Frankwell Quay

  (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. )

Welcome to the internet, the conduit through which my soul can touch your souls, and my reality can impact your reality, and where I can make as little sense as I want and it's all okay because somewhere else someone is making much less sense, even when I'm at my most senseless. On the internet, the more followers you have, the more sense you can get away with not making any of. Did you know that you can buy crabs on the internet?
Anyway, on with todays blog!

Back in the day, Shrewsbury had a lot of river trade. I've mentioned this before, numerous times. Walk down the water lane behind St Mary's, and you'll see the archways of former shopfronts for the people arriving by boat, and by the river itself is still the area where boats would have been tethered up, complete with stone steps up from the water to the walkway. The walkway itself originally was built for horses toeing barges, but now it provides the means of a lovely stroll. Well, maybe not right this second. Currently it's overflowing due to recent rainfall. But beneath an inch or so of water, that walkway is totally there!

However, Shrewsbury actually retains very little of its river trading past, and what little it does have, a lot of people know absolutely nothing about. In fact a lot of history gets somewhat drowned by all the Darwin praising. He is, after all, our lord and master, and he even has his own local beverage to help us all with the popular Charles Darwin Drinking Game. 

 But today I'm looking over at Frankwell Quay, where two derelict artefacts from the river trading days still stand, their paint fading but the text that was slathered across the brickwork still visible in places. Disapointingly had I been in Shrewsbury doing what I do now around ten years ago I could have explored the nearby sinking floating Thai restaurant, and added partially submerged abandoned boat to my list of bizarre adventures, but sadly the Thai restaurant is gone. 

 (Photo stolen from Google)

Nevertheless when one of the remaining buildings of Frankwell Quay became accessible I took a look at this chunk of history.
This is Frankwell Quay. 

 For those of you who don't know, the river severn loops around Shrewsbury, almost making it into an island. This island contains the castle, and it was all wrapped up neatly by the town walls. So hundreds of years ago, any settlement on the other side of the river, outside the walled borough of Shrewsbury, existed independently of the towns jurisdiction. The people of Shrewsbury referred to the nearest of these settlements as Little Borough. But the residents took to calling it Frankville, which meant "Town of free trade." It boasted its own mayor and its own festivals, and despite its small size, the census in 1881 reveals that there were fifteen pubs in the little borough at that point in time.
Today, it is just part of Shrewsbury, known as Frankwell. Through the Victorian era, Frankwells history became colourful with prostitution and this persisted into the 20th and 21st Century, and in 2006 it made headlines when two prostitutes were bludgeoned to death with a hammer in a brothel. But that aside, Frankwells history is primarily to do with the river trade.

Some of the old buildings in Frankwell are remarkably old, dating back to the early 15th Century. But Frankwell Quay, with the exception of two old, unused buildings, has been modernized quite a bit, housing the council offices, the theatre, and a car park. The two unused buildings seemed to have survived amongst the modernization, but for how much longer is currently a topic of discussion.

While these buildings were constructed in the 1700s, records of Frankwell Quay date back to 1405, when James Callerode described "the stew" as a land, a croft and dovecote just upstream from St Georges bridge. St Georges bridge stood just upstream from where the old welsh bridge stands today. In fact the Welsh Bridge was built to replace it. The name "The Stew," while being an overall name for the land back in the 1400s, is retained by one of the buildings here today.

Between 1455 and 1487, the Wars of The Roses took place, which consisted of battles between two rivaling descendants of Edward III fighting over the crown of England. These were complicated times and the area known as the Stew got all wrapped up in it. During this time, Edmund, Earl of March, and Richard of York claimed posession of the stew as a freehold estate, but Richard released it in 1433 only to try and reclaim it in 1445. It's owner at this point, Hugh Dyer, ruffled his feathers somewhat because he had already decided to pass on all rights to the stew upon his death to his brother William, who in 1452 passed on the land to Sir John Talbot, who became Earl of Shrewsbury.

John Talbot died in battle in 1460, at the battle of Northampton fighting alongside Henry VI. With the battle lost, the Stew area was taken by King Edward IV and handed over to the Drapers in 1462 because there were no other claimants. It was in 1470 when Henry IV was reinstated as king that John Talbots widow, Elizabeth, sent her steward and possibly lover Alan Stury to seize Frankwell Quay and the stew by force. And this was a successful battle, but in 1471 Henry VI was executed and the Drapers took back their land. Records of this time describe the area as "a croft called le stewe, croft with a pond there in Frankwell, next to the chapel of st george, between the land of John Colle, called Colle Orchard, and the bank of Severn."

And while the battle of this land was over, the wars of the roses continued. Elizabeth died in 1473, and her steward was buried alongside her sometime later.

It sure is weird to think of this area as a battle ground, with land worth fighting over!
 

The buildings currently standing date back to the 1700s, one being known as The Stew, and the one pictured above with the mdoern theatre looming in the background known as the Malthouse. They were likely constructed by John Astley, who owned the land in 1728. These buildings were of high standards and served as a massive part of Shrewsburys industrial development. So it's very sad to see them stand vacant. The Stew itself seems to be under the most threat, with plans to demolish it in favour of a hotel. Nevermind that there is a modern hotel directly across the river. It begs the question, what will tourists actually come to see, if we demolish our history to accomodate them? The Charles Darwin drinking game only entertains for so long!


The Malthouse across from the Stew, which I actually snuck inside, has at least had its purposes throught the years. 

While best known as housing the old antiques market, it also had a balti house, and a taxi firm called Town Taxis. Also painted on the wall is "Bills Cafe." All of which existed here as recent as the late 1990s. Prior to the Antiques Market opening, there was a cafe called Olivers, which hosted live music, and is remembered fondly by the people of Shrewsbury. The owner, Annette Oliver, allegedly used to dish out free chips to locals and regulars. 


Back further, in the 1980 this building was owned by Starlight Marine, who had a boat workshop.

 Slipping inside I immediately found this broken pool table. But is this left over from the antiques market or is it from the pub days?

Numerous other relics remained.

 While its fair to assume the furniture is from the antiques market, all this is in the part of the building that was "Bills Cafe." But with no actual barriers between segments of the building, identifying which business the relics came from was a difficult one.

 There were some really fancy lampshades in the ceiling of Bills Cafe.

 Bills Cafe has better toilets than those in existing pubs and clubs.

There was a very large bathroom area, presumably once housing cubicles.

Away from Bills Cafe was a large room full of clutter. Amongst them were some objects of interest, such as carnival bunting, a drinks fridge, and evidence that there was a bar at some point.

 A sign from an old pub, it seems. Is this a remant from Olivers?

A drinks tap. But in a former antiques market, is any remnant truly conclusive of the buildings use?

Here's a box of old VHS tapes. 

In the pitch black back room, I found this beautiful creature. 


Onto the upstairs!

The upstairs was, without a doubt, the main part of the antiques market. Signs confirming it were everywhere.

 Sure, "mind my head" says the sign. Nevermind that! It's the floor I need to watch!

People often ask about these exterior doors that are on the upper floors of buildings. I don't know for sure why this is such a common feature but I think it may have been for the purpose of deliveries in the days before elevators. There would be a roof hoist, and a rope would be tied around the goods, which would then be pulled up into the building through these doors. 

This fire exit was padlocked but I'd be able to utilise this secret stairway from the upper floor. 

The floor situation here wasn't brilliant...

Onto the uppper floor...

 A solitary mirror on the wall. There is actually font on the mirror that reads "You cannot have a misfit." I'm not sure what is meant by that.

Here's the top of those secret stairs that were previously padlocked. This time it's guarded by the absence of a floor. 

 While I did get a smile of childish excitement from bypassing a padlocked door, there wasn't much to see on this secret stairway except this old Christmas decoration. Back to the top floor!

There's some really retro equipment up here. The door marked private seemed really interesting...

Well the private room seems innocent enough.

 I mean it was probably a staff room or store room for stock that wasn't on display. There were a couple of books on the window and...

Whoa!
Okay, that is pretty awful, but still better than some of the toilets we see in pubs and clubs. 


Don't think I'm joking! You've not seen what I've seen! The horrors!

 In the areas past the door marked private, there was still quite a lot to see.

 The floor tiles there are pretty interesting. Both these doorways led to small sets of stairs which led to a (barely) lower floor.

All these leftovers are placed by a curious window. Curious because it sticks up above the floor, and presumably continues on the floor below. The horizontal line above it corresponds with the floor of the room I was previously in, strongly indicating that at one point the floors between rooms were actually level but this one was lowered slightly for some reason. What an odd modification.

There also seems to be a large number of bricked up interior windows to different rooms. I have no idea why that would be such a prominent part of the design.

Check out the rafter in the above picture.

 Curiously this pamphlet was pinned to the rafter. It was a price guide for boats and accessories. Was this a relic left over from the days as a boat workshop in the 1980s? How did it live through all the other incarnations this place has had?

 There was an interesting contraption at the back of the room.

 Another one of those upstairs doors. No, it's not a fire exit, unless you want a swift splattery exit from the fire with a little help from gravity. The sign refers to some stairs just to the left.

 Another bricked up interior window. This one has been fitted with shelving brackets.

The lower floor was similar but cluttered.

 I love this Indian profile sculpture. It was semi-transparent so light could pass through.

 The shelving units had seen better days.

 These little stairs led down to the fire exit, which brings one out at a ninety degree angle to the original entrance. The presence of a mailbox would imply it was more than just a fire exit once.

And that, it seems, is the old Malthouse at Frankwell Quay, former Bills Cafe, Olivers Bar, Antique Market, and Starlight Marine boat workshop. And it probably had countless other uses before all that. I'm sad to say I have yet to get inside the Stew, just across from this building, but I am all in favour of these buildings remaining where they are. So many people speak fondly of the antique market and of Annette Olivers old establishment, and I'm sure the Stew should have a better future than to be torn down and replaced with a hotel. We have plenty of hotels. We don't have much of our towns old river trade left. Structurally these buildings appear to be well built, as is evidenced by their continued standing and my continued existence. These buildings just need a little TLC, and for a use to be found for them. The cinema on stilts in Shrewsbury square, as well as the Music Hall, are great examples of how historic buildings can be given a modern purpose and become awesome places for locals and visitors to check out, and there's no reason why Frankwell Quay can't be the same.
History genuinely interests me because when one delves into it, with buildings like this as a backdrop, one realises how temporary all of this is. Every man made structure is just a sandcastle waiting for the tide to sweep it away.


Meanwhile, before I call it a day on todays blog post, and while I'm on the subject of things to do in historic parts of Shrewsbury, I recently discovered that one of our oldest pubs, the one with that big tunnel that allegedly once led to the square, The Hole In The Wall, do a weekly open mic night down in the tunnel area. It's a perfect little venue to go and sit and chill, and watch people play while having a quiet drink. Shrewsbury has a lot of musical talent hidden from the world. In fact it's got a lot of hidden interesting people  in general.

So if you're ever free on Wednesday nights and fancy an activity, this place is certainly recommended. It's very welcoming, and if you yourself are a musician then I'm sure you can also involve yourself and make it bigger. 

I'm not used to photographing humans, or indeed, moving subjects, but really I wish my camera could catch the music itself. 

Anyway, on a parting note on something personal (you can stop reading now if you want), a few people did notice my neglect of social media in recent weeks. Everything is okay. It's hit me somewhat that my father has been dead for a year now, and this seems to have coincided and/or contributed to a moment where my anxiety started playing up. I come across extroverted and sociable, but I assure you, sometimes I'm having a meltdown on the inside.

 It's true that I have more positive days than bad since I cleansed my life of toxic people (something I can't recommend enough), and surrounded myself with positive influences but my anxiety primarily manifests through the nagging thought that everyone I speak to is secretly finding me really annoying, and yes I'm aware that this isn't the case but anxiety works counter-logically. In this case it's the natural outcome of spending years with friends who weren't really friends, and while this can lead to a reclusive lifestyle, it also leads to very problematic outcomes. For example, during a conversation when my friend simply stopped responding, my mind went "Okay, they're sick of me now. Give it a while, wait for them to respond." And the weeks passed, and it turned out my friend was actually having a completely unrelated massive breakdown, and needed their friends more than ever. And you can imagine how awful I felt after that, not being there for a friend because my own inner demons were making me selfish. 

I'm not saying people with anxiety are selfish. Far from it. Anxiety is an illness that overtakes the non-selfish personality, and tilts perspective in a negative, self-centred way, because out of fear of being judged, ridiculed, disliked, singled out, we see signs that this is happening in peoples behaviour when in fact those people are just getting on with their own lives, and fighting their own battles similarly alone. And that is what needs overcoming. While I'm feeling down I'll very rarely instigate conversation because anxiety tricks me into thinking that people don't want to hear from me, and that in itself is a trait I see mirrored by others. A lot of people seem to think that if people want to speak to them, they will get in touch first, but if that trait is mirrored then all we do is isolate ourselves, which is counter-productive! We're all part of the same species, and ultimately we all have similar issues, and if we stopped suffering the same problems alone, and were there for each other, that would take a load off everyones shoulders. But these last few weeks have been insightful in the sense that it's helped me recognise a mind hurdle that I need to overcome, and also helped me acknowledge the underlying damnation of the species that comes with anxiety. We're damned if we're not there for each other. Nobody is thinking "This person is annoying, I hope they don't speak to me" and this habit of projecting peoples behaviours at myself as an indicator of my own negative traits is something I need to stop doing. I must then turn the question on myself- "What's actually to dislike?" And I urge anyone feeling the same to ask themselves the same questions. We're not bad people. We're not rude or nasty. We're not out hurting other people to feel powerful. Far from it. Instead I have led a very self-isolated lifestyle. I have become self-defeating. Worse than that, I, among many others no doubt going through the same thing, was waiting for someone to come and help. The fight for our individual happiness starts with the individual, and it is down to us to help ourselves. And then by stepping out from the bubble that we realise that we're not alone because we have each other in the billions. We just need to occasionally stop and say "How are you?"
I don't think life would be worth living if it started out perfect. A calm sea never made a seasoned sailor, as they say.


Back to this blog, I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have any memories or information regarding the place, I'd love to hear from you! Meanwhile, if you want to see this blog improve with better equipment and whatnot, please donate money to the blogs donate button up at the top. All proceeds go to making this blog awesome, but don't feel bad if you can't contribute. I measure my wealth in happiness, and the freedom to do the things I do. I know I mentioned complications with mental health before, but really I think it's societies insistence on our lifes value being materialistic and money-based that is causing this epidemic. In our hearts we know that our species didn't spend the millions of years evolving from pondgoop just to sit in an office, selling our soul for a monthly wage slip and fueling corporate machines. Our dilema is we're born into a system that predates all of us by centuries so we can't see a way out. But the way out is simple- relearn how to be passionate and have fun with it. We're told that these pursuits are childish but just about every parent I know has told me that one of the perks about being a parent is getting to play again without feeling immature. I mean sure, a job is a means to an end and it's great if you can find one you enjoy. I work for a living, and that keeps me alive. But outside of work I do what I do because the world is my playground, as it is yours too, and everyone elses. And when you reach the end of your life, you'll look back and value the fun times far more than you'll value the money. But this is an old rant. If you like this blog, follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and go out and make someone happy. 

Thanks. Stay awesome.