Brewery guess helps solve parade riddle
Market Drayton or Bridgnorth were our guesses for the location of this mystery Shropshire parade of yesteryear, and since then we've had a suggestion that it could be Shrewsbury.
We published the photo in our Pictures From The Archive slot hoping readers could help, and 90-year-old Colin Brown, who enjoys looking at them and trying to work out where they are, got in touch with a suggestion which, in a roundabout way, has helped pinpoint it to The Wharfage, Ironbridge.
"It could be the Quarry in Shrewsbury, going towards Greyfriars Bridge from town. If you look in the background you can see what used to be Trouncer's Brewery," said Mr Brown, who has lived in Shrewsbury all his life.
That prompted us to take a closer look at the building in the background and, although the picture is not all that clear, it turns out to be castellated, and by comparison with old pictures of Trouncer's the brewery can be definitely ruled out, as it is not a good match.
What looks like a big chimney on the building – and Trouncer's brewery had a distinctive chimney – is misleading, as it turns out that the chimney is, or rather was, some distance beyond.
There cannot have been that many castellated riverside buildings in Shropshire, and it can in fact now be positively identified as the Gothic Warehouse by the side of the River Severn in Ironbridge, and these days the home of the Museum of the Gorge. The distant chimney is long gone.
The picture is an undated postcard from the collection of Ray Farlow of Bridgnorth which unfortunately includes no details, but it looks to be around 100 years old or more.
Those riverside trees were planted in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.
With the location now established, there's another conundrum to be solved – what was the event?
