Some excellent news for Shrewsbury’s shuts and passages! You will now find on the entrances to many of the town’s passages notices which inform that the County Council wish to add the particular passage to the definitive map of rights of ways.

The order to do this has not yet been approved though and there is likely to be objections from some land owners, tenants, etc. Therefore I ask that if anyone here has some spare time, or knows of someone who has an interest in these sorts of matters, if they could write a quick letter, supporting the shuts and passages in the order becoming rights of way. :)

The full order, with maps and statements, can be viewed in the reception of the Guildhall on Frankwell Quay and also somewhere at the Shirehall. I’ll give the important details below though.

The Shropshire County Council (Footpath Additions (Shuts and Passages), Borough of Shrewsbury) Modification Order 2008.

This order was made on the 26 June 2008 and representations can be made to the following officer at the County Council, to reach them no later than the 7 August 2008. If there are objections the order will be passed to the government who will look at all representations made and will therefore look at the letters of support also.

Countryside Access Manager
Countryside Access Team
Community Services
The Shirehall
Abbey Foregate
Shrewsbury
SY2 6ND

The 20 routes which are to become rights of way in the order are:

Bank Passage
Barracks Passage
Bear Steps
Carnarvon Passage
Coffee House Passage
Compasses Passage
Dana, The
Dana Railway Path
Drayton Passage
Golden Cross Passage
Grope Lane
Gullet Passage
King’s Head Passage
Old St Chad’s Path
Peacock Passage
Phoenix Place
St Alkmond’s Passage
St Julian’s Shut
St Mary’s Court
Seventy Steps

17 of these are in my list of 30 Shuts of Shrewsbury, which has its own section in this forum (in the photos section). “Dana Railway Path” is the route that runs down from the Dana footbridge to the foot of Castle Gates via the steps and past the gate on platform 3. St Mary’s Court is round the corner from the Parade shopping centre towards Dogpole and “Old St Chad’s Path” is the path that runs through the churchyard of the Old St Chad’s church off Belmont/Princess Street.

It should be noted that three of the other Shuts of Shrewsbury are already rights of way – Castle Court, St Mary’s Shut and The Slang. St Mary’s Shut was made a right of way only 3 years ago. So with this order it will be 20 down, 10 to go! :)

I would appreciate greatly if people could write in and support this move. The town’s historic features, such as the shuts and passages, are always under threat from developers and land owners/tenants who pay little heed to the town’s history and the people’s right to use these ways as they have done for countless generations. Further, all changes to England’s definitive map of rights of ways must be made by 2021 (I believe that’s the correct year) as it will then be frozen for all time. Any of the town’s passages not made “official” by then could very easily be lost… on the other hand, those on the definitive map are then protected forever.

A very happy Proud Salopian today! :D

Thanks for that. I will write a letter in support. I had no idea that those shuts and passages were not designated as rights of way. Some have been in use from medieval times or maybe earlier.

Many are at present designated as highway, but with the shake-up in local government next year I suspect the plan is to designate the shuts and passages, as well as other paths around Shrewsbury, as rights of ways and transfer responsibility of all rights of ways to a new town council for Shrewsbury. Which might be a good thing as the maintenance of them would be the responsibility of the local town council whilst the actual streets and roads are dealt with by the less local county council (sorry! unitary authority... :rolleyes: ). I will start bugging the town council as soon as it is established to spend some time and money on the shuts - new name plates, a clean for some, better lighting, etc.

Some of the routes, such as Phoenix Place, do cross over private land, however as you say they have been public thoroughfares for centuries! In the countryside the vast majority of rights of ways cross over private property anyway. I suspect there will be some objections from certain landowners, but hopefully these will be ignored. I know that there will be an objection to Compasses Passage from one of the residents on Belmont Bank. It does annoy me how people who live in a house for 40 years and live altogether on this Earth for 80 years object to and disregard something, like a passage in the town centre, which has been around for 800 years. :angry:

There have been articles written about this in today's Shropshire Star and Shrewsbury Chronicle. The journalist who wrote them has clearly visited this thread and used the information written here! In fact, almost word for word..! :rolleyes: But hey, I don't mind - rather pleased in fact that the issue was raised in the two newspapers positively and accurately!

edit - I've just seen the full article in this evening's Shropshire Star. Well I never! This forum is mentioned and I've been directly quoted too. Superb. :D Unfortunately there is a mistake in the article: one of the the photos shown is of the steps of Castle Court and not Seventy Steps as indicated.

If you're reading this Shropshire Star journalist - thanks! Don't forget to report later on this summer what happens with this story. With too many objections the order may end up going to the Secretary of State and then we'll see what happens. Hopefully full approval of course, especially if there are enough letters of support on the file.