UKC

I've gone and been offered a job in Shrewsbury - a bit of a change from where I'm living at present. Having never lived in that area and only driven past in usually the darkness on the way to Pembrokeshire, I have no idea of what it's like apart from being on the border between England and Wales and looking green with gentle hills. 

I thought I'd post the question of what's it like living in this area in terms of amenities, climbing walls, 6th form colleges (what's it really like!), shops and pubs, and where do people climb during the week/evenings.  Shrewsbury looks well connected to Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff by train, which is a big plus.  Any info about nice areas to rent in beyond the usual Rightmove / Zoopla spots would be appreciated. 

Thanks in advance!

We live in south Shropshire.  The Welsh Marches (Shrewsbury to Hereford-ish) is a brilliant area if you like the outdoors, walking, running, cycling (on and off-road) are all excellent.  

Climbing - The sandstone bouldering near to Shrewsbury is good, but the areas aren't massive https://shropshirebouldering.co.uk/crags.  Nesscliffe also has (hard) routes.  Travelling a bit further you've got Llanymynech and the Llangollen area crags (mostly sport), and obviously North Wales isn't that far away.

There's an indoor wall to the NW of Shrewsbury at Battlefield which is OK, small bouldering area and a range of routes plus clip and climb for kids birthday parties.

We don't spend loads of time in Shrewsbury, but it always seems pleasant.  Decent range of shops and some pretty little streets hidden round the edges of the town centre with nice cafes and independents selling a range of goodies.  The train links to big cities you've already mentioned are useful, but there are also some smaller lines that run down through Wales e.g. to Aberystwyth.

Couple of my colleagues live in Shrewsbury, if you don't get answers on specific areas on here, drop me an email and I'll see what I can find out from them.

I lived in Church Stretton (12 miles south of Shrewsbury) and went to Shrewsbury Sixth Form College till 2014. I'm not biased but Church Stretton is the nicest place to live in communting distance of Shrewsbury, as long as you are ok with 75% of the population being over 70.

The Sixth Form is fine. Teaching was generally pretty good but some of the facilities - especially the main builing, were looking pretty tired. Though my info will be dated by now. For vocational courses there's Shrewbury College of Arts and Technology, which from what I've heard is good for what it does.

The local hills (long mynd, caradoc, wenlock edge and stiperstones) are nice but with very little to interest climbers. You've got Nescliffe very close north, which is great if you like steep and scary, and lots of the Clwyd Valley about an hour's drive away.

Indoor walls you have a branch of Climbing the Walls in the town. It's fairly new and has a large section of lead walls. It's got a boudering area too, but it's not that extensive. I'd say 70% of the building is taken up with the clip n climb and the cafe - you can see what their real money makers are. Shrewsbury Sports village also has a climbing wall. It's cheap for a single visit with lots of top rope walls, and a few lead lines. The bouldering is very limited though.

The train line's well connected, but when I lived there it was mostly operated by Arriva Trains Wales, who are famously crap. Every morning for two years we all crammed into an ancient single carrige train to take us to sixth form, cos they couldn't be arsed to put on a second carrige. A different company took over the contract in 2018 so maybe it's improved a bit.

Shrewsbury has quite a few nice pubs, some of the ones on the river severn especially. The bars are a bit more hit and miss and the clubs are dire. Or should that be club, cos there's only one, the Buttermarket, and it's not good.

For Shopping Pride hill and the Dawrin centre are pretty nice. There also the Riverside shopping centre in town, which only gets more depressing every time I visit it. The quarry is a very attractive park in the centre of town. There's an indutrial park to the north of the town with all the hardware stores you want, and a branch of go outdoors. Generally shewsbury is a pretty town (especially the area within the loop of the river severn) with almost all the facilities you could want, expect a dedicated climbing shop (RIP High Sports).

I can't give you insight on actually living there, but to me it is a lovely town (almost deserving of being a small city) and if it fitted my purposes I would more than happily live there.

Only real negative I can think of is that parts of it have a tendency to flood badly in storms like this week's, particularly near the river.

Avoid the river! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-60475077

Fortunately I grew up on the other side of the border, so I might be biased.

Friends with kids at both Sixth Form and College seem happy, probably just as well because one is a governor, so any complaints I'll pass them on.  Climbing has already been covered, Nesscliffe is great but you need to be much better than me to be able to do most of the routes. My impression is the wall is OK but those who are really keen still travel to the likes of Liverpool or Warrington once a week in the winter. South Shropshire and just over the border are really good for mountain biking. Most of my friends live in the Meole Brace/ Belle Vue area. This suits them as they have a relatively traffic free cycle into work and can also get out to the South on their road bikes. The unofficial retirement village policy isn't confined to Church Stretton (although it might be the worst offender) it's a county wide concern, I get the sense that Shrewsbury itself will be your best bet.   

Make sure you move to a part of Shrewsbury that isn't liable to flooding. See today's news:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-60475077

With what people have said about flooding: most of banks of the river through shrewsbury are occupied by parks (the quarry), fields and car parks. When the river gets high the council policy is just to let these flood. They'll be fine when the water receeds and putting up defences for them will just move the problem downstream. So every time there's some heavy rainfall lots of dramatic photos come out of Shrewsbury of the flooded parks. But the truth is only a very small number of properties are acually at risk (note the bbc article the only flooded building pictured is a boathouse). They're pretty well drilled at putting up termporary barriers to protect the places that acuatlly need it, and that's really only a small area very close to the river.

Yes there are probably some houses that could be at risk, but it's not a massive, town-wide problem

I completely agree and also add that nature of the flooding in Shrewsbury means that everyone has plenty of advanced warning 

Perhaps my disliker likes flooding? 

OK, I accept that the BBC is overdramatising. I don't know Shrewsbury at all well so I was going very much on the impression conveyed by the Beeb. (Once so good, now a thoroughly lousy broadcaster - BBC TV I mean. Not the radio).

Though I read elsewhere that today there are/were no buses in central Shrewsbury due to main roads being flooded, so while your house won't necessarily get deluged it can cause disruption.

I don't really trust a place that no one agrees how to pronounce.

True, but it is a pretty confined and obvious area. Very different to somewhere like Carlisle. 

I always thought that the inhabitants pronounced it Shrose-bry, while those who don't know it call it Shroose-bry? Or have I got it the wrong way round? An amusing one is Southwell near Newark, which those who think they are 'in the know' pronounce 'Suthel' while those who actually live there pronounce South-Well

I'd say it was more complex than that, certain inhabitants would pronounce it as you describe but definitely not those chanting in the Gay Meadow. I'm not sure if sitting down in a new stadium has changed that. 

I'm just back from taking the kids for half-term to Wymondham, Norfolk (highlights, Roarr! Dinosaur park (them) and Norwich Cathedral (me, them not at all)).

Needless to say, during Storm Eunice it was somewhat wymondy.

I just call it town!

Just listening to this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m0014ywx so it may be that Shrewsbury is a hotbed of conspiracy theorising...

I'm originally from over the hills in the north west corner of Worcestershire, it's a lovely part of the country, but I don't know Shrewsbury well. No one has mentioned some of the other climbing besides Nesscliffe, you've got  Pontesford Rocks and  Ippikins Rock if most of the stuff at Nesscliffe is too hard for you. Both are pleasant crags. I'd go to North Wales for a day from my mum and dad's, it's not too long a drive - and it takes the best bit of an hour to get to Shrewsbury on the back lanes, so I bet it's under 2 hours to Ogwen or Pen y Pass?

The impression I had was people in south of the county pronounced is SHROO-sbury, while those in the north say SHROWSE-sbury

Of course Shrewsbury, being in the middle, is the peak battleground in the pronunciation war

I went to school in Oswestry and taught in Ellesmere for a bit and didn't get that impression, but it was a long time ago. You have to hand it to the North Cumbrian's, they love their strange pronunciations, but the locals agree. I recon it would be difficult to spot a local in Shrewsbury, no such problems up here. 

Indeed.  To clarify, it would not put me off living there (though I would pay close attention to the results of the flood survey if buying a house).  It wouldn't fit with family, friends or work, but it's fairly high up the list of "places where I'd move if it suited my purposes".

There is a lot going for it - nice place, near nice places to climb and hillwalk, not too far from Birmingham for big city stuff and not a *huge* faff to get to London.  Also not too expensive given how nice it is.

A good point, I'd add in Pandy Outcrop when they finish the tree felling, especially if this results in less moss at the bottom and you want a change from the  limestone at Llangollen . A bit like Ponsford not the sort of place you'd travel miles to visit  but very pleasant on a nice evening. 

I've got in trouble for my estimated travel times on here before, but that sounds right to me. 

I'd fully support this analysis. Shropshire is a hidden jewel; it has intrinsic qualities of course, whilst it is well-located to access several other playgrounds for climbers and other outdoor activities. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Stay on higher ground away from the Severn though

At least there's no longer a corrupt MP in place

Always surprises me how few people do this. Even so if you were daft enough not to you would be pretty unlucky to buy a house that flooded and I'm pretty sure they are all close to the river that you could see from a window. Plenty of people are still buying properties in Carlisle oblivious to the fact that although the river might be out of sight and a long away they are still on the flood plane 

Yep, why quite a few of my friends haven't moved away or have moved back 

 > Also not too expensive given how nice it is.

It seems a bit mad there at the moment. I couple of friend who want to move from Shrewsbury to one of the nearby villages have had to sell their house and rent as many of the properties they were interested in were only considering offers without a chain. Still cheap compared to some areas though. 

I think that's going on all over the UK due to a shortage of sellers (I think because people want things to settle down post-pandemic before making big decisions).

My credentials:  Lived there as a 13-19 yr old, moved back circa 2006 with an 11 and 9 yr old both now left home.  Lived in various parts of the UK and abroad so can compare it with other places!

Our friends also moved up from Bristol and were pleased that the "worst" local secondary school was better than the "best" school in Bristol.

The Town is the center for a huge rural hinterland which stretches to the Welsh coast.  Going shopping from Aberystwyth?  Then Shrewsbury is the day out.  As a result it punches above its weight for amenities and services. 

The climbing wall is great for a town its size.

Relatively safe, you can walk the streets at night without fear.  Low crime rate.  Occasionally I remember to lock the garage.  Son left his mountain bike in the town center unlocked for 1 week.  Only when asked, "Where's your bike?" Did he remember and rush down in a panic to find it still there.

Its in a rain shadow area because of the Welsh hills.  Check out the yellow blob on this map where Shrewsbury is: https://www.british-towns.net/weather/images/british_annual_precipitation.j...  Often Sunny when the Welsh hills and the Wrekin (both in sight) are in cloud.

Great for travel.  Chunnel and ferries driveable, four airports within around 1 1/2 hours drive (Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands) so plenty of cheap flight choice.  Also handy for Wales, Peak District. Lakes and Yorkshire Dales a bit further but still weekendable)

Lots of incomers, many who work in Telford live in Shrewsbury.  As a result easy to make friends.  No "local" accent you can't understand or marking you out as a "foreigner".  Loads of clubs e.g. running, cycling, canoeing, sailing, tennis yada yada.

South side of the river is generally considered the best for renting, buying, primary and secondary schools - BUT prices reflect this.  Checkout Copthorne/Radbrook/Meole Brace Village (not the Meole Estate, though having lived in Liverpool I can tell  you the Meole Estate is oft moaned about by the locals but is mostly a nice place with nice people.)  All within cycling distance of Town and the Sixth Form.  Hanwood and Bayston Hill good communities but a bit further out if you want kids to cycle to school/sixth form.

Sixth Form - My Dad went when it was still the Priory Boys Grammer.  I went.  My kids went.  Fabulous. Bit of a fag now its split over two sites (English and Welsh Bridge) as the kids need to trek through the park.  My two cycled through the park, many walk in a gaggle via "Town Walls".  Both kids ended up with Good A levels and loved the experience (as I did), getting a 1st and a 2:1 at uni.  Being a separate college from a school it really shifts the gear up into the adult world and prepares them for Uni.  Being large it has an enviable course choice.

If you like walking/mountain biking there's the South Shropshire hills on your doorstep.  Earl's Hill (Pontesbury), the Long Mynd, Ceir Caradoc and the Lawley, the Stiper Stones etc etc etc.

Just go.  We left for family reasons last year but hope to return!

A few of the Shrewsbury RFC lads had “made in Shrewsbury” tattoos around their bellybuttons which made them easy to spot.

great place as others have said.

Reminds me of Leominster being pronounced Lem-ster (though that's in Herefordshire).

A friend plays for their vets team, they won some tournament in Italy the other year. I'm quite jealous he can still play Rugby at 50+ never mind winning stuff. 

Check the flooding maps very carefully...

Who he?

Are you asking who he is? If so it's Duncan and you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to work out the surname, but Welsh jokes aren't allowed on here. 

Lots of good advice here. I lived there for 3 years at the end of the last century (ha!) and it doesn't sound like there has been a huge change in the intervening 25 years.  

If the Buttermarket is the best remaining club that's a worry - it was by far the most random back in the day (I recall a folk reggae night and a lot of didgeridoo based funk). There was an appalling one by the English Bridge where you stuck to the floor if immobile for more than a second, and a giant one with all the atmosphere of a branch of TK-Maxx behind the Armoury by the Welsh Bridge. 

However, the running, walking, biking opportunities are great and the fell running scene was pretty healthy round there. Pontesford is a lovely area and the climbing fun if limited, but the run over the old hill fort is sensational. Not sure if the Pontesford Potter race is still going but that as great fun - I recall doing it immediately post night shift and was close to hysteria by the end of 12 miles of mud!

The only issue back then is the nearest walls were in Birmingham or the old Walls in the industrial estate in Chester (which was actually pretty good), so it was an hour's drive to the nearest one. Sounds like that's no longer an issue. Shame about High Sports closing - was a good wee shop.

 Have fun

b

It's simple

Sa - lop.

A friend of a brother who is in his early 50's has had 2 replacement knees and has a 'basically knackered' shoulder after a lot of playing rugby, torn rotator cuff and what have you.

He has crooked fingers on each hand after breaking them too. Quite handy when pointed at anybody getting up to no good though, they seem to stop.

Don't buy it in an area that floods.

I feel very sorry for a lot of people in that area suffering from the storms. Not sure if you've seen the aftermath of a flood but when the water recedes you're usually left with a lot of sticky stinky silt/mud everywhere, I've watched sewage back up and suddenly erupt from a kitchen sink in a flood once even though that property wasn't under water. And to add insult to injury you might have to leave things until the summer/autumn for walls to be dried out enough so the plasterer/painter will do it.

Hope all the UKC'ers in that area are OK.

I assume you are referring to Owen Paterson who was Shropshire North. The Shrewsbury and Atcham MP is still in post, dispite being reprimanded for taking the p*ss when apologising after being found guilty of bullying, claiming tens of thousands of pounds for Polish lessons after he had previously claimed to be fluent and begging Saudi fixers paid consultancy posts to pay for his kids private school. 

Many good reasons for moving to Shrewsbury, not sure their MP is one of them. 

The Folk Festival, August BH, and several decent pubs would be other reasons to move to Shrewsbury.

Oh, there is. There’s a good supply of them in that part of the world.

jcm

Thanks to everyone who’s replied with their advice and comments. I was aware of flooding on the Severn and the advice of not living on the flood plain or close to the river. I’ve got a map showing the flood risk areas for various floods levels and will house hunt to avoid flood prone area. Appreciate the info about the local crags for daytime/ evening climbing, they’ll be a change from limestone or plastic!

Looking forward to drinking some proper British beer for a change

It might be worth looking at predicted changes in patterns for flooding as well, as climate change has an effect.