Shrewsbury from the Second World War to Now - Shropshire History

This is the highly condensed version of the history of Shrewsbury from the Second World War to Now!

It is the subject of our video of the same name, which we have embedded below for you to watch. After watching please come back here and scroll down to make a comment.

The town suffered very little from the bombing in the Second World War, that killed so many, and did such appalling damage to so many English locations.

The worst case in Shrewsbury was in 1940, a woman and her two grandchildren were killed, when a cottage was destroyed on Ellesmere Road, thankfully these were the only local air raid deaths.

Rubble of Shrewsbury's only air raid bombing
((c)Shropshire Archive - watermarked)

Note: The man wearing a uniform forage cap in the video, may possibly have been a German prisoner of war.

Therefore, many of its ancient buildings remain intact, and there was comparatively little redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s.

Shrewsbury escaped much of the development which arguably, destroyed the character of many historic towns in the UK.

((c)Shropshire Archive - watermarked)

However, some historic buildings were demolished to make way, for the brutalist architectural style of the 1960s, and these were not exactly improved by later face-lifts!

The town was saved from a new 'inner ring road', due to its challenging geography on a loop of the River Severn.

BUT, some buildings of that period were truly despised!

((c)Shropshire Archive - watermarked) Barker St. Multi-Storey Car Park, 
with nearby Rowley's House.

Two notably disliked examples of 1960s to 70s construction in Shrewsbury were demolished in the 2000s.

These were the "lovely" Telephone House, on Smithfield Road, and the multi-storey car park at St Austin's Friars, now also demolished!

Do you have memories of WW2 or of these buildings? Sorry to see them go? Please, give your comments!

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