The woman behind a people power campaign to save Shrewsbury’s historic Rowley’s House today said she was “horrified” that council leaders do not consider it a major tourist draw.

Margaret Owen, who collected 13,000 signatures in protest at the proposed sale of the 16th Century mansion in 2006, has now begged Shirehall chiefs to make the site a priority in their future plans for the town.

Mrs Owen, of Hereford Road, has been heavily involved with the Friends of Rowley’s House group’s idea to convert the tourist information centre into a museum for the young.

In a letter to Shropshire Council leader Keith Barrow she says: “I am rather horrified to read of the council’s tourist attractions you all perceive to be the most important in Shrewsbury, to see no mention of Rowley’s Museum, having been told from the start not to call it so, I am afraid I am now in a state of rebellion.

“I still have the signatures of the 13,000-plus people who agreed with me.

“I am quite sure, with more time, it would have been 20,000, that is an amazing proportion of the people of Shrewsbury.”

But Councillor Barrow today said the council did consider Rowley’s an important building.

He said: “Mrs Owen was actually the first person who came to see me about Rowley’s House, which is a wonderful and magnificent building, but again Shrewsbury is full of them.

“Rowley’s House is an important building but so is the flax mill and the Music Hall. The future of Rowley’s is something we are conscious of but what we do with it we don’t know yet.

“I know Mrs Owen wants it to be turned into a museum for the young but the costs of converting it for that would be astronomical.”

Mrs Owen says she is determined to ensure the building is made a focal point of the town. She also claims more should be made of Shrewsbury’s historic tag as once being the seventh wealthiest town in Britain, because of its port status.

She adds: “I always think of it (Rowley’s) as a great galleon sailing in the middle of Shrewsbury, reminding us of the time when we had a port as it was a major trading part of our heritage.”

By Russell Roberts