Plans to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Shrewsbury’s most famous son Charles Darwin could lead to a major boost for the town for years to come if the opportunity is seized, bosses claimed today.
Jon King, director of the Darwin Festival, said there would be “unprecedented” coverage of Shrewsbury and the rest of Shropshire for the next 18 months to two years, helping to encourage visitors to the area.
Already plans are being drawn up to mark the milestone in 2009 with Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council this month agreeing to set aside £500,000 funding for the festivities.
This would be worth more than £1.6 million in total including external and “in kind” funding.
Mr King said: “This is Shropshire’s big opportunity. It’s unlikely that any county has had this kind of opportunity in the past.
“If we seize it we could take advantage of it for years to come. There will be unprecedented coverage of Shropshire through the world-wide media over the next 18 months or two years.”
He added that the possibility of a new Darwin play which would tour the country was also being explored adding: “This has the potential to bring some really exciting work to Shrewsbury. If we get our work out to them, the hope is they will send productions back to us.”
One of the major plans to mark the anniversary is to create a permanent memorial garden featuring stones made from rocks representing 10 of the 12 geological periods within the borders of Shropshire.
Other projects as part of the celebrations would include a festival reappraising Darwin’s ideas in the 21st century and looking at how modern technology impacts on human evolution. The council has also secured PO Box 1809 for people to send cards to mark the anniversary.
Earlier this month bosses revealed details of the Sixth Annual Shrewsbury Darwin Festival, which will take place from February 1 to 28, 2008. Talks by lecturers from the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Institute of Biology and the Galapagos Conservation Trust will be among the highlights for the year.
Call the box office on (01743) 281281or visit the www.darwinshrewsbury.org
By John Kirk
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