Phil Gillam: Happy to be one of the 'quarrymen'

I’d been persuaded by our dad to climb the ladder up to the top of the slide, supposedly a children’s amusement but in fact a monstrous metal construction that would never have got past the Health and Safety Brigade today.

I was just a little lad in short trousers. That dates me straight away. Little lads these days don’t wear short trousers.

But there it is. Short trousers - all the better for maximising the damage to your knees when you fall from a great height.

And, if memory serves, the surfacing around the slide and across the Quarry’s play area as a whole was - back in those days - made from concrete.

Now, there was a recipe for keeping the Accident and Emergency department busy!

Trembling, I eventually reached the top of the ladder.

So high off the ground was I at this point that I swear I watched a cloud go sailing past my face.

I’m not entirely sure what happened next.

I’m pretty sure I got myself into the required position and went zooming down the slippy, slidey, cold-metal descent into doom.

Unbelievably, I survived and am here to tell the tale.

I’m also here to tell you that - despite this Quarry-related trauma at such a tender age - I absolutely love our town’s gorgeous 29-acre park.

And of course I’m thrilled it’s in the running for a national award.

The Fields in Trust UK’s Best Park Competition also features Telford Town Park in the West Midlands shortlist.

They now depend on a public vote to see if they will be crowned the UK’s best park at a ceremony at Lord’s cricket ground in November. And that voting process ends today, Friday, November 3, at 5pm.

Helen Ball, town clerk for Shrewsbury Town Council, said: “We are extremely proud that our Quarry park has been nominated by members of the public in The Fields in Trust UK’s Best Park Award. It is great to see that the park means so much to the people of Shrewsbury and the importance they place on this valued open space in the heart of the town.”

Held in the embrace of the River Severn, The Quarry can of course be reached easily on foot from the opposite bank via two elegant bridges - Porthill Bridge and Kingsland Bridge. Looking towards the town centre, visitors enjoy a vista that includes the lovely St Chad’s Church.

And in the centre of the park is the exquisite Dingle, for much of the year a blaze of colour, a horticultural masterpiece designed by the famous gardener, broadcaster and writer Percy Thrower, a Blue Peter regular, and Shrewsbury’s Parks Superintendent from 1946 until 1974.

Undoubtedly, The Quarry is one of Shrewsbury’s many jewels in the crown.

Back in the 14th and 15th centuries, much of the land here was arable, open fields. But it gradually developed into common land used by the townsfolk for grazing animals, for drying textiles, and of course for extracting stone (hence the name: The Quarry).

By the early 18th century, the south-west part of Shrewsbury, centred around Swan Hill, became a highly fashionable place to live.

And in 1719, Henry Jenks, the mayor, funded the planting of more than 400 lime trees along newly-laid out walks. This was the beginning of our most elegant park.

In the decades that followed, the public walks around The Quarry became widely celebrated.

Then, in 1875, The Quarry was bought by the Corporation. In the same year the Shrewsbury Horticultural Society held its first show in The Quarry.

For hundreds of years, this land has played a major role in the life of Shrewsbury – a long history that, I suppose, rather puts into perspective my own humble little story about the slide!