Phil Gillam: The Shrewsbury of the past and the Shrewsbury of the future

And they also underscored why it is that so many of us have a deep and unshakeable love for Shrewsbury.

The one event involved bows and arrows, swords and shields, and scary-looking chaps in armour.

And, yes, it was really lovely to see crowds gather on Sunday for some medieval fun and frolics in the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle … but more of that in a moment.

Before that, on the Saturday, there was a very well-attended public forum under the banner “Shrewsbury Growing Forward: Urban Sprawl or Sustainable Development”.

No bows and arrows involved in this particular event.

It was all about different aspects of designing housing growth across Shrewsbury, about creating sustainable neighbourhoods, about the importance of green spaces, and a whole lot more.

Yeah. There was an awful lot to take in.

These were huge subjects – and everyone had an opinion! … Everyone!

At one point during this four-hour event, as I was making my way to one of the discussion groups, I bumped into Mike Carter of the Shrewsbury Civic Society (the chair for this event) and he said: “We could really do with a week, couldn’t we? Not just an afternoon.”

And he was right. So many different views were being expressed that it was hard to keep track.

Staged at the University Centre Shrewsbury, this event allowed us to hear the views of a fascinating panel of experts before the hall full of people was divided up into smaller workshops to focus on particular aspects of this vast subject.

The panellists were Charles Green of the Council for the Protection of Rural England; Councillor Nic Laurens, Shropshire Council’s portfolio holder for investment and economic growth; David Ward, Oswestry Civic Society’s planning adviser; Ian Kilby, Shropshire Council’s planning development manager; Robin Mager, Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s planning officer; and Peter Gilbert of Sustainable Transport Shropshire.

Each brought their own insights to the debate.

“We sometimes make things too complicated,” said the Wildlife Trust’s Robin Mager, alluding to heavyweight reports “that are 70-pages of techno-gobbledigook that no-one can understand”.

When Councillor Laurens said: “I’ve lived here in Shrewsbury nearly all my life and I love the history we have here,” there were nods of agreement all around the hall, an unspoken response that said so much about people’s respect for the town’s heritage.

Acknowledging that so often town planners are portrayed as the bad guys, Planning Development Manager Ian Kilby prompted warm appreciation and laughter when he said: “The words ‘planners must be barmy’ is something I hear a lot … daily actually!”

He went on to say: “But I’m genuinely interested in the built environment, I’m interested in conservation. This is why I got into planning.”

The forum was organised by Mayor of Shrewsbury Jane Mackenzie and the Shrewsbury Civic Society, and the intention is that outcomes from it will formulate a set of principles that Shropshire Council will be able to use.

There was much of value being said here – and all comments and suggestions were being treated with respect and duly noted.

Throughout all of this, though, something that Councillor Mackenzie said really resonated with me. She spoke of us all as “citizens and custodians of this town”. And of course, that’s absolutely spot on; we are custodians of this town, looking after it (hopefully) for future generations to enjoy it – and love it – as we do.

And when it comes to enjoying Shrewsbury, Sunday’s event at the Castle – The Mayor of Shrewsbury’s Medieval Celebration – was a delight.

There was music from centuries gone by … and also music that somehow managed to embrace the World War II big band sounds of Glenn Miller with contemporary funk, this being the soundtrack to extravagantly dressed steampunk dancers.

Okay, what they had to do with the medieval period I have no idea, but it was all great fun!