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The picture above is of a model in Shrewsbury museum of the houses built along one of the bridges into the town. All roads in and out of the town had large gate houses which ensured it was not attacked and that taxes could be collected from traders.

We are staying in the Drapers Hall and I imagined 15th century shopkeepers discussing soft furnishings and curtains but I was wrong, Drapers were traders in wool, they bought the wool at the lowest possible price from Welsh farmers and then as a cartel fixed the price to the rest of the market giving them a good profit. Bishop's Castle also did well out of the wool trade. The Drapers were the richest men in town and their Charter, awarded in 1461 allowed them to support St Mary's church and a number of ale houses, so they seem to have everything covered.
As advertised in the previous blog we had our posh dinner in Rhubarb, the hotels restaurant, no rhubarb and custard but perhaps it is because rhubarb is out of season in the UK. Unlike every other vegetable which is imported from Africa in our closed season it is only grown in Britain (force grown in Yorkshire but still not in the shops till May) , so perhaps if you want to make your fortune start a rhubarb farm in South Africa. They did have rhubarb mess which had tiny stalks which perhaps are just in season or frozen from last year. Still the rest of the food was good.

Today we went on a very enjoyable town tour of Shrewsbury and a couple of interesting hours in Shrewsbury museum.

The guide shown in the photo is in front of what is now the library but was once Shrewsbury school, there were six of us on the tour and it was great fun. He pointed out things you would not spot on a walk through the town, for example the wood carving below, which is on a restored 15th century building showing the heads of Margaret Thatcher and Michael Heseltine back to back with "Poll Tax" above them. The architects were the same company who managed the Porch House work, they just did carvings of the resident children's heads, nothing as contentious thank goodness.

On our tour we also learnt that the coat of arms of Shrewsbury shows three leopards not lions as we thought, they are called Loggerheads in heraldic circles but they still look like lions to me.

The Shrewsbury museum is really good, they have a lot of Roman artefacts from Wroxeter, a large Roman city just up the road as well as the inevitable history of Charles Darwin who was born in the town but left before he did anything worthwhile.

There are a number of Italian restaurants in Shrewsbury, the best (and poshest) we skipped tonight and headed to the second best, slightly cheaper and more entertaining restaurant called La Lanterna. It looks like a 1960's public lavatory from the outside but go through the entrance, down some stairs and it is a 25 seater Italian bistro, probably also 1960 vintage but great.

Assuming it is not pouring with rain tomorrow we will knock off another National Trust site and I will write a little about head bangers.