Festival ends, Buttermarket sale, Bloom win - Issue #012
This week in Shrewsbury: a town being told it does things well, and a town quietly rearranging the things it loves. Welcome to The Bridge.
Thanks for reading The Bridge — your town’s paper, and free for everyone who picks it up.
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— The Town This Week —
The Buttermarket changes hands, and stays a nightclub
The Buttermarket. Image: The Buttermarket.
From January 2027 the Buttermarket belongs to Cove Group, the Shrewsbury company behind Shrewsbury Prison. The venue keeps its name, its team and its programme of nights; the new owner says it will protect what people already love about it.
Joel Campbell, who founded Cove Group, says it complements the company’s other businesses, especially the Prison — entertainment, hospitality and events under one local roof. Martin Monahan, who has owned the Buttermarket, calls it a huge part of his life.
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— Town Wins —
Judy King has raised £83,000 for the hospice that cared for her wife
Mandy de Winter died at Severn Hospice in Apley in 2018. Since then Judy has climbed Snowdon in the dark, opened her garden for tea and cake, run quizzes on Mandy’s birthday and sold cards made from her own photographs. The total passed £83,000 this month, and she gives something back for every donation.
Shrewsbury took four awards at Heart of England in Bloom
The Dingle in Quarry Park. Image: Shrewsbury Town Council.
At Malvern on Thursday 22 October the town won its small city category, an RHS Gold award, the overall Heart of England title — and the Mike Garwood Memorial Trophy for The Dingle, for the second year running. Judges toured a route through Column Allotments and Riverside Gardens. The regional win sends Shrewsbury to Britain in Bloom in 2027.
Shrewsbury’s high street scored top marks in its first independent audit
Shrewsbury was among the first ten towns assessed by The High Street Consultancy, against 25 factors the Institute of Place Management links to a high street’s health. It scored four or five out of five on 80% of them, with top marks for appearance, walkability, retail offer, everyday amenities and the balance of independents and chains.
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— Someone Worth Knowing —
Joe Whale, the Doodle Boy, has his first solo show
Joe Whale. Image: Joe Whale.
Joe was nine when his doodles went up on the walls of Number Four in Shrewsbury and the internet found him. His first solo exhibition, Ambassadors of Feeling, is at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch until Sunday 25 October: more than twenty new pieces, ten characters, each one an emotion he says he is still working through. Free, no booking.
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— What People Are Talking About —
After thirteen years, the Shrewsbury Food Festival has come to an end
Shrewsbury Food Festival. Image: Shropshire Festivals.
Shropshire Festivals announced the farewell on Thursday 15 October. Thirteen festivals in the Quarry since 2013, hundreds of thousands of people brought into the town centre, and thousands of small businesses supported on the way.
The reason is arithmetic rather than appetite: infrastructure, security and staffing costs have outrun what a ticket can carry, and the team pays the council to rent the Quarry. Their other events carry on.
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— What’s On —
A Little Late Night, with the bars open until ten
At Shrewsbury Market Hall, on Saturday 31 October · 5pm–10pm
→ See who is open · + Add to calendar
Inside the Market Hall. Image: Shrewsbury Market Hall.
Bars pour until ten, a handful of kitchens stay on until nine and some stalls until seven or eight. House of Yum, Moli Tea House, Moreish and Morocco House are among them, with Gindifferent and a Shropshire Arms pop-up doing the drinks.
Get Your Wigle On’s juniors stage Cinderella Youth Edition
At the Walker Theatre, Theatre Severn, on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 October · 6.30pm, plus 12.30pm and 3.30pm on the Wednesday
→ Get tickets · + Add to calendar
Cinderella Youth Edition. Image: Theatre Severn.
Sixty minutes, a young cast, and a Cinderella built for families: the ball, the stepsisters, the songs. Tickets are £20.35, which includes the venue levy.
Chris Packham brings World of Wonder to town
At Theatre Severn, on Tuesday 27 October · 7.30pm
→ Get tickets · + Add to calendar
Chris Packham. Image: Theatre Severn.
Two hours of stories from a lifetime of looking at nature, with specimens from his own collection and the practical things anyone can do. Age guidance 12 and over, tickets £38.50 to £55.
A full-size Shroud of Turin replica goes on show
At St Leonard’s Church, Bridgnorth, from Monday 26 October to Thursday 12 November · 11am–4pm daily
→ See the exhibition · + Add to calendar
A full-size replica of the Shroud. Image: The Shroud exhibition, Bridgnorth.
A full-scale copy of the cloth, with panels on its history and on the science that keeps failing to explain it, and a trick worth knowing: visitors are shown how to switch a phone camera into negative to read the image as a positive. Free, and Pam Moon opens it with a talk at 7pm on Sunday 25 October.
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That is the week: the Market Hall after dark, sixty minutes of Cinderella, and a relic a short bus ride away. Take someone with you — half the pleasure is in who you bring.
Every event in town, one message away.
What’s on in Shrewsbury whenever you ask — tonight, the weekend, something for the kids. For anyone, and free.
1. Start the chat — One tap — the first message is already written for you.
2. Add your interests — Music, walks, the kids, the theatre — and how often you want to hear.
3. Ask, get answers that fit — What’s on tonight? Anything this weekend? It answers for you.
Nothing to install.
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— Babies & Toddler —
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom screens all half term
At the Old Market Hall, from Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October · screenings from 10.15am
→ Book seats · + Add to calendar
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Image: Old Market Hall.
Aardman’s new feature: the pumpkin patch is ruined, the Farmer has vanished and something is loose in the woods. Eighty minutes, £8 a seat, and the morning screenings are the easy ones with a toddler in tow.
Free Halloween craft for half term, spiders and rats included
At Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, from Thursday 29 to Saturday 31 October · 10am–2pm
→ See what is on · + Add to calendar
Halloween half term at the Flaxmill. Image: English Heritage.
Drop in and make a spiral spook, a spider or a rat to take home, aimed at two to twelve year olds, with older siblings welcome and no admission ticket needed. The Dorothy Clayden rat trail in the exhibition tells the story of the Flaxmill’s wartime rat catcher and runs all week.
Go Wild at Weston turns half term outdoors
At Weston Park, on Monday 26 October · 10.30am–2pm
→ Book a free place · + Add to calendar
Go Wild at Weston. Image: Weston Park.
Bushcraft, free play, campfire snacks, bug hunting and woodland crafts with the estate’s outdoor learning team, plus potion making and wands for Halloween. Included in admission and first come, first served; pumpkin carving is £3 a pumpkin. Every child needs an adult.
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— Holding It Together —
Nathalie Hildegarde Liege is raising £5,000 by 13 November for a library and study room at her stained glass studio in Wem. The Andrew Moor Library Room will hold about 150 books on a craft listed as endangered, open to students and the public. She has worked in glass for thirty years. → See the appeal
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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
Cheers,
Albert