Friday August 22nd, 1794
PARIS, AUGUST 1ST – on 28th, at night, [among those who] were guillotined [was] Maximilian Robespierre, 35 years old, and A Robespierre, a younger brother of the above Maximilian… The heads of Robespierre and some others were held up and shown to the people, who, the whole way from the Palace of Justice to the scaffold, testified their abhorrence and detestation… The late execution of Robespierre has not made much impression. All is quiet.
Friday August 20th, 1794
FIRE – on the 18th inst. A fire broke out in the village of Uffington, near this town, which raged with great fury. Three cottages in the occupations of Boycot, Goucher and Bailey, were entirely consumed, and had it not been for the active and humane exertions of Mr Allen (whose house and farm building are contiguous [adjoining]), aided by the harvest people, the inhabitants could not have rescued any portion of their furniture and little property. This calamity was occasioned by the heating of an oven.
Friday August 20th, 1869
STEALING A COAT – Thomas Lambert, a tramp, was charged at the County Police Court on Saturday with stealing a coat from a field at the Four Crosses on 9th August, the property of John Clark. The prosecutor was playing cricket in a field at the Four Crosses and had placed his coat under the hedge; he had also placed his waistcoat in one of the pockets of the coat. At five o’clock he went to look for his coat but could not find it. A little girl called Elizabeth Lewis saw the prisoner draw the coat through the hedge, and it was subsequently found at the shop of Mr Rogers [pawn]broker, Castle Foregate, where the prisoner had sold it for 3s.
Friday August 22nd, 1919
OLD HEATH CHILDREN recently paid their annual visit to the Royal Salop Infirmary with gifts of eggs and flowers. About 50 eggs were taken and the gifts were much appreciated by the staff and patients. The juveniles of Old Heath are to be commended for setting such an excellent example to some of the more aristocratic localities of Shrewsbury.
A CORRESPONDENT suggests that the entrance to the garden city about to be erected at Coton Hill should be called “Coton Avenue” or “Coton Drive”.
Friday August 24th, 1979
SHREWSBURY’S POSTMEN are the greatest! That’s the view of 6-year-old Matthew Brown – and he has a Teddy Bear Post letter to prove it! By first post at his home 13 South Close, Longden Road he received a letter from a young friend – and the letter bore only a toy Teddy Post stamp. What’s more, the letter, from Matthew’s pal Robert O’Keefe, who lives in Coleham, had only been posted at 7.15pm the night before. To Matthew the letter was important – it was an invitation from Robert to go and play with him! It was important, too, to Shrewsbury’s postmen. A spokesman at the Head Post Office said, “It was obviously a letter from one child to another. Although it didn’t bear a proper stamp, we realised that if it wasn’t delivered a youngster might be disappointed, so we made an exception to the rule and made sure that it got to Matthew’s address quickly. But we are very selective about these things and don’t want everyone to think they can get away with Teddy Post stamps!”
Thursday August 25th, 1994
SHREWSBURY is once again at the centre of an investigation into the mysteries of reincarnation. Film makers descended on the town’s Local Studies library looking into claims by a French woman that her husband lived in 18th century Oswestry during a former life. Staff at Shropshire County Council’s Records and Research office were filmed checking parish registers and searching shelves for documents in a bid to identify the mystery man. Scenes and names from his dreams suggested that he belonged to a wealthy family in Oswestry. But Ruth Bagley, Head of Records and Research, which has units at both the library and the Shire Hall, said she was “sceptical” about the claims. She said, “The pieces didn’t necessarily fit together and there was most definitely an element of chance in the information provided.”
Thursday August 27th, 2009
A TOWN NIGHCLUB at the centre of a murder investigation has been given the go-ahead to reopen by a licence review panel. But CCTV coverage will be increased to cover the whole premises. Licensing chiefs revealed at Shropshire Council’s area licensing sub-committee recently that the Liquid and Diva nightclub in Raven Meadows is linked to a tenth of all crime incidents inside the town’s river loop over the past few years. Two doormen at the club, Neil Stokes, 22, of Spring Gardens, Shrewsbury, and Daryl Brown, 31, of Severn Drive, Wellington, have been charged with murder and have appeared in court.