Steam back at Coleham, the Coracle World Championships, and Heal Festival goes free - Issue #005
It’s easy to live in Shrewsbury and still miss it — the weeks go by, the river keeps doing its thing, and the town gets on without you. This week’s Bridge is your way back in: a building the town had quietly given up on is breathing again, a world championship is coming home to the Severn, and a festival has thrown its gates open to everyone. Come and be part of it.
Thank you for supporting the Shrewsbury Newsletter. This newsletter was made by the community for the community, funded by our community patrons.
· · ·
— The Town This Week —
Steam is back at Coleham for the first time in four years
Coleham Pumping Station and the chimney that closed it. Photo: Chris Allen / Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Fifteen volunteers just brought a piece of Shrewsbury back to life. On Tuesday 1 September, they raised steam at Coleham Pumping Station and watched the two beam engines turn over properly for the first time since 2022, after four years shut for chimney and boiler pipework repairs. The Grade II listed building, which pumped the town’s sewage uphill until 1970, had no open days and no public through the door for all of that time.
The volunteers gathered with an inspector who has previously worked on the Flying Scotsman. “We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Noel Foley. “We’re back in action.” John McLean put it more simply — “it’s lovely, because we haven’t seen it properly for about four years.”
Open days and steam demonstrations can now start coming back, with a full public steaming planned for spring 2027 — not yet an invitation to turn up, the Trust will post dates itself. It is the news that a building the town had quietly written off for four years is working again, because about fifteen volunteers would not let it go.
· · ·
— Someone Worth Knowing —
Martin Wood, Shrewsbury’s town crier since 1984
Martin Wood, Shrewsbury’s town crier. Photo: My Shrewsbury, via Shropshire Live.
Forty-two years in the same job, most of it performed at volume in the Square. Martin Wood has been Shrewsbury’s town crier since 1984, which makes him one of the longest-serving civic criers in the country. The museum marked his fortieth year with an exhibition in 2024.
He has now been picked to represent the town at the World Town Crier Tournament in Chester this month, against criers from the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Cries are judged on clarity, diction, content, volume and presentation — so it is not simply a competition about who is loudest, though that clearly does not hurt.
“I’m absolutely delighted and honoured to have been selected to represent Shrewsbury,” he said. The Mayor, Councillor Bernie Bentick, called him “a wonderful ambassador for our town”. Anyone who has stood near him when he gets going will know the town is being represented thoroughly.
· · ·
— What People Are Talking About —
The £289 that lands on every secondary parent in September
Right now, all over Shrewsbury, families are quietly doing the September sums — an average £289 in secondary uniform per child, once you count PE kit, bag, stationery and trainers. Little Stars, founded in Shrewsbury in 2020 by Leanne Farlie, now employs five people and makes sure hundreds of families across the town and county don’t have to do those sums alone.
It has just been awarded money from Shrewsbury Town Council’s Cost of Living Grant Fund — an £80,000-a-year programme — specifically to expand what it can do on uniform, branded and unbranded, from the 2026/27 financial year.
Families are referred in through schools, midwives, community centres and social care teams — not by applying cold. “The cost of school uniforms can be overwhelming for many families, particularly alongside rising household costs,” Farlie said. If that is your September, the referral route is the thing worth knowing.
· · ·
— What’s On · River —
The Coracle World Championships return to the Severn
Friday 11 September · racing from 2.15pm
The 2025 championships at Pengwern. Photo: My Shrewsbury.
Only one town on Earth crowns the world coracle champion, and it’s this one. A coracle is a round, one-person boat that has been used on the Severn for a very long time and is notoriously difficult to point in any chosen direction — the Coracle World Championships are contested in them, on our river, at Pengwern Boat Club, SY3 7BD, free to stand on the bank and watch.
Up to 48 teams of four race in relays — heats, quarter finals, semis, and then a final whose winners are, genuinely, world champions. Registration runs 11am to 2pm, practice from noon, the safety briefing at 2pm and racing from about 2.15pm. Presentations are around 6.30pm at the Boat House pub.
It has run since 2007 in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support and has now raised over £440,000, including £24,812 from last year’s race alone. Team entry is £300 for four, and teams are encouraged to fundraise on top.
If you only watch one thing on the river this year, watch your neighbours in fancy dress spin helplessly in circles for charity — and cheer them round.
· · ·
— What’s On · Music —
Heal Festival has dropped its ticket price to nothing
Friday 11 – Saturday 12 September · from midday
Heal Festival 2026. Image: Heal Festival.
Heal Festival has taken down the last barrier between you and it: entry is free this year, so the whole town can turn up at the West Mid Showground, ten minutes from the centre, for two days of music and wellbeing.
Not reduced — free. You register in advance, and donations to charity are optional. Camping, campervan passes and VIP upgrades are still paid add-ons, but walking in and watching bands costs nothing. Organisers have put the decision down to spiralling living costs and a wish to get people back in the same field.
Confirmed so far: Tom Meighan, Phil Hartnoll of Orbital, The Sherlocks and Dub Pistols, alongside dance tents, a funfair, a yoga and wellbeing zone and street food traders.
It is the rare local thing a family can try on a whim without having to decide first whether it was worth the money.
· · ·
— What’s On · Free Saturday —
Made in Shropshire Artisan Fair fills the Square
Saturday 12 September · 9am to 5pm
The Made in Shropshire Artisan Fair fills the Town Square with county makers — handmade crafts, gifts and food. Free to browse, and a good reason to be in town without spending anything.
· · ·
— What’s On · Free Saturday —
The last bandstand concert of the year, in the Quarry
Saturday 12 September · 2pm to 4pm
The Quarry bandstand has its last live music of the year: the Singing Florist and Lou B, playing free and raising money for Lingen Davies. Bring a picnic and a rug — and if you did the Artisan Fair in the morning, this is the natural way to close the day out, both of them for free.
That’s one weekend: the Square, the Quarry, the river, the Showground — all free or nearly, all a ten-minute walk from each other, and on Sunday the Quarry falls quiet again for the Battle of Britain parade. None of it needs a ticket so much as it needs you there.
· · ·
— Holding It Together —
Coleham needs more hands. About fifteen volunteers keep the Shrewsbury Steam Trust going, and they have just proved what that is worth. No experience needed — “just the willingness to get involved and drink lots of tea”. Membership is £12 a year. Read on
Thirty backers, thirty children. The Movement Centre is 30 this year and wants 30 businesses, groups or individuals to raise £1,500 each. The £45,000 total would clear its waiting list for specialist Targeted Training physiotherapy before Christmas, one standing frame per child. Read on
Six runners, one local charity. Staff from Lanyon Bowdler and the care company Komplex are running the Shrewsbury Half on 27 September for Little Stars. Easy people to sponsor, and you may well know one of them. Read on
· · ·
— Town Wins —
Thirty-nine women on the pitch at Shrewsbury RUFC. The club’s women’s section put out 39 players for an intrasquad match on 30 August, and 14 of them were making their debut. Read on
From cleaner to worldwide distributor. Morris Lubricants is marking 25 years of service from Wayne Higgins, who joined the Shrewsbury manufacturer cleaning the place and now handles distribution around the world. Read on
The town’s new padel courts already have a county championship in them. Henley Padel on Battlefield Enterprise Park only opened in August, and it hosts the Shropshire Padel County Championships on 12 and 13 September. Free to watch from the gallery. Read on
A bank turned back into a bakery. Catherine’s Bakery has moved into a vacant former bank on Bridgnorth High Street, kept the old safes for storage, doubled its staff from six to twelve and is now turning out up to 1,600 loaves a week. Read on
· · ·
— Shrewsbury History This Week —
The town marks the Battle of Britain in the Quarry
Sunday 13 September · 10.30am to 11.30am
The Battle of Britain was fought over southern England between July and October 1940. It is commemorated each year on the Sunday nearest 15 September, the date of the heaviest daylight fighting.
Shrewsbury marks it in The Quarry, with an RAF parade, a two-minute silence and the laying of wreaths. It is free and open to anyone who wants to stand there.
It is a short thing, in the middle of the park, on a Sunday morning. Worth knowing it is happening even if you only end up walking past it.
· · ·
Patrons & Sponsors
This is the first issue to carry the block. From here on, every Patron and Sponsor who says yes to being named appears in this space, at the foot of every issue, for as long as they back it.
Franci Capo — passionate lover of pizza at Shrewsbury Market. Founding Patron.
Patron — £3 a month. Sponsor (local businesses) — £100 a year.
Both are named here. The first 50 keep “founding” permanently. The newsletter stays free for everyone either way — nothing is ever put behind a wall.
· · ·
Cheers,
Albert