Shrewsbury tends to the quainte and olde worlde. Well, it’s an old market town.

I did find some Art Deco though.

I spotted this garage on the approach to the town centre. Typical 1930s Deco styling:-

This shop is nearer the centre. Rule of three in the windows (which unfortunately have been “modernised”). Pediment on roofline:-

Art Deco Shop Terrace. Again modernised windows but the roofline fits the deco bill:-

Another shop. Stepped roofline, white rendering, window proportions:-

Marks & Spencer. Art Deco style here. Mainly in the window proportions:-

Market Hall Clock Tower. Clock face is deco-ish:-

I showed the Abbey’s exterior in my post about the Great War poet Wilfred Owen‘s memorial in its grounds.

The interior is more impressive.

Altar and vaulted ceiling:-

Stained glass window above Abbey entrance:-

Modern stained glass windows:-

The Abbey is right by the River Severn – which came to visit in the 1950s as this photograph in one of the Abbey’s aisles shows:-

The game at Oswestry not being till the evening we took ourselves off to Shrewsbury on the Saturday afternoon. (I’ve already mentioned Shrewsbury Abbey in a 4/11/2018 post about Wilfred Owen’s Memorial in the Abbey Grounds.)

Since we didn’t know the town we stopped at the first Park and Ride and availed ourselves of the service. That was just as well because the traffic was very busy and the streets quite narrow.

We also asked someone if the pronunciation was “Shrew”- or “Shrow”- sbury and were told it didn’t matter, either would do.

The town’s history is clearly evident in its buildings, with several in the timber-framed Tudor style:-

After the Second World War the military camp at Oswestry became a centre for Canadian troops, then the Royal Artillery and finally a training centre for Infantry Junior Leaders.

Also in the Oswestry War Memorial garden area is a Memorial to these Junior Leaders. Deus Vult translates as God wills.

Dedication plaque:-

Plaque to Junior Leaders who died on active service:-

Junior Leaders Association appreciation for Oswestry:-

During the Great War Oswestry was the site of an army training camp and military hospital. In World War 2 this was again brought into use this time as a Royal Artillery Training and Plotting Officers’ School.

Behind the gates of Oswestry’s main War Memorial is a gardened area wherein lie other memorials.

Royal Regiment of Artillery Memorial:-

Near side of Royal Regiment of Artillery Memorial:-

Latin tag. “Ubique quo fas et gloria decunt.” “Everywhere where right and glory lead.”:-

Memorial Field Gun:-

Memorial Field Gun dedication:-

I hadn’t looked this up reasoning that Oswestry is a big enough town to have a prominent War Memorial and I’d find it quite easily.

Still we’d been wandering the town for an hour or so on the Saturday morning (having travelled down on the Friday and staying overnight so as not to risk missing the kick-off) and still hadn’t seen it. So I asked the young woman serving me at WH Smith’s till, “Where is Oswestry’s War Memorial?” Despite seeming to be a local she didn’t know.

Anyway I strolled on down the main street for about a hundred or so yards – and there it was.

A set of gates flanked by pillars, inscribed respectively “1914. There is a life in death,” and “1919. Ye have not died in vain.”:-

1914 Pillar. Top plaque inscribed, “Erected in grateful memory of the men of Oswestry who laid down their lives in the Great War.”:-

1919 pillar. Top plaque inscribed, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”:-

The reverse of the pillars was later pressed into service as the Second World War Memorial with 1939 and 1945 on the pillars:-

1939 pillar. Inscribed, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be his God and he shall be my son.”:-

1945 pillar. Inscribed, “In grateful memory of the men and women of Oswestry who laid down their lives in the war of 1939-1945.”:-

As a town, Oswestry in Shropshire, England, may have seen better days. A lot of the buildings in the town centre looked tired.

The former Regal Cinema certainly has the deco look, though it’s now what looks like a hairdresser’s plus a Factory Shop. The original glazing would have looked better but the replacement windows are adequate:-

Reverse view. The canopy and roofline above are good features:-

Could this once have been a Woolworths? It’s now a Poundland anyway. And a Pep & Co:-

Frontal view:-

The Sports Direct has also seen better days:-

British Heart Foundation:-

The name is enough to bring on a warm glow for any Sons fan, more so to one who was there that unforgettable night, shrouded now in mystic memory.

Not that it was an unalloyed delight. For three-quarters of the game we weren’t in it – and it was a pretty glum experience. I was wondering why I had travelled all that way only for us to surrender meekly. Still we weren’t exactly out of it, not even when The New Saints scored early on the second half. But we gradually started to push forward and even got a couple of crosses in.

Then the moment it all changed with that pass from Kyle Hutton to Danny Handling, the sublime run from Mark Stewart to take away the defender and leave space for the shot, the shot itself, the outburst of almost disbelieving delirium, Danny Handling running up the park in delight, Sons fans applauding and shouting with a kind of relief.

Then a few minutes later the ironic cheers when the referee finally gave a free-kick against their defence for fouling Christian Nade, who’d been getting no joy up till that point.

Up stepped Froxy with that beautiful, beautiful, sublime strike into Sons legend. If his goal at Dunfermline earlier that season hadn’t already made him one, this certainly confirmed it.

Below are the game’s (short) higlights – with Welsh commentary.

Watch Kyle Hutton’s reaction to Froxy’s goal (at about 2 minutes seven seconds in.) It looks like he’s thinking, “Did that just happen?”

Sometimes the football gods are with you, at others not. Pity the final wasn’t so memorable, but that was another story.

Oswestry, however, will stay with me forever.

I took photographs, naturally, of the ground and the town, all coming up.

And of course I have already posted the video of the celebrations at the final whistle.

Penrith, Cumbria, is remote enough from major population centres to have retained some elements of ye good olde days.

Just look at this Drapers, Costumiers and Milliners. Not to mention Furriers, Dressmakers, Shirt Specialists:-

And Carpet, Curtain and Linoleum Furnishing Warehouse:-

A High Class Drapers no less – and a Silk Mercers, Hosiers and Glovers, Irish Household and Fancy Linen Warehouse:-

A real throw-back. Not that most of those trade lines will still be ongoing I’d have thought.

You can see from this the shop front faces on to a square of sorts:-

A bit further on in the town lies this Chemist’s. Cowper’s. 1930s style lettering. I can’t quite decide if the whole is deco or not:-

In St Andrew’s Churchyard lie a good many graves, including the “Giant’s Tombstone”. This is supposedly the grave of Owen Caesarius, king of Cumbria between 900 and 937 AD:-

Giant’s grave stones:-

Giant’s Tombstone in Penrith, Viking hogback stones:-

Penrith’s main War Memorial is, I have subsequently found, in Castle Park but I was parked much nearer the town centre than there. I will look for it the next time I’m in the town.

I did however come across one Great War Memorial in the churchyard of St Andrew’s Church, inscribed, “In proud and grateful memory of the men of Penrith who gave their lives in the War 1914-1918”:-

Reverse of memorial. Inscribed, “As dying and behold we live.”

Just to the side of the memorial was this remembrance “garden.” Presumably for the 100th centenary of the end of the war:-