Weird and wonderful Shropshire

A book shining the spotlight on some of the weird and wonderful features of Shropshire which are staring locals in the face but are never noticed by them is topping the local bestsellers chart.

Shropshire’s Oddities has been written and compiled by Dorothy Nicolle, a professional Blue Badge guide for the Heart of England region who specialises in tours in and around the county and lectures on a wide range of subjects.

And in spotting the odd and unusual in the county she has had the advantage of having the eyes of an incomer – and so noticing things with which Salopians are so familiar or blase that they fail to “see” them themselves.

“When you grow up in a place, you take things for granted. It’s only when you move somewhere new that you open your eyes and look around.

“This is something you find with guides. There are an awful lot of guides who are people who come into an area and say ‘how wonderful’ – totally forgetting that where they left was equally as wonderful,” says Dorothy, who arrived in Shropshire from abroad in 1990 and fell in love with the county.

Another thing drummed into guides when going around is that they must look up, with the result that they notice and see things on the higher part of buildings that locals, who generally see no reason to look up, may well not realise exist.

“As I walked around I was looking up all the time and tripped over my feet so often. It’s a different world when you look up.”

Her book spans a whole range of the odd and unusual, from village stocks at Norton and Weston-under-Redcastle, to an old Victoria pissoir in Minsterley, and a squatters’ cottage in Much Wenlock which was once reputedly the home of a witch.

The book has arisen naturally out of Dorothy’s role as a guide showing tourists around the county.

“I just started clocking unusual things around the place to show visitors and it grew from there, quite frankly,” she said.

“I have always been delighted by things which are a little bit quirky, unusual, and different – things that make me laugh.”

She began to give talks on Shropshire’s oddities to Women’s Institutes, local history groups, and the like, with the result that people also started mentioning their own favourites to her.

And they also began suggesting that she should write a book – an idea which was already forming in her mind anyway.

“I started seriously collecting with the idea of producing a book. The book has been in preparation for absolutely years because I have been collecting and collecting,” said Dorothy, who lives in Wem and has written several previous books.

For publishing Shropshire’s Oddities, she went local, turning to GET Publishing at Bridgnorth.

“I had very definite ideas of how I wanted the cover to look and things like that. I’m very pleased with the way the cover has come out. You have much more control and input with a book when you produce it with somebody like Brian (Brian Davies of GET Publishing), than a big publishing company.”

As for her own favourite oddities, she particularly likes quirky tombstones.

“There’s one, although not in the book, for a butcher in Cardington whose name is Mr Pig. I ask you. You would not dare invent that.

“You walk around a town and see something unusual, and think: ‘What on earth is that?’ People do comment that they don’t see them. I suppose in a way that I have trained my eye to see them. I’m always looking for them.

“Some of them are obvious things, like fire marks on a building. And then you find something different about a building which makes you wonder why, where, when, how – all these questions.

“Some of my oddities are not necessarily odd at all. For example, there is the Iron Bridge. But when it was built, it would have been very odd.

“When I do my talks, it’s a way of encouraging people to look around them. The book is very much part of that.”

Shropshire’s Oddities is already selling like hot cakes.

“I was on BBC Radio Shropshire with Eric Smith and I had people from a couple of bookshops getting in touch with me saying that as a result of the radio programme they had sold five of them in an hour immediately afterwards.

“People have been very complimentary and I have been delighted by the response from people who have seen the book.”

Shropshire’s Oddities is softback, 116 pages, and costs £12.99. It has been published by GET Publishing of 57 Queens Road, Bridgnorth WV15 5DG.

It is available from the publisher (add £1 postage), local bookshops, or, in a special linkup with GET Publishing, can be ordered through the Shropshire Star.

To buy a book through us contact: Editorial Support Department, Shropshire Star Book Club, Ketley, Telford, Shropshire TF1 5HU. Telephone (01952) 241459 or 241496 between 8am and 12.30pm; fax (01952) 254605; and editorialsupport@shropshirestar.co.uk by email. Discuss with them your preferred method of payment. Please add £1 for postage.