Inside Charles Darwin's childhood home - as Shrewsbury property evolves with luxury cottages, new businesses and a museum in the pipeline

Businessman Glyn Jones bought Mount House - where the evolutionary theorist and Shrewsbury's most famous son grew up - back in 2019 for almost £1 million.

The master plan was to restore the large Georgian house to its former glory while breathing new life into it.

Tatty and derelict outbuildings were to be renovated, while a museum in the main house to celebrate Charles Darwin's life and his contribution to science was also one of the main ideas. It was also Glyn's ambition to create a place for start-up businesses to thrive.

So far, Glyn and his team have made impressive progress on turning outbuildings into cosy, luxurious B&B cottages. And two very different Shropshire businesses, which are run from the main house, have launched the green shoots of the bustling base of enterprise which it could become.

Glyn invited the Shropshire Star to take a look around.

The museum plan is only at the ideas stage currently, but the level of interest in Darwin has given Glyn a sense of motivation to bring it to life.

"The surprising inspiration is the massive public interest in Charles Darwin," he said. "It is a worldwide public interest. It's phenomenal.

"We haven't even advertised it or launched a website but people just turn up and come for a look from around the world. We've had people from Japan, people studying Darwinism from Brazil.

"I feel a responsibility that we need to do something."

Glyn has been taking inspiration from visiting other attractions with his children when considering the museum in the future, and likes the idea of a virtual reality experience.

"It would need to be interactive," he said. "You want kids to go away having experienced what life would have been like."

Pointing to a statue of Darwin in his younger days, exploring with lizards and wildlife on the rocks beneath him, depicting his voyages to tropical islands, Glyn said: "It would be great to have something that would take people back in time to when he was here in Shrewsbury, then down to London and then to this time of his life when his theories would have started coming together."

Some of the rooms inside the main house, including the reception and the main front room, have been tastefully renovated.