The past and future of Shrewsbury Prison are in safe hands with Joel

And I'm not talking about Stealth at Thorpe Park or Oblivion at Alton Towers.

This is more about the life of an entrepreneur.

But seeing as we have mentioned tourist attractions, and the gamut of emotions being an entrepreneur brings, it would be rude not to speak of Joel Campbell.

Joel specialises in 'dark tourism' which involves turning sinister locations, such as graveyards and prisons, into attractions and he is well known here in Shropshire.

As part of his £3 million turnover business, Joel, CEO of The Cove Group helped save Shrewsbury and Shepton Mallet Prison, turning them into family days out.

The incredible success story of Shrewsbury Prison, established since 1793, is something for people in the county to be proud of.

Here we have a 200-plus-year-old heritage site and top ten global dark tourism attraction, the world’s most interactive prison, and TripAdvisor travellers’ top 10 per cent worldwide attraction.

It featured on screen as the set for productions including Time, Banged Up, Casualty, Holby City, Coronation Street, Lucky Man, The Apprentice, Celebrity Hunted, and plenty more.

And its stock is rising by the year. To the point that changes are planned. There are proposals for the transformation of disused buildings at the rear of the site into a “boutique” hotel, offering guests a stay that “combines the allure of history with contemporary comfort”.

And that's just the start. There will also be a new conference facility, including training and meeting rooms and a versatile space, for both corporate events and personal celebrations.

An on-site restaurant will be planned to cater for 120 covers, offering a menu that combines local flavours with international cuisine, all set within the prison’s historic walls. The development will also include a 72-space car park with provisions for EV charging, accessible parking and bike racks.

"It has become a renowned tourist attraction, it's only growing and our brand getting stronger," said Joel. "Television has helped with that and now I am excited by the future.

"I think people will be interested to see what happens here and transforming Shrewsbury Prison into a world-class destination is a thrilling venture for us. We want to not only honour the past but also pave the way for a new era of sustainable tourism.

"It's all being pieced together over the next two years and it will continue to grow," he adds.

The exciting plans represent a peak on that entrepreneurial roller coaster for Joel.

When his first company, Step Success, failed, he had bailiffs at his door threatening to take away his possessions.

"I was £83,000 in debt," he reflects. "We couldn't pay bills or the mortgage, we were living off pasta. That was all we could afford. It was a really tough time and very stressful.

"Accepting a business has failed is a really difficult thing to get over. Ultimately, you feel like you have failed and, once you have done with that, you have to deal with the process of going through administration, liquidation or selling it out.

"You have to pay bills.You have suppliers on the phone wanting to be paid, customers wanting services to be delivered but you have no way of paying. It's horrendous to go through."

Such challenges, while terrible, can be character building and that's what Joel found. A key characteristic of an entrepreneur has to be resilience.

"You need a huge amount of that," he said. "A lot of people who go through those challenges never want to do it again and they don't.

"For those who do, it's about resetting, stabilising, finding a balance and getting to a point where you think, what do I need to do today to get back to zero?

"When you have lost everything – I had £1.57 in my account – in a way you have nothing to lose and can throw everything at it because what''s the actual worse thing that can happen at that point? The only way is up from there and there's a silver lining under that dark cloud."

That silver lining was, in Joel's case, Shrewsbury Prison.

"My wife Emma worked at Shepton Mallett Prison as a psychologist, doing behavioural treatment programmes for prisoners," Joel reflects. "Every couple of months there was a walk through tour for anyone who wanted to go into the prison service, such as probation workers or young offender workers.

"It gave people a chance to understand what the inside of a prison looks like and what happens. I was fortunate enough to jump on the back of one.

"I was fascinated by the concept and I was blown away. The tour officer took us through and explained how the prison works, its history and what happened on a day-to-day basis. I was like 'wow' - it's unbelievable.

"When they released me, so to speak, two hours later, I thought what an amazing attraction it would make, a great educational journey for students. That was in 2007 and I tucked the idea away in the back of my head as I do with many ideas."

In March 2013, the Ministry of Justice announced it was to close the prison to cut costs.

"I found myself in a position where I reignited the idea to grow it," he said. "I put a bid in to buy it which wasn't successful."

Shrewsbury Prison was eventually sold to property developer, The Osborne Group, in January 2015. Development plans included converting the Grade II listed prison wings into student accommodation, with the rest of the prison being converted into housing.

An outline planning application was eventually granted, but the need for student accommodation in Shrewsbury disappeared when the new university never materialised.

He spoke to property mogul Trevor Osborne and agreed a short-term lease to take over the site.

"I picked up the keys in July 2015 and a month later I opened it up for tours and never looked back," he recalls.

"The plan was to have it for a year as a pop up and Trevor would then get planning permission for housing.We would move out and that would be it effectively.

"We made it a success and then The Osborne Group decided to put the site up for sale. I decided to buy the prison, securing its future.

"We had built the business to a position where we could afford to buy it and that's how the journey unfolded. We then secured a lease for Shepton and opened that as well."

Despite challenges such as the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, the chance for visitors to get a glimpse of life behind bars has ensured the success of the prison as it has become one of the region’s most popular tourist attractions and offers guided tours, ghost hunts and escape rooms.

"There is a morbid curiosity. For example, why did people go and watch public executions? " says Joel. "What goes on behind those bars and walls? People want to know.

"Some people are interested in history and heritage, others want to see what happens now or have watched Time and want to see Sean Bean's cell. There are different motives.

"They want to see the dark side but in a safe, secure and managed environment. That is a big driver of people visiting. And, of course, we have the educational market, which has been huge. We have seen massive, massive growth in that."

Key to current success, Joel says, has also been the use of CRM platform Pipedrive to organise customers wanting to explore dark tourism attractions – a case of using modern technology to support a historic attraction.

"We were doing everything on paper or Excel spreadsheets," he recalls. "And we would have enquiries lost all over the place. I remember someone picking up a keyboard and finding a message on a scrap of paper from three weeks before that no one had answered.

"We didn't know if schools had been before or it was their first enquiry, There was just no cohesion, sense of structure or strategy whatsoever

"So Pipedrive fixed all of those problems. We embedded that into our website so, when people enquired, we were able to know their information was going straight into our CRM tool. We now monitor and track the whole journey and link with those customers and those leads.

"It's a seamless process and once we saw enquiries that could take two to three days become two to three hours to respond to and we just saw numbers climb.

"It was a huge difference and it has just scaled and scaled. It took away all the pains and headaches and we are using the newest technology and blending them together effectively."

It's the latest boost to the progress of the business, a journey which leaves Joel with a sense of pride. And he hopes that his success and the fact it was never plain sailing might inspire others.

After all, an in-depth study by YFM Equity Partners, recently revealed West Midlands entrepreneurs generate a sizeable £79bn in revenue each year.

"I always wanted to run my own businesses and was always a natural entrepreneur," said Joel. "That was my style from a child. I didn't know what business to run or what industry that entrepreneurialism was going to be in.

"I ran four or five start ups, throwing mud at the wall and seeing what was sticking and prisons was where the mud stuck!

"Being an entrepreneur and setting up a business can be a tough life. But it can be thoroughly enjoyable.

"I love entrepreneurs because they have hunger, drive and what they are trying to do is something different."

"They are looking to evolve an industry, whether that's running a prison, a green grocers or a marketing agency.

"There is a risk element to it but it's the joy of the ride and the innovation as the journey goes on.

"For me, I always say, it is best to bet on and back yourself. You can control that.

"I have a great team who I back. I have faith in what I think we should do and faith in the team to deliver it.

"Yes, business can ebb and flow and it's a rollercoaster ride but have faith in yourself to plan your business as best you can."

That roller coaster ride is, where Shrewsbury Prison is concerned, still on an upward trajectory.