With the coffee and croissant refreshing me I was ready for the next part of my morning . It was only 10.15 and I knew that the major service would take until lunchtime . I needed to waste another hour at least before I could find a cafe for my early lunch with yet another double espresso on the cards . If I had not been called up by then to tell me the car was ready I had already earmarked a walk back up to Castle Street and beyond to the Castle with its Regimental Museum of the Shropshire Light Infantry . I was looking forward to that as my great grandfather had apparently served in that regiment . Apart from a line in his obituary I had no knowledge of his service and hoped that perhaps I might fill in the gaps in the Museum or at least be pointed in the right direction . I had enough to fill my time until Ziggy was ready to be picked up.
Walking into the museum it looked small . It would not take me long to see what was on offer I thought . A mum and her small
child were talking to the volunteer guide . The guide was pointing them in the direction of the workshops and issuing treasure hunts and pencils . Eventually as they moved on the volunteer greeted me . The museum is on two floors she said . Go straight on and you will reach the Roman section . Come out and climb the stairs . Upstairs you will find medieval Shrewsbury and many other delights . Just follow the route you cannot go wrong .
My first stop was inside a Bronze age reproduction Round Hut . started as I got inside and the disembodied voice told me how the Round House was heated , which way it was built and how it was used . Reproduction artifacts were piled up to give the impression that someone still lived there . As interesting as it was I had other ideas. Roman interested me more . Having been in many museums featuring roman artifacts I had little idea what would be here . Would it have many items ? I was shocked . The room was filled with everything you could think of that a Roman might have or need
in this world and the next . Cases after cases of roman swords and Samarian ware . Gravestones inscribed with the story of the person who once was buried close by. One intrigued me . A triptych with one panel inscribed with a history of some long dead roman wife and mother . The next panel filled with the details of her dead son . The third panel empty. Perhaps it was intended for her husband . The father of her child . Had he remarried and chose not to be buried and near her . His story immortalised in the third part of the stone ? Had he moved back to Italy and died there ? I would never know but standing in front of the memorial I did wonder what happened to him .
Each cabinet gave a different perspective on Roman Life - writing materials , letters written in lead and used as a reference upon retirement from the legion. Bone , gold jewellery and the magnificent Wroxeter Mirror . Convex in shape, shiny but unwieldy it was beautifuly made with handles decorated with flowers . I could imagine the
roman lady standing in front of it , probably squinting at the reflection whilst her slave maid held it up.
I climbed the stairs - there were paintings on the walls. Notable Shrewsbury families . Views of the town . Upstairs I found myself walking along a long gallery . On one wall were windows overlooking the buildings surrounding the museum . To the other side a long installation made entirely of glass pictures . Each section was made up of around nine or more small square photographs that had been etched somehow onto glass . The installation had a name but I did not make any note of it . The glass panels worked a little like magnifying glasses . If you looked closely at each one they had a different theme - leaves, a street scene in the town, a face, a church , a flower , the river . Each one was different . It would have taken me hours to really look at each one and take them in.
