Stories from Toby Neal | Shropshire Star

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Toby Neal

Feature Writer

A journalist in Shropshire for 40 years, mainly writes features and columns, especially about aspects of Shropshire history. Lives in Telford.

May 2, 2025

'Time will tell if I did the right thing' - Shropshire author took a sometimes rocky road to achieve his mill home dream

Features|6 hours ago

April 25, 2025

New 'seriously nutty' children's book from Telford author available now

April 19, 2025

Sir Keir Starmer

Sir Keir’s Steel Revival: Strategic for industry or just a symbolic gesture?

Toby Neal|Apr 19

April 18, 2025

'Lost' Telford's community remembered in new book after 25 years in the making

Features|Apr 18

April 13, 2025

Remembering the Easter sun dance over the Wrekin which drew the crowds

Features|Apr 13

April 12, 2025

Sir Keir Starmer visit to West Midlands

Make the UK Great Again: A modest proposal for tariffs, teenagers, and the 'War on Americanisms'

March 29, 2025

More than 1,100 objections have been lodged about plans to build 800 homes in Albrighton. Picture: Albrighton Village Action Group

Growth and change for Albrighton and beyond - but you can't please everyone

March 22, 2025

Belfast’s Wallet Experiment: A lesson in community and honesty - but could residents in Telford or Wolverhampton say the same?

Wolverhampton|Mar 22

March 21, 2025

The Goodyear airship by a Goodyear Tyres chimney

Things are looking up for a 21st century airship revival in Bridgnorth - but this new dawn has beckoned before

Features|Mar 21

March 15, 2025

Ed Miliband in a high-vis jacket and protective goggles

'The greatest threat to is the climate politicians spouting nonsense' - Toby Neal talks pylon plans in the countryside

Toby Neal|Mar 15

March 14, 2025

Gardening champion who dubbed Telford 'a disgrace to the nation' just kept winning in 60s and 70s

Features|Mar 14

March 8, 2025

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress

'We should take Donald Trump literally and seriously' - Toby Neal warns

March 4, 2025

New comedy by Shropshire playwright gets rave reviews after West End opening

March 1, 2025

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gives a speech during a welcome reception at the British ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC

'If Sir Keir was a backslapper he could give himself a good congratulatory backslapping' - Toby Neal's assessment of that meeting

February 22, 2025

Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands in Kyiv

Brexit, StarmerForce, and the UK's Role in Ukraine: A peacekeeper's dilemma

Toby Neal|Feb 22

Shifnal author explains what should happen to 'forgotten Scots' artefact 'Book of Deer'

The Toby Neal Collection|Feb 22

February 15, 2025

'The younger generation have advancements we could only dream of - but I don't envy them at all'

Toby Neal|Feb 15

February 9, 2025

Surprise twist in tale of Shrewsbury baby honoured by pop star visit

February 8, 2025

Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images

'The Mogs are misunderstood - they're unlike the previous older generation' - Toby Neal says

February 2, 2025

How RAF Cosford nursed sick and battle-scarred prisoners back to health as they returned home

February 1, 2025

Sir Keir Starmer

Toby Neal's take on the 'Rachel from accounts' misogny debate, council tax and Bonnie Blue's record-breaking OnlyFans career

Toby Neal|Feb 1

January 23, 2025

A £70 plane to beat the traffic? What could go wrong? - Toby Neal looks back on the fatally flawed 'people's plane'

Features|Jan 23

January 18, 2025

Starmer may want us to embrace AI - but where does that leave us? - Toby Neal asks

January 17, 2025

Climbing trees, bows and arrows, scrapes and madcap adventures... - Toby Neal looks back on childhood before smartphones

Nostalgia|Jan 17

January 11, 2025

Elon Musk (Evan Vucci/AP)

'Child Abuse Bill may have opposite effect - and cancelling at Elon Musk and Donald Trump's criticism won't move us forward' - star columnist Toby Neal warns

January 6, 2025

Mid tournament snow failed to checkmate Shropshire's premier chess event which set a new record for entries

January 4, 2025

Need a New Year's resolution? Hug a rightwinger and live life outside your phone camera

December 31, 2024

Shropshire's premier chess tournament has hit a new record for the number of entries amid a surge in interest in the game.

News|Dec 31, 2024

December 15, 2024

In the weeks before Christmas, refugees arrived - and Midlanders welcomed them

News|Dec 15, 2024

December 14, 2024

'Get it in quick so they blame the Tories' - Toby Neal on the Prime Minister's plans for pensioners this winter

News|Dec 14, 2024

December 7, 2024

'Tis the season to update your Christmas songs - Toby Neal's 2024 take on traditional tunes

Toby Neal|Dec 7, 2024

December 5, 2024

World Champion body builder from Shrewsbury 'Mr Universe' dies aged 72

News|Dec 5, 2024

A doorstop made from a brick from the Great Wall of China at Munslow Parish Church in July 1961.

Shropshire village's disappearing doorstop mystery takes a new turn in search for unique relic from Munslow Church

Nostalgia|Dec 5, 2024

November 30, 2024

Scrooge gravestone has been vandalised

The vandalism of Scrooge's gravestone could be a hate crime, says columnist Toby Neal

Toby Neal|Nov 30, 2024

November 28, 2024

Veteran Star man tasted the highs and lows

Nostalgia|Nov 28, 2024

November 23, 2024

Conservative MPs join farmers protest outside the Houses of Parliament in central London over the changes to inheritance tax (IHT) rules in the recent budget

Comment: 'Countryside Clobberer' Kier Starmer's inheritence tax plan means hard working people with pay the price for the public purse

Voices|Nov 23, 2024

November 20, 2024

Ironbridge car park fountain "is like an undiscovered Banksy"

Nostalgia|Nov 20, 2024

November 11, 2024

Donald Trump wearing a red 'Make American great again' hat

Toby Neal on politics: American election inquest and how Rachel Reeves' 'working people' get by

Toby Neal|Nov 11, 2024

November 9, 2024

Margaret Keenan, 90, becomes the first person to receive the Covid vaccine

Covid, war and the death of The Queen: Shropshire in the 2020s

Nostalgia|Nov 9, 2024

November 8, 2024

A look back at Shropshire in the 2010s, including Elton John in Shrewsbury

News|Nov 8, 2024

November 7, 2024

Shrewsbury Town FC's last league game at Gay Meadow against Grimsby Town.

Turning back the clock to look at Shropshire in the 2000s

Nostalgia|Nov 7, 2024

November 6, 2024

Shropshire band T’Pau at their height in 1987, as they topped the charts

Shropshire in the 80s: The life and times of Salopians in the 1980s in pictures and words

Nostalgia|Nov 6, 2024

Clay subsoil spelt doom for Percy Thrower's magnificent Magnolias

Features|Nov 6, 2024

November 5, 2024

Harry O’Brien with one of the anti-closure posters at Granville Colliery

Strikes, power cuts, rampant inflation: A look back on Shropshire in the 1970s

Nostalgia|Nov 5, 2024

November 4, 2024

The aftermath of the tragic fire at Shelton Hospital, Shrewsbury, on February 26, 1968

A look back at Shropshire in the 1960s

Nostalgia|Nov 4, 2024

November 1, 2024

Battleship battle veteran Tony Ditcham dies at 102

Cleobury Mortimer|Nov 1, 2024

October 19, 2024

Why I'm literally furious at our use of the English language – Toby Neal

Features|Oct 19, 2024

October 18, 2024

Villagers' lost battle to save line of beauty

Features|Oct 18, 2024

October 16, 2024

Why Shrewsbury man may have climbed Everest first – new evidence revealed

Features|Oct 16, 2024

October 6, 2024

The day a 16-year-old boy was needed for a Shrewsbury Town league match - and held his own

Nostalgia|Oct 6, 2024