Friday March 13th, 1795
THE FOLLOWING is given as a caution to young women against the too-frequent custom of following Private Soldiers. The daughter of a respectable publican in Leicester was seduced by an Irish recruit and eloped with him to Dublin, where he robbed her of her clothes and left her almost naked and penniless. She subsisted in Ireland by begging and then returned to England. A few days ago, she reached Stafford and was discovered in a most deplorable condition in a hole near the soldiers’ guard room, almost frozen to death.
Friday March 17th, 1820
DIED – on the 7th at Whitchurch, Shipton Wynell Mayou, aged 12 years. Whilst skating on the Rectory Pool the ice gave way and he was precipitated into a watery grave. His younger brother, in attempting to save him, nearly shared the same fate. The loss of this very promising and most amiable youth is deeply deplored by all who knew him.
Friday March 18th, 1870
MONSTER SALMON – on Tuesday last a salmon of monster proportions was exhibited at the shop of Messrs. F and T Hammonds, fishmongers, Castle Street. It was caught in the Severn near Shrawardine and was pronounced to be not only the largest but the finest salmon that had been seen in Shrewsbury for at least the past 25 years. It measured four feet in length, was twenty-six inches in girth, and weighed 38 lbs.
Friday March 12th, 1920
THE ST JOHN HOSPITAL, Prestfelde, London Road, Shrewsbury, is closing down this month. It was first opened at Oakley Manor, Belle Vue, as an auxiliary military hospital in December 1914, and continued as such up to March 1919, during which time over 1,000 men passed through. Splendid work was done, and the hospital had an extraordinary run of luck in freedom from fatal cases. The hospital was subsequently opened for discharged soldiers, and over 150 men have received treatment as in-patients and over 100 as outpatients.
Friday March 14th, 1980
CLERGYMEN have given overwhelming support to a move urging the Church of England to allow divorced people to re-marry in church. At the annual Lichfield Diocesan Synod, held in Shrewsbury on Saturday, clergymen members voted 71 to 29 in favour of a resolution calling on the Church to favour the re-marriage of divorcees. [But] the Vicar of St Chad’s, Shrewsbury, Rev Michael Pollitt, opposed the motion. “The public will reckon the Church does not really stand by what it says if it says marriage is for ever and then re-marries divorcees,” he said.
Thursday March 16th, 1995
A DISABLED Shrewsbury cricketer fulfilled his lifetime ambition by umpiring a game at Lords. Martin Booth, 29, from Belle Vue, was selected by the British Disability Cricket Association to umpire an international match between England and Wales last weekend. It was his first visit to Lords. He became disabled after suffering a blood clot on the brain. Martin regularly umpires matches for Shrewsbury teams in Frankwell and Sundorne as well as other matches around the county. When asked how he came to be selected by the national association he said, “because I’m good!”
Thursday March 18th, 2010
AN HISTORIC Roman city will be brought back to life as part of an educational TV documentary which will be filmed later this year. TV crews are set to descend on Wroxeter, and a planning application is expected to be rushed through Shropshire Council this week for the construction of a replica Roman villa at a site near the old barns. The villa will be constructed by a team of builders using authentic materials, starting in April. A spokeswoman for English Heritage, which maintains Wroxeter, said they were fully behind the new plans. “English Heritage welcomes innovative approaches to bringing our cultural heritage and historic environment alive for as broad an audience as possible,” she said.