This week’s pictures from the past

Mike Jordan, of Radbrook, Shrewsbury, who loaned us this picture showing Bargates, Whitchurch, tells us an interesting story behind it. It is one of a number of old postcards of the town - this one has the franking date 1917 on the back - that he has. “I obtained these from a postcard fair when I was working at Shropshire County Council on the ‘Whitchurch Demonstration Project’ following construction of the bypass in about 1992,” says Mike.

“The Department of Transport in the early 1990s made money available to local highway authorities to enhance the town centre of various towns in England following construction of trunk road bypasses around their town. Whitchurch was one such town. The idea of studying these old photos was to get some idea of the old pavement finishes to see if similar treatments or materials could be incorporated in the town centre works.”