War Walks Severn
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& Return to the main road and cross the bridge over the War Walks Severn. At the end of the bridge take the steps down to the riverside path. Turn left and on the Home Front follow the river, passing under the railway bridge to climb the flight of steps you took on the outward leg and back over the Dana footbridge to the station. By the end of the War almost 1 in 4 of the male population had volunteered or been conscripted, over five million men. The experience of saying farewell at the local railway station was one shared by many of their families. The part played by the railways in the daily lives of the Owen family are echoed in the imagery of Owen’s The Send Off Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way Ltd Dickins. Artwork by MA Creative by Keith Pybus. Photography Gordon Written To the siding-shed, Walk 9 And lined the train with faces grimly gay. … Wilfred Owen and the Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp Tracks to the Trenches Winked to the guard. by Keith Pybus & Gordon Dickins So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went. They were not ours: We never heard to which front these were sent. Discover more about World War 1 in Shropshire at: www.shropshireremembers.org.uk www.shropshiresgreatoutdoors.co.uk/walking/war-walks/. www.shropshirewalking.co.uk Harold, were through the window of Tracks to a train here. 2 Facing the station, go to the lift the Trenches to Platform 3, on the left of the ticket hall entrance. Take the lift Distance: 3 miles / 5 km to Platform 3 and turn right for Grade: Easy 20 yards. Terrain: mostly pavements and On the wall is an impressive bronze well-surfaced footpaths. Some plaque by Sidney Hunt to the 42 men steep steps of the London & North Western and Great Western Joint Railway who From the station the walk worked as booking clerks, porters, follows a riverside path to the shunters, a fireman, a signalman and attractive turn of the 19th/20th a lampman in this area. They died century suburb of Cherry in Egypt, Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Russia, as well as Orchard and four houses with foot bridge. Deeper water below the predominantly on the Western Front. and over the Dana footbridge. Owen family links. Turn right and pause in the bridge with 10 feet not uncommon By the end of 1917, 180,000 men small car park. right off the edge of the path. “ Via the Abbey, the Owen from English railway companies had The prison built by Thomas Telford, 5 Memorial and the site of a First enlisted. Of these about 40,000 served Follow the river to the county surveyor, and designed by footbridge. Go under the bridge World War German Prisoner of with Royal Engineers construction or John Hiram Haycock was made and take the steps to the War camp, it’s back to the river railway operating companies. necessary by the loss of the American roadside. Go over the bridge. and the station to complete a The station’s platforms extend over colonies and transportation there. circular walk. Castle Walk Footbridge, completed in the River Severn. Towards the end of The entrance frontage is all that November 1951, was the first pre- Platform 3, you have a fine view of the remains of the original gaol – the 1 The walk begins from the stressed concrete balanced cantilever world’s largest mechanical signal box. building you see today is from 1878. station forecourt. bridge in the UK. The total central The three-storey brick and timber 4 Return to Howard Street and span is 150 feet – see the plaque. Shrewsbury station has a host of structure was a typical LNWR design turn right. In the corner is a links with Wilfred Owen. His father, completed in 1903. Severn Bridge box 6 steep flight of stone steps. Go To avoid the cyclists, take the is likely to remain operational until at Tom Owen, was the Asst Supt of down the steps to the river upper path and head past least 2030, possibly longer. Only 98 of the Joint Railway. In 1908 Wilfred Severn and turn left. the recreation area towards wrote a school essay “Description of a the 180 levers are now used. Underdale Road. The area Railway Station…” 3 The Shropshire Anglers’ Federation we are approaching is Cherry Return to the staircase and describes the Severn “The river takes Orchard. Not a developer’s He took the train to enlist in the follow down to the station on a more gentle, sedate pace… creation, but a genuine cherry Artists’ Rifles and again after forecourt turn left and take the and deepens as it glides beautifully orchard which belonged to the commissioning. Finally, the last stone stairs in the corner. At the along an elongated, gentle ‘S’ bend… Earl of Tankerville. words he exchanged with his brother, top turn left along the walkway Good sport above the Castle Walk UNDERDALE T E E E R Allotments U T N S 7 E Continue to Underdale Road K V N R A A and turn left. Your goal is No E P T E W CASTLEFIELDS Y A N E 26 the right hand of the pair on G E N N R OR TH ST REET D the right hand side of the road. O Y F S UNDERD E High up it bears the name L T D S D ALE A Hawthorn Villas. A A AV O C O R R ASHLEY ST T E R R E Weir L A Imagine the rural tranquillity prior H E O C O T R Footbridge A O E W Former S D C to the motoring age. In these streets AR IA R M O D R E K U S Prison O BRADFORD ST R TR D N S Wilfred Owen spent some ten years; E T E E C N O C T I R perhaps half his short life by the time V U M E START S S E C he left here for the Berlitz School in T EN A T G CLEVLAND Bordeaux. E L Railway T Bus S Station TAN ST A KER CHERRY April 1902 when Wilfred was 9, he Station C VIL LE S wrote, “Grandpa has given me as T ORCHARD T E CRO much garden as what you see from E WMER R E RO the dining room window. I have got T AD S L about six potatoes planted… We are L E CANON STREET W Y going to Market this afternoon and I L O might buy some seeds.” No doubt the H botany which appears in the poetry, WHITEHALL ST BISHOP STREET took root in the garden here. Whitehall Y Abbey A Mansion W 8 H Return the way you have come I G E H A KI S B B NG to Cleveland Street. The large T English E Y STREE AG R T B house with polychrome bricks E ET Bridge F O R E G A was originally known as No 1 T E WY P Cleveland Place. L E C O Tom Owen had risen to Assistant Superintendent. The Owens lived here from 1907 to 1910; Wilfred Supermarket Greyfriars ‘discovered his poetic vocation’ Footbridge during a holiday in Cheshire. 0 MILES ¼ Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. The Owen family lived behind the Shropshire Council 100049049.2016 left hand of the two doors which give on to Underdale Road [now No 18] In the unheated attic bedroom he place where Owen began to find his own poetic voice. The house is little altered, shared with Harold. Only Wilfred was entitled to work at the table and chair, and he would still feel at home in his attic bedroom.” christened his ‘study.’ A boy opposite would see Wilfred, wrapped in blankets and working by candlelight at his table. Here in 1908 he wrote ‘Description of a Most of Owen’s letters were Railway Station at a busy Time of Day.’ “The first striking impression on entering written to his mother, Susan, who one of our large stations at a busy time is the number of people crowding the kept nearly every word written platforms & jostling and hurrying to and fro apparently in the greatest confusion by her first child. She received … here all classes & conditions meet & every conceivable type may be seen …” 554 letters over the years, but Miraculously, this essay now graces the august portals of the Oxford University it wasn’t until 1956 that this Faculty of English library, Owen Collection. correspondence was discovered. They were kept in no particular From their top floor the boys would have a view over the meadows to the town. order, and were tied up with string, wool and odd bits of ribbon or The family discovered the delights of the tape. church at Uffington and the walk along the river to the ferry. On their way home, ! Cross over the road and turn back along Monkmoor Road as far as Wilfred commented how the buttercups Canon Street. Go to the far end. had blessed with gold Harold’s boots. Owen transplants this image from the On the right is Wilmot House 54 Canon Street [occupied 1897 to 1900 when Severnside meadows to the Western Wilfred would be approximately 4 to 7]. Harold was born there 5th September Front for Spring Offensive [1918]. 1897 his father appears on the birth certificate as “relief clerk”.