and its fourth opening of the year, and it is hiring for the shop floor now.
Clothes are cut in-house “for real bodies”, and the opening date will go out on the brand’s Instagram, @busbyandfox, nearer the time.
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— What People Are Talking About —
Princess Anne watched West Mercia Search and Rescue at work
Photo: BBC.
Princess Anne came to the West Mid Showground on Thursday to meet West Mercia Search and Rescue, the volunteers the emergency services call on to find missing people, watched a full water rescue with boats, kayaks and bank teams, and met Farley, the charity’s newly licensed search dog.
Among those she spoke to was Kirsty Walsh, who has supported the charity since her husband Shane fell into the river and drowned in 2017.
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— Someone Worth Knowing —
Lorraine Pugh, who reopened the Seven Stars
Lorraine Pugh and her partner bought the freehold of the Seven Stars on Old Coleham in May and had the doors open again by 12 June. Three months on, her charity nights have raised well over £1,000 for local causes, including Severn Hospice.
The night on 23 August took more than £400 for 4Louis, which supports families through the loss of a child. Lorraine chose it herself: she lost her own daughter, at six weeks old, almost thirty years ago.
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— What’s On · Talk —
Jon Ronson brings The Castle to Theatre Severn
Tuesday 22 September · 7.30pm
→ Get tickets · + Add to calendar
Photo: Theatre Severn.
Jon Ronson’s newest true story “turns unexpectedly close to home”: his son is lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England. He tells it live in the Theatre Severn Auditorium, with questions from the floor, and there were still seats when we checked.
Tickets run from £33 to £48.40, and the top band includes a hardback of the book. An hour and fifty minutes with an interval, recommended for 14 and over.
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— What’s On · Sport —
The Shrewsbury Half Marathon comes through town
Sunday 27 September · Half 8.30am, Metric Half 8.55am
→ See the route · + Add to calendar
Photo: Running Calendar UK.
Two thousand runners leave the West Mid Showground on Sunday morning and come through the Welsh Bridge, Kingsland, Porthill, Coleham, the Quarry, Frankwell and the town centre.
Six of them, from Lanyon Bowdler and Komplex, are raising money for Little Stars, the Shrewsbury charity that helps families with baby kit and school uniform. Entries are closed; the pavements are not.
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— What’s On · Talk —
Tim Peake on space travel at Theatre Severn
Saturday 10 October · 2pm and 7pm
→ Get tickets · + Add to calendar
Photo: Theatre Severn.
Three weeks off, but in this issue because the booking page already says Last Few for both shows. Tim Peake, the first British ESA astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station, is at Theatre Severn for a matinee and an evening on how we got into space and where we go next, £40.15 a seat.
Two hours and ten minutes, interval included. If you meant to book this later, later is now.
So that is the week: a storyteller at Frankwell Quay on Tuesday, two thousand pairs of trainers past your front door on Sunday, and an astronaut to book before the seats go. The runners have their places. The rest of us are the reason they wave.
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— Babies & Toddler —
Mini Mammoths starts at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery
Thursdays in term time · next one Thursday 24 September, 10.30am–12pm
→ Book a place · + Add to calendar
The museum has a new weekly session for the very small. Mini Mammoths, led by an Early Years teacher, takes one to four year olds through the galleries with singing, stories, craft and real objects to hold. £6 a child, £5 for a sibling, babes in arms free, tea and coffee for the grown-ups. Book ahead; it is not a drop-in.
Pressure gets a parent-and-baby screening at the Old Market Hall
Thursday 24 September · 11am
→ Get tickets · + Add to calendar
Sound down, lights up, and nobody minding if the baby joins in. The Old Market Hall runs its parent-and-baby screenings for anyone with a child under twelve months, and this week’s is Pressure, the D-Day drama with Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser and Damian Lewis. £9, an hour and forty minutes, and the booking page already says Last Few.
Free Stay and Play sessions run at The Lantern until mid-October
Tuesdays to 13 October · 10am–11.30am
→ See details and book · + Add to calendar
The Lantern is the first of the county’s new Best Start Family Hubs, and its first offer is five free Tuesday mornings for parents and carers with a three or four year old, following the PEEP Learning Together programme: talking, singing, reading and play with other local families in the room. Free, but book a place; four Tuesdays are left.
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— Pets —
Nala went from sofa to sofa without a night in a kennel. Dogs Trust Shrewsbury’s new Homestay service finds a dog its next home while it stays in its current one; Nala, a Bernese-collie cross, was reserved in three days. Struggling with a dog? The team would rather hear from you early: 0303 003 0000. → Read on
Severn Hospice’s fun dog show had a good turnout. Pooches big and small filled the ring at the hospice’s annual Shrewsbury dog show, raising money for the charity and producing eighteen photographs that will improve your afternoon. → Read on
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— Holding It Together —
Macy O’Neill is bringing a wedding forward. The 18-year-old busker and former Voice UK Kids contestant has raised over £1,750 so her mum Naomi and stepdad Antony “Shorty” Shorter, of Leebotwood, can marry sooner; Antony has months left with stage four kidney cancer. → Read on
Shropshire Supports Ukraine wants your spare duvets before winter. The volunteer group founded by Shrewsbury’s Mila Prysyazhna holds a Donation Day on Saturday 26 September, 10am to 2pm, at The Red House on Albrighton High Street: thermals, toiletries, bedding, long-life food and working generators, all bound for Ukraine by lorry. → Read on
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— Town Wins —
From the Quarry pool to Cairns. Kevin and Derren Bimpson started Serenity Waves in the Quarry pool early last year, floating people on airbeds while gongs and singing bowls played. It has since spread to other pools as a franchise, and the first Australian site is being lined up for Cairns early next year. → Read on
Coopers restocked its sausage-roll machine three times in three days. Coopers Gourmet Foods, the Shropshire bakery behind the sausage rolls in half the county’s cafés, has opened a 24-hour vending machine: everything £3, four for £10, and demand outran the forecast from day one. → Read on
A room in town for people who work on their own. Shropshire Growth Hub and Co-Founded have opened a Co-Work Hub in the centre of Shrewsbury for freelancers and sole traders, with an expert-in-residence on marketing and funding. Free, but places are limited and need booking. → Read on
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— Shrewsbury History This Week —
Where Shrewsbury got its name
Before it was Shrewsbury it was Scrobbesbyrig, Old English for something like “the fort in the scrubland”, though the late place-name scholar Margaret Gelling thought Scrobb might equally have been a person. The Normans could not manage it and wrote Salopesberie in 1094, which is where Salop, the county’s old name, comes from.
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Patrons & Sponsors
The Bridge is made possible by the readers and local businesses below:
Franci Capo — passionate lover of pizza at Shrewsbury Market