Pictures from the past

Telford town centre is seen here in September 1986, but there are already some familiar features in place, like the tall Darby House office block, just right of centre. The area in the foreground is still awaiting development, and beyond the town centre complex you can see green fields.

These were not to last long!

The National School and Church, at Deytheur, which is near Llansantffraid, are seen in this undated, but probably Edwardian, postcard which was loaned to us by Mrs Doris Pickstock, of Oswestry. She says it was one of a number that were in a box of books bought by her late husband about 25 years ago. Mrs Pickstock thinks many of them were his father's sisters when they were in service, writing to another sister who lived at home with their parents.

You are here witnessing the swansong of the ancient Swan Inn at Wellington.

This picture was used in the Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News of January 16, 1960 – sorry about the quality – and shows the demolition of the building in progress.

It was taken down because the timbers had become infested with death watch beetle.

A new Swan was built to replace it, and still stands today.

Here's a fancy dress party at Stapleton Village Hall, obviously dating from around Christmas, and perhaps in the late 1930s.

The names on the back of the print (the photo carries the stamp of E.A. Wood, Shrewsbury) are written in pencil as: Mr and Mrs Morgan (pierrots), Mr Morris (cowboy), J. Bradbury (traffic lights), Betty Evans, Mrs Sammy Morris, Ernest Needs, Mr Stacey, Netley Hall Sisters, Herbert Stevens, Mrs C. Tudor, Mrs J. Bradbury, Dorothy Bradbury, Mr Lewis, Tommy Addis (Youngers Scotch Ales), Billie Bowers (Sun).

Mrs W Oakley (snowman), Horace Manley, George Thorne, Fred Cooke, Stanley Bradbury, Jarvis (? writing difficult to read, no first name given), Jim Lelliott (?), Walter Reece, "Ernest", Mrs Needs, Mrs Lewis, John Bradbury, Billie Williams (lady), Gwen Addis, Miss Williams, (of) Condover, Betty Dixon (south sea maiden), Mrs Bowers (Victorian lady), Miss Corfield.

It is said one local who tried to get in dressed as a tramp was refused entry – because they thought he was a tramp.

This picture was loaned by Mrs Anne Newton, of Shrewsbury. Her maiden name was Rogers. The Rogers family used to live at School House, Stapleton, until 1941.

A Midland Red bus is recovered from a ditch after coming to grief near Shawbury. Shrewsbury transport historian Roy Pilsbury thinks it was in the early to mid 1950s. The bus involved was the Shrewsbury to Ditherington (New Works) 931 bus.

Roy said: "New Works was the Sentinel Works – it was always known as the New Works by Midland Red. The accident was on the Shawbury road. They altered the road in the mid to late 1960s."

The picture is from the collection of Mr Harry Turner, of Newtown, whose late father, also called Harry, was resident engineer at the Midland Red depot at Ditherington.

Hail a hero, a long way from home, pictured in wartime Shropshire. This is an extremely rare picture which shows a Free French airman under training at Chetwynd airfield, near Newport - the handwritten note at the bottom says "Chetwynd" and the next word may be "Masters" - Miles Masters were the type of training aircraft at RAF Chetwynd.

The photo is from the archives of Pierre Magrot, a Free French airman who trained at Chetwynd in early 1943 but was shot down in his Spitfire and killed over northern France on August 27 that year.

The photo was e-mailed to us from France by aviation historian Bertrand Hugot who tells us that Magrot was in 5 PAFU (that's Pilots Advanced Flying Unit), No 45 intake, February 9, 1943, and was one of 11 Free Frenchmen in that intake, of whom two are still alive. The airman pictured is not positively identified, but may be Daniel Giocanti.

In the background is one of the open ended hangars at Chetwynd - there is a story that on at least one occasion a pilot flew a Hurricane through one of them for a dare.

A huge pall of smoke rises into the sky from COD Donnington on April 25, 1988, the second major blaze there in the 1980s.

The cause was never determined for certain.

Happily there were no casualties, but the financial cost was enormous at more than £150 million.