South Front of the tower

We welcomed many intrigued visitors including a number of locals who wanted to see what was behind the door they pass by every day.

Ground floor entrance on the North Front of the tower

Town Walls Tower is significant because it is the last remaining watch tower on Shrewsbury’s medieval town walls. It was probably added to the town walls in the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413).

North Front of the tower

It was given to the National Trust in 1930 by Miss Rachel Humphreys, who lived opposite at Swan Hill Court. Her father, John Humphreys, had been responsible for the conversion of the Tower into a dwelling in the 1860s. The tower is no longer inhabited; it is currently leased by the National Trust to Shrewsbury Girl’s School.

Town Walls Tower has some quirky interior features such as this window handle and forty extremely steep steps!

Quirky window handle

If you fancy visiting this fascinating little place it will be open two more days this year, on Sunday 12th August and Saturday 29th September, from 11am to 3pm. Town Walls Tower is close to Shrewsbury town centre, situated between the English and Welsh bridges on the south side of the town walls.

We look forward to meeting you.

Emma

The weekend also heralded the opening of a couple of The National Trust’s more unique Shropshire properties.

Saturday after a brisk walk with friends up over Haughmond Hill, I headed home and out to see The Town Walls Tower. Shrewsbury is defiantly a town made up of history, I am always finding a new building to look at when I am in town and even some of the 1960’s buildings offer unique features or more often then not hide a decadent period building.

The Tower is the last remaining medieval watchtower and dates back to the 14^th century. I was told that the town was subject to attacks by the Welsh and the watchtowers made up part of the defence of the town.

I arrived and was met (as I always am) by a very jolly volunteer who asked if I wanted to be shown around the tower or if I was happy to explore on my own. I of course as always chose the later option. But I did tag onto the tail end of a talk being given by one of the volunteers about the exterior of the tower and how when the Georgian house that neighbours the tower was built the house was grafted to the tower to stop the severe lean that the tower had. However over the years the tower has remained stationary and the house has began to lean down towards the river causing a rather large crack to appear in the Georgian house’s wall. The tower has seen a change in its uses of the years before it was left to the trust by a wealthy Shrewsbury family. It’s been a watchmaker and also the lodgings of a coach driver hence the fact it has survived and its neighbouring towers haven’t.

Town Walls Tower

I pottered over the three floors of the tower and looked through all the windows, taking in the feel of the building. A wonderful little excursion to a property that is rarely available to view.

Sunday was a different type of day altogether, the rain had returned with a vengeance and there was no let in the heavy and sometimes torrential rain that hammered down.

Gareth and I set off to have a look at Cronkhill, a stunning house in the Italianate villa design which was designed by John Nash who also worked on Attingham Park and also Longner the two neighbouring estates that sit around Atcham. He also worked on the stunning Whitley Court which we visited early in the year.

The house stands rather grandly upon the top of a hill and commands stunning views along the River Severn and across the valley up to the Wrekin. We arrived imagining a rather poor showing because of the weather but there were several cars parked. We threw on our raincoats and headed up to the house. We were met by a wonderful lady who explained about the house and its links with Attingham Park and we were left to walk through the open rooms and explore the collections on show that belong to the tenant, who is Rupert Acton who manages the wonderful Acton Scott Estate, about 30 minutes away from Cronkhill which is also well worth a visit too.

We decided it was then time to brave the weather to speak to some of the specialist people that were set up in the gardens, they had wonderful displays of the architecture and some of the history of Cronkhill, it was whilst we were stood here in the rain we had some wonderful discussions about the history of Shropshire’s historical buildings and how when you are walking down the streets remember to look up above the mundane shop fronts and see what the buildings should be like.

Cronkhill

We then found ourselves talking to the Engagement and Conservation officer who remembered me from town walls the previous day. We chatted at length about what was going to occur at Attingham and how they were looking for volunteers to help behind the scenes with regards to the collections and archive aswell as front of house and also how easy it is to volunteer time.

So emails have been sent and we shall wait and see what occurs!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nash_(architect)

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/attingham-park-cronkhill/

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/town-walls-tower/