Shropshire Star

Bryan parks some memories of Pride Hill

Take a close look at the cars on Pride Hill in this June 1962 view of Shrewsbury, and see if you can work out if they're moving.

Published
Pride Hill in June 1962

And no, this isn't an early April 1 hoax – it is relevant because when we published this photo in Pictures From The Past, we said it was a traffic jam.

But Bryan Weaver has got in touch to say differently.

"It was a one way street up Pride Hill and those cars are parked – I used to park my own car there. They are parked on the side. It was unlimited parking as well. The traffic could get past them," he said.

In fairness to us, even on the main thoroughfare, where presumably the traffic is moving, there does seem to be a bit of a tailback.

Bryan, who is 85 and lives at Gnosall, but used to live at St Julian's Friars in Shrewsbury, said: "I used to pop in and have a drink with the lads on a Saturday morning. There were plenty of parking spaces available there, even on a Saturday morning.

"I parked there, met the lads, and had a drink at the Hole In The Wall. Once I came out having had a couple of pints of Bass and could I think where I left the car? I wandered around for half an hour. I had left it at Pride Hill.

"I worked at Rolls-Royce as a draughtsman and we used to meet. They were a grand bunch of lads, all gone now.

"Opposite Maddox there was a big ironmongers, more like an agricultural shop, near Lloyds Bank. I remember around about the same time as the picture they had a Formula One racing car there on display, only for a week."

With a dip into our archives we think we can pinpoint Bryan's memory to an occasion in which a BRM was displayed in Shuker's showroom.

Back in 2003 Mr C.E. Emberton, of Clive, loaned us a photo which he took with his Box Brownie camera of the racing car being unloaded for display there.

Mr Emberton gave a late 1950s date and told us that Shukers was part of the Rubery Owen Group who sponsored BRM.