Phil Gillam: Bridge that spans the river and the years
The swans were on the river. T. Rex were on the radio. I was on the brink of something new.
That September I was due to begin my two-year course at Tech … everyone called it Tech back then; nowadays it’s Shrewsbury College.
I was excited about the start of a new chapter. And I knew that Tech – and the exams I would take there – would offer me thrilling opportunities.
But all that was still just a little way off.
It was the summer of 1973 and I was just sweet 16, enjoying a lovely little part-time job at the old Coleham Head offices of the Shrewsbury Circular.
My summer holidays between finishing school and starting Tech therefore included three hours each afternoon of emptying ashtrays, sweeping floors, washing up, making tea and coffee, and running errands.
Oh, by the way, for those who don’t remember it, the Circular was a weekly publication packed with local adverts and delivered by hand to homes across the town.
The publication and the building in which it was printed have both long since gone.
