Wandering around the Shropshire Market town of Whitchurch.

During the week we headed off to the historic market town of Whitchurch in Shropshire.

The town has quite an interesting past and a few unique quirks. It made quite a contrast to our trip into central Manchester the week before (see this link)

About Whitchurch

Whitchurch is the oldest continuously Inhabited Town in Shropshire and has actually been settled since at least Roman times. Back in those days the town was called Mediolanum and was actually a stop on Watling Street. Whitchurch also features in the Domesday Book (1086), although at the time it was referred to as Westune. The name Westune means ‘west farmstead’.

If you’re wondering how that name morphed to Whitchurch it’s due to the towns medieval church being made of white stone.

Whitchurch was also the home of a company called J.B. Joyce & Co. a company that was set up in the 1600’s and claimed to be the oldest maker of tower clocks in the world. Although it should be noted that the claim is disputed by a company called Thwaites and Reed. I gather clocks from the Joyce company can be found in places like St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The town itself is around 55 miles from central Manchester, 45 from Liverpool and around 25 or so from Stoke on Trent. Whitchurch is close to the Cheshire border and although firmly in the county of Shropshire, it historically played a role in the cheese trade, especially Cheshire cheese which is one of the oldest recorded named cheeses in British history.

Quiet, tidy and a car park scam

It was very quiet in the town when we arrived mid-morning (on a Tuesday). To be honest we were a little surprised at just how quiet it was – it sort of had that early Sunday morning feel to it, the one where shops are not yet open and there’s a sort of quietness about. The difference was that the shops were open – it was just very quiet.

I suspect it would feel quite different had we visited on a Friday when an indoor market takes place in the towns Market Hall on High Street. I gather a farmers market is held on the first Saturday of each month.

Unfortunately it turned out that the information I got in one of the towns car parks led me to some fraudulent activity on my credit card. Thankfully my credit card company picked up on it and were able to stop a second transaction, the first being a modest transaction, presumably to ‘test’ the account. Other than the inconvenience of having to cancel and replace my credit card no lasting damage was done – but it should serve as a cautionary note to take extra care when using this type of car parking payment process.

Picture set one – vintage emporium

We called into the Whitchurch Antiques Emporium, which is located in Green End.

The emporium is spread across two floors and is packed with the usual things you find in these places: furniture, glassware, vintage clothing, records and books and much more. If like us you enjoy browsing around in these sorts of places then this is definitely worth a visit if you’re in Whitchurch

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Antiques

Whitchurch antiques emporium

Antiques

Whitchurch antiques emporium

Jane

Antiques

Whitchurch antiques emporium

Mrs B

Picture set two – St Alkmund’s Church

Whitchurch is home to St Alkmunds church, a building that was constructed in 1712, although the church tower actually dates back to the 15th century and the earlier church structure that was on the site.

Remember the reference I make earlier on about the Whitchurch clockmaker J.B. Joyce … well the tower clock was made by that company. The name Alkmund is certainly unusal and was the name of a 9th century prince – you can read more about him and his association with Whitchurch at this link.

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