Subterranean Shrewsbury and tasty chunks of history

 (DISCLAIMER: As an overall nice human being, I do not force entry, vandalize, steal, or disclose means of entry or location if it isn't obvious. I do this to protect locations and respect them. Trespass without forced entry is a civil offence rather than a criminal one, which isn't worth acting on unless one causes damage, steals, has ill intent, etc. I simply photograph and leave everything as I find it. I do not condone breaking and entering, and I do not condone what I do. I'm a danger to myself and a terrible role model. )

Hello and welcome to the future, where we stimulate each others minds through the medium of the internet.

I checked my horoscope in a local magazine today. It said "Where romance is concerned, it's the little things that make all the difference."
I guess that's what I get for sending those nudes when I was sexting the magazines astrologist...

Now, if this was a beauty blog I'd most definitely be telling you all about the wonders of coconut oil. Recently I've been stocking up on the stuff, and as well as being a great addition to ones nutrition intake, it's also good for skin care, hair conditioner, and can be used in home made deoderant and as shaving cream, among many other things. Even using it as a shower gel makes me feel godly after a shower. If I was a beauty blog that's what I'd recommend. But surprise! I'm not a beauty blog! You can't trust anything I say in that area. I just wake up looking this good, and I'm about to ruin it all because today I'm getting covered in cobwebs! I'm totally going to talk instead about what lurks beneath Shrewsbury, or if you want to be literal, does the complete and utter opposite of lurk and remains untouched and unseen, except by arachnids, insects and me. And possibly Tree Surgeon...

The site in question has clearly been partially fixed up numerous times in the past and is a mish-mash of various eras in architectural history. Parts of it did have electricity once and were used as late as 1987, while other parts were left untouched and unchanged for huge lengths of time. Not since the Princess Street tunnels have I covered such distance underground. The Prince Rupert cellar doesn't cover this much ground. Unless of course, you knock down the bricked up doorways.

Luckily I'd borrowed Tree Surgeons torch for an upcoming adventure, the one which I missed the Shropshire Bloggers walk for and will tell you about soon, so that was fine.

Check this place out:

Now, I'm not going to reveal where the stairs down into this bizarre addition to the tunnel network originates but I will say it is beneath Castle Street, and it's yet more mystery.

You see, I've often refused to allow myself to believe in one huge tunnel network beneath Shrewsbury, opting instead to think that there are a number of smaller networks. Except the more I find, the smaller the distance between each small network gets, and so the mystery deepens because I have no idea what purpose a widespread network could possibly have. The tunnels evidenced by The Cave, Princess Street, and all those in that general area seem to be for the purpose of allowing monks to get to various pubs without having to walk the streets like other people. Supporting that theory, I'm fairly certain that the tunnels that led from the Prince Rupert Hotel cellars would have been part of the tunnels that are officially known to have existed under St Marys church, connecting it to all surrounding buildings, until their closure in the 1920s.

But the tunnels beneath the Prince Rupert Hotel predate it actually being a hotel. Those stairs down to it, only discovered in 2001, were part of the town walls, so the Prince Rupert tunnels would probably have stretched under Dogpole. The town walls did cross Dogpole. In fact, thats how Dogpole gets it's peculiar name. Local myth says it derives from Duck Pool, when in actual fact it derives from Duck Hole, as people entered via a very small door and had to duck.

Most things to do with underground tunnels are complete speculation, but on the other side of Dogpole there are some curiosities. In fact these are the curiosities that first sparked my interest in underground tunnels when I first read about them in history books, simply because historians have no idea what they are there for. The other side of Dogpole is where Shrewsbury suddenly slopes down towards the river, and things that were subterranean in one part of Shrewsbury are suddenly above ground. And these things point right at the Prince Rupert Hotel.

That one there is four meters high! Why is there a doorway four meters high? Tree Surgeon had a possible solution, clever human being. Looking at the steps leading up to it, could it be that this is in fact a stairway leading up to a passage?

And then there's this, which bugs me because I can see this much by peeking in, but can't actually get in.

Since the site of the Prince Rupert was the stronghold of the Royalists during the Civil War, a few have speculated that these tunnels would have been evacuation points. Prince Rupert did eventually evacuate Shrewsbury and go to Pitchford Hall. The enemy troops, led by John Benbow, actually conquered Shrewsbury in 1645 via betrayal, as they were let in via the Water Lane by St Marys Church, which is why the restaurant at the top was called Traitors Gate. John Benbow went on to capture Shrewsbury Castle, and he's actually quite famous for being a traitor, not only to Shrewsbury in this scenario but also for later turning on the parliamentarians. Following Shrewsburys capture, John Benbow remained a captain in the army until he met King Charles in 1651. Nobody knows for sure why he changed sides but he joined the Royalists, and was promoted to Colonel. Charles I and Benbow were later attacked by Oliver Cromwells forces. Charles hid in a tree (true story) and later escaped to France. But Benbow was captured and trialed. As an insult, during the trial they ignored his promotion in the royalist troops and refered to him as "Captain." He was then shot by a firing squad on the exact same patch of land in Shrewsbury where he had stood during his greatest triumph for the parliamentarians in 1645.

His grave is in old St Chads graveyard. This is actually the second one made for him since the earlier one got into bad shape, which is why it refers to the text as a "copy of inscription."

So that's the history behind Traitors Gate and the Water Lane. 
Some say that the archways along the water lane are underground tunnels too but allegedly these were actually shop fronts from centuries ago when the River Severn was packed with boats and Shrewsbury recieved a lot of trade via the river and water lane.

A little higher up, on the other side, are additional doorways that go under the carpark. Are these old shop fronts too? Funily enough I recently heard that on the carpark above it there was a morgue for the Royal Salop Infimary, now the Parade Shopping Centre, so perhaps their stories are more morbid. One time a door was left open and I took a peek inside, but it didn't have much in it.

I mean if you like traffic cones, heres a bunch of them to share with your friends. The doorway at the back intrigues me though.

But enough prancing down tangents! The Castle Street Tunnels!

There are a lot of rumours about the Castle. Disapointingly it actually has a diddy amount of evidence of anything subterranean but the nearby carpet shop, Castle Carpets, has a vast cavern oddly  reminiscent of the layout and design of the subterranean Traitors Gate restaurant, now the Lyons Den.

Apologies for the poor photo quality, I didn't have my gorgeous camera back then and this was taken by my old phone. 

 Intriguing, yeah? But the Castle Street tunnels don't do an awful lot to support any more rumour in that area. I do keep being told to check the library. I've checked the library. I'm friends with enough people who work there. The only thing accessible under that building is a toilet. The library's also centuries younger than the castle and was a place of education. Why would it connect to the castle underground?

No, the Castle Street tunnels I'm showing you today are more up towards the top of Pride Hill, near Barclays and M&S. M&S is the interesting part. That used to be The Raven Hotel a long time ago. I do wonder if they're connected, and I guess I'll just carry on wondering, since M&S is this big modern chunk of modernness which connects to an even bigger modern chunk of modernness, the Darwin Shopping Centre, and therefore anything historic subterranean in that area has long since been destroyed, with the only known exception being McDonalds further down Pride Hill, which is pretty sexy underneath.

I know right? I just described McDonalds as sexy.

Ding!

So reference based humour aside, what's one to make of the Castle Street tunnels? Well they're pretty lengthy.

Here we have the remains of a window to the surface. At the moment there's a building on top of this window, and according to my map of 1880 Shrewsbury, there was still a building on top of it. This only means that the tunnels predate at least the 1880s though.

But what's all that on the actual ledge? Well I was quite surprised. We have an incredibly worn flattened box with the branding of Players Navy Cut.

I did some research and Players Navy Cut was actually a brand of cigarette available in cardboard matchbox style containers, and first came out in 1883. This might be a clue to the age of this particular box, and the time this litter has sat on this shelf, but this brand does still exist today. It just isn't as popular as it was in the 1900s.

Also present on this shelf is this piece of nostalgia:

Woolworths! This company ran from 1909 til 2008, but this is in considerably better condition than the cigarette box, which indicates that it wasn't here for as long.

So nothings really conclusive about when all this litter was put here.The greater mystery would be who assembled it all on that ledge?

Certain parts of the tunnels were full of clutter, and as you can see, at the back of the clutter we have a blocked up archway. Now, without giving too much away, this blocked archway is geographically actually the strongest link to the old St Mary's tunnels, if they were even linked. It's all speculation.

And as I said, you can tell by the walls that this place has been fixed up numerous times. That arched doorway would lead further under the street.

Existing at a ninety degree angle to this arch way is another one further on, which presumably led to the same place. So what we're looking at is essentially two paralel tunnels that pretty much led to the same place. But if that was all there was to this sealed off area then why is it sealed off?

Across the ceiling of this little bit, one could see the remains of old piping and where it would have connected. Presumably it was accessed to be disconnected. But when?

Among it all is evidence of it once having electricity. 

 The presence of a pull cord was quite interesting. No, it didn't work.

 This architecture style with wide archways was prevalent throughout, except some had actually been turned into smaller doors, which were fire exits once, long ago. But look at the flooring!

 If it wasn't for the ceiling, you could almost believe this was above ground. There's a doorstep, and the remains of a circular window. Why would an indoor place have a window? It has eerie similarities to the Princess Street tunnels. On that old blog post I did mention that it had more of an alleyway vibe than a cellar vibe.

Shrewsbury is a town of slopes and changing terrain. Is it possible that this is the remains of something that was once outdoors but built over? I must admit, I don't know the history of Shrewsbury's terrain.

But regardless of its origin, this area was once a fire exit. But for what?

Well a large portion of this went beneath a building that appears to have once been a clothes shop a few decades ago. Evidently the tunnels themselves predate its use, otherwise the door wouldn't be framed by the old archway.

Things have a significantly more modern vibe than the rest of the tunnels.

The stairway now leads upwards to floorboards but back in the time when this was active, this would have been used by shoppers. Now, the cellar and the shop above have been separated and the only way into it is through the tunnels and through the actual fire exit. But what does that look like? Well while we're on the subject of stairs and doors that go nowhere and do nothing, here's a shot of the fire exit!

Complete with left over clutter, just in case a door four feet above ground level wasn't enough. I wonder if the clothes shop closed down after a failed health and safety inspection... Curiously, the door would not open but there was a light switch next to it, positioned at a height so that someone walking through it could theoretically turn the light on, hopefully fast enough to illuminate their view and avoid stepping into a four foot drop and tumbling down a flight of stairs.

I think this sign once said "Dressing Room." Beyond it is an area with mirrored walls, and the flooring indicates that there were thin, more temporary walls, indicative of changing cubicles.

There was another doorway which led to a small, but ancient-looking meter room.

Just outside the meter room are some ancient-looking light switches, underneath a wooden panel that looks like it once held a thermometer.

 The age of the meter room probably predates the existence of electricity meters, but what do I know? Obviously this area would be staff-only and not modernized by the store above, unlike the larger area with the changing rooms.

The meters, meanwhile, were long dead. And yet all the relevant pieces were there to theoretically get it all up and running again. But the store above clearly had a different power supply, seeing as they couldn't even access this place anymore, and this hadn't been touched in years.

Ah, but whats this?

Presumably the date on this tag is the date that the store closed and the company paid their final bill. The date is the 19th August 1987. At that point in time I had been alive for just 24 days, and so far I was probably having an okay time with this whole life thing. No bills to pay, and all that.

But what's this?

What appeared to be a dead end was in fact a blocked wall, no doubt obstructed when the store opened above.

Beyond here things got really interesting... It was time to say goodbye to all the modernisation that existed in the modified portions. Beyond this point we were meandering in places unchanged for far longer.

 Very crooked remnants of shelving.

 Presumably these wooden panels once also had electrical equipment on but I'm not sure.

But going back to what I was saying before, this area did have a more alleyway vibe than a tunnel vibe. It felt like it should be outdoors. It made me wonder if maybe it was outdoors once.

Look at this: While there didn't appear to be a door, there was a slab on the ground that made me think something was here once.

Overhead we could hear footsteps- a freakishly close overhead unmistakable clack of heeled shoes on pavement. Or as my yet-to-be-conceived time traveling offspring from the future Syphilis (What? Thats a great name! It can be shortened to Phil!) suggested, it could just be a really small horse.

But I had to tell the third time traveler to appear in Shrewsbury From Where You Are Not that the idea of a horse that tiny is just preposterous. It sure sounded like heels on pavement, and it went literally right over my head. So I was quite delightfully under the street itself.

Intriguingly there were some drawings on the walls. But what really interested me was the really well-written pencil scribblings beneath it.

The pencil was so faded that it was only visible when light from my torch reflected off it. It appeared to be a signiature of someone. But these things were all down the wall, scrawled in pencil but mostly too faded to read.

I'm not entirely sure what this writing is about...

Lastly, there was this room. It housed some really old shelving units and had a really ancient-looking fireplace.

The amazing part? The old fire poker! It's still there!

The shelves were pretty ancient.

 Look at all this accumulated dust and appreciate how filthy my finger was after fondling it!

 I mean how many years of build up does this have?
There was some paper on the shelves frame but it was so old it began crumbling under the simplest of touch.

 I'm not sure what these square holes were for but they reminded me of the ones I've seen in numerous old military ruins, so they probably served a similar purpose, which is either really mundane or really militaristic, which would completely change my perspective on this place.

 At some point the ceiling was patched up, but my arch nemesis, Gravity, decided to collapse it anyway.
Damn that Gravity! But nothing was visible above except dirt and brick.

The real curiosity of this part of the underground were these archways. Archways tend to be the same way up as rainbows, and allude to doorways and passages. These were upside-down. I've never encountered this in architecture before.

Now the brickwork has quite obviously replaced above them at some point, so my only theory is that these were once circular openings. But why?  These circles must have been five feet in diameter, and very close together. What purpose did that ever serve and why does it all connect to such a mundane little room? Could this be more of the circular windows we'd seen earlier?

Next to them was this actual window, looking back out into the "alleyway" and furthering the vibe that this was all once outdoors.

I mean why have a window there? Was it the stunning view? If one wanted a view of brickwork, they could have their pick of the other three walls of that room. But this window had once had glass in it and everything. A few shards remained. It completely baffles me. What was this place?

Sadly, the tunnel came to an end with this mysterious doorway pointing down Castle Street. Just think, so much history could be behind this brickwork, lost forever.

All I have to go for any indication of what was once here is my map of Shrewsbury from 1880.

Now, obviously I can't pinpoint exactly where I am but facing this archway I think the Raven Hotel,  now Marks & Spencers, would have been to the right. The Crown Hotel would have been straight on and to the left. Behind is the Talbot Vaults, now that really awesome looking white building that sells bikes. And across from that was the Dog & Partridge, which became Traitors Gate and more recently Lyons Den.
Also worth noting is the nearby Perches House. One of the blocked doorways does point right at it. Perches House is noteworthy because it was used during the filming of A Christmas Carol in 1984. Half of this building is now a tattoo parlour and the other half is empty.

So that's five places of public interest in the vicinity of these tunnels, at least in 1880, but for how long either forward or back in time, I don't know.

The Raven was a mighty establishment in its day, and has housed many historic figures. George Farquhar stayed here while writing his play 'The Recruiting Officer'. One of the 19th Centuries most famous opera singers, Jenny Lind, stayed here too, and more morbidly so did the famous murderer William Palmer, who poisoned his last victim, John Cook, while they both stayed here in 1855. It was demolished in 1960. It's closure was said to be the end of an era for Shrewsbury. Any connection to these tunnels? Quite possibly.

Of the Talbot Vaults, I can't find much. Having checked out some of it when Thomas Cook became the current charity shop, I can honestly say it doesn't have a cellar. At least not one that's accessible. The Crown Hotel is now a big modern building that I have been under, but anything historic is long gone.

Traitors Gate? That's some distance behind where these tunnels end, but let's look at it! Because pointing right at it in this underground complex was this much more modern example of door blockage.

Now, I was quite aware of the cavernous eatery that was Traitors Gate. I'd never eaten there but I'd seen it when I'd walked up the water lane.

So I decided to pay the new eatery, the Lyons Den, a visit, and see if their subterrania corresponded with my subterrania...

...That sentence looked a lot less suggestive in my head...

So I offered to buy a person a burger. Not just any burger, though. A Lyons Den gourmet burger! And a drink. Completely paid for by me. Now there's a fucking challenge! Forget sneaking into abandoned buildings, climbing rooftops, and scurrying underground! I've been to the top of Shrewsbury clocktower as easily and naturally as inhaling and exhaling. But convincing someone to let me buy them food??? This proved to be a struggle that dragged on for a week. People seem to see acts of kindness and instantly think "Whats the catch?" I was, of course, perfectly honest that my intentions, while seemingly tangential, were vital to the research of the next blog post and that it all made sense within the polylinear peculiarities that my mind meanders in, and just trust me and accept free food already, dammit! But everyone was either busy or not interested. My friend the Illuminati Agent was busy running the world in secret, and Syphilis had work. In the end my current exploring accomplice, Tree Surgeon, came to participate in the consumption of gourmet burger. And it was epic.

The staff at Lyons Den were really nice too, and didn't mind me photographing the cavern. Now, a lot of people take my pictures unfathomably literally. I get comments all the time on some of my non-blog related photos about how few people are there and how empty places appear. Understand, Lyons Den was packed. But I was literally pouncing for a camera the second anyone went, so as not to capture them in shot. Patience is a power that people with cameras have, to make up for not being able to psychokinetically move photons around people on their way to the camera lens. No people in frame doesn't equate to no people in restaurant. And as such, do not judge the place based on any clutter on table. I was getting these pictures literally as soon as people left, and the staff were right behind me waiting for me to stop so that they could go in and clear the tables. This place is kept to a high standard of cleanliness that my photos do betray in places.

But architecturally it's a freakin' dream!

Look at the mishmash of the walls. This place has been modified a lot in the past. But what was it?

The staff claim that it was a prison centuries ago, but I don't know for sure. As I said, in 1880 it was the cellar of the Dog & Partridge. The pub was actually only open from 1835 til 1883. In the late 20th Century, the cellars became used by a print works called The Wildings. It became something of a paper warehouse but was also where old postcards and books were kept until they were skipped. The Wildings closed in 1984, and the site re-opened as Traitors Gate and only recently closed and re-opened as Lyons Den.

Approaching the part of the cellar which matched trajectory with the underground tunnels, I noticed this lovely circular window... The similarities between this window and the circular one in the tunnels are not lost on me. But the inscriptions were of particular interest.

"This building was erected by Elizabeth Passy in AD 1681." So we have a date for the places original construction.
Does this mean it could have been a prison? We've got a massive window between 1681 to 1835 where the purpose of this area is unaccounted for. 

I did ask what was behind this wall purely because tapping on it revealed it was in fact hollow. The staff very kindly told me that there was an area behind there that had been open when the Traitors Gate restaurant first opened, but had been closed off. They confirmed my suspicions entirely. And I'm not sure if it was the fact that I'd just successfully married two lots of speculation and met an outcome I desired, or if it was the fact that I'd just eaten a delicious gourmet burger, but I was feeling great.

So do all the tunnels that once connected to this cellar-turned-restaurant also date back to 1681? If so then this is a huge component to the tunnel myth, and opens the door to speculating why, historically, they would be made. If this place was built only a few decades after the taking of Shrewsbury during the civil war then it's perfectly fine to speculate that similar things were constructed around that time and that maybe the Prince Rupert tunnels were means of evacuation.

But again, a lot of it is still speculation. The tunnels under Castle Street at least give evidence of having an actual date or rough era of construction, far predating the modernized features that now themselves are also falling into the same vague obscurity as that around them. Do the owners of the building above the clothes shop know what is right beneath their feet? These aren't just simple passageways anymore, but rooms and vast areas that served a purpose. They can be glimpsed from the outside through cracks and holes, if one knows where to look.

I turned my attention to Perches House, and along with Tree Surgeon, we found a non-destructive means of entry. As I mentioned, half of Perches House is a tattoo parlour, and the other is empty. It was all one house when it was initially constructed, in 1581, a full century before the construction of the Lyons Den dungeon. Allegedly it was divided into two buildings in the 1960s. The sign that reads "Perches House" is above the tattoo parlour, but the door to the empty part of the building has a really sexy door knocker.

The building is of historical significance to Shrewsbury because it was the house of Ebenezer Scrooge during the filming of A Christmas Carol in 1984. While Shrewsbury flaunts the fact that Charles Darwin was born here as if it's the only good thing the town has to its name, it's a lesser known fact that A Christmas Carol was filmed here. The most notorious of remaining props can be found in St Chads graveyard.

What few people realise is that this is an actual grave! There actually is someone buried under there. But the movie studio observed that the graves inscription was faded, and they then paid to have Ebenezer Scrooge inscribed on it for the movie.

I imagine laws around damaging listed buildings, health and safety and also lines between varying peoples property prevents any future for these tunnels being opened up, but in a perfect world we could rip the walls down and open a giant subterranean museum. But then I kinda like the fact I can poke around with a torch, duck under cobwebs, find these things myself. If only I could walk through walls. So deep beneath Ebenezer Scrooges grave lies John or Jane Doe. We don't know who it is. We don't know their story. We don't even think about it. The only thing that gave us any indication that they ever existed belongs to Scrooge now.

But enough digressing. I did mention that a blocked up doorway points right at Perches House, so does it correspond with their cellar? You bet it does! The cellar of Perches House is arched, with the arched hallway pointing right at the blocked up doorway I'd observed in the Castle Street tunnels. A spot of research indicated that they lined up perfectly. However the arched area of Perches House is divided by this wall, which has had shelves fixed to it. If it wasn't for the arched ceiling, it would look like loads of little rooms. The ceiling gives it away as once being one room. Of course it is still mainly speculation but this wall dividing the room could easily have been constructed during the last few hundred years.

The shelves have not been used for years, and there's a coal shute at the back.

Leading off at a ninety degree angle is another arched room, this one undisturbed by any additional walls.

 Now it's a fair assumption that the brickwork at the back of this tunnel was added when the house was divided and on the other side of that wall is nothing more than the cellar of the tattoo parlour. Unless I ever get down there to see, it's pure speculation that this was an actual passageway, but we're now pointing directly at St Marys Church, which did have tunnels to the surrounding buildings as late as the 1920s. If this did connect to the church, which I should remind you is the oldest religious site in Shrewsbury, a pagan site before the Christians built on it, then the implications are that one could walk from St Marys church to Castle Street entirely underground. But to what end?

As an additional historic curiosity, there's an old drain down here.

I'll show off the higher parts of the building, purely because Tree Surgeon and I did check it out and architecturally it's beautiful.

 This archway curiously faces the tattoo parlour, perhaps once a connecting doorway when it was all one property.

 An old coal shute, now bricked up. Due to the sloped nature of Shrewsbury the ground floor of Perches House is actually slightly below the exterior street level on this side of the building.

 This is a massive walk-in safe. We did peek in, but it was empty. Tree Surgeon kindly pointed out that if the door had shut behind us, we'd be locked inside.

The safe used to have shelves, it seems.

The next floor was much prettier. 

 But perhaps most curious was the stairway cupboards. These stairs were clearly ancient, but the railing had been installed on top of a stairway cupboard. The only way to get convenient access to this cupboard was to remove the railing. Very curious. The building, I should add, was pitch black at the point that we explored, so finding our way up this stairway was very tedious, aided only by a camera flash.

 Hope Everyone Likes Pancakes!

 On this floor, there was a glass-walled office, clashing with the much ancient architecture, suggesting a more modern use had been found for this place prior to it suddenly being empty.

 This room had a central pillar, and the heads on the wall, and the ceiling, hinted at a former life or refinery.

 Another room had an old fireplace, next to which was another safe. So that's two safes in this building already. What was this place originally?

The safe contained peanuts.

 The next floor up was considerably more labyrinthian.

 The fireplace had a curious design, with little tiles depicting animals.

Tree Surgeon pointed out this interior window. It actually, quite curiously, leads to a cupboard. 

 This room baffled me. It's far too small to be anything more than a slightly large cupboard. But it has a fireplace.

 Also worth noting, reluctantly, is the toilet. I couldn't even enter this room due to the stench.
But it's still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs.

The top floor was the most featureless. There's an attic that I didn't go into and mostly just builders work up here.

 The flooring is considerably more modern up here.

But that's about it from Perches House, and the underground tunnel mysteries today. If you happen to have a building placed on top of some curiosity, I have made a vastly incomplete map of suspected tunnel routes, and any contribution is most welcome. Plus I'll talk about your business the same as I talk about Lyons Den. It was delicious, with good service, and I recommend it.
Don't forget that if you're just visiting Shrewsbury, all tourists are by law required to partake in the Charles Darwin drinking game, where you drink every time you are reminded that Darwin was born here. It is very important to take your shot as soon as possible should you try Lyons Dens fantastic Evolution Burger.

Closing up this blog, ultimately I want to get better equipment for the blog, and I do work for barely minimum wage. As I've proven in the past with the camera, and the gorilla-pod, money earned via the blog goes to the blog, so if you can spare a couple pennies please click donate above. No pressure though. Otherwise please feel free to follow me on Instagram and Twitter, and go out and put a smile on someones face. Do it now. Compliment somebody. Find someone who's miserable and turn their day around. Bonus points if you get a hug.

Next blog post we'll actually look at why I didn't go to the Shropshire Bloggers Spring Stroll, so the blog post won't be a Shropshire location, but it will be awesome.

Til then, thanks for reading. Stay Awesome!