Here is the index to all those Shuts of Shrewsbury threads! :)

The 30 shut threads are in some geographical order, with the town centre divided into 7 zones, each with a number of shuts.

Any notices are written to the right of the shut or passage name.

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North

1 Blower's Repository *only open when Shropshire Archives is*

2 Castle Court

3 Seventy Steps **not a very pleasant shut** *closed at night*

4 St. Mary's Shut

5 The Dana & Castle Hill

Medieval Centre

6 St. Alkmund's Passage (St. Alkmund's Square)

7 St. Julian's Shut (including St. Julian's Steps)

8 Bank Passage

9 Bear Steps

10 Grope Lane

Wyle Cop

11 Lion Hotel Passage (not The Lion Garage!)

12 Barracks Passage

13 Compasses Passage

14 Bowdler's Passage

15 Wine Merchants' Passage *only fully open when both Tanners Wine and Wyle Cop NCP are*

South

16 Golden Cross Passage

17 Peacock Passage

18 Coffee House Passage

19 Drayton's Passage

20 Gullet Passage

21 Plough Shut *now a dead end and dying*

Mardol and Roushill

22 Carnarvon Lane

23 King's Head Passage

24 Mardol Gardens *open fully Monday-Friday 9-5 only*

25 Phoenix Place (aka Phoenix Passage)

26 Victorian Arcade (aka The Village) *only open when the shop is*

West

27 Rowley's Passage

28 St. Austin's Passage

29 Bellstone Court *not always open* *dead end*

Town Walls

30 The Slang

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Click here for a map with numbers corresponding to the shuts.

Some extra courts, passages and shortcuts in Shrewsbury

As well as the 30 shuts with articles above, here are some of the other "off the beaten track" parts of the town centre, including some extra informal shortcuts...

The Lion Garage - don't actually walk through here, as you may get into trouble, but there is a vehicular route for Lion Hotel patrons/residents between Wyle Cop and Belmont Bank. Use Lion Hotel Passage instead.
Abbotts Courtyard - courtyard by the side of Abbotts House off Butcher Row.
Parade Centre - the Parade Centre, off St. Mary's Place in the Victorian hospital building there, is a small maze of small shops and cafes and such like. Also there is a residential passage called The Court.

Claremont Place - private passage and courtyard off Claremont Street. Also nearby is Drapers Court.
Kenneth Court - private passage and court off Dogpole. Also nearby is Dogpole Court.
Bakers Court - private and closed off passage and courtyard off Wyle Cop (further up than Dogpole).

Colehall - the service road/path that runs around the edge of Barker Street car park between Hill's Lane and the old bus shelter next to the baptists church.
Dickens Court - passageway just off Hill's Lane, leads to a restaurant.
Old Post Office - Public House with its own passageway and courtyard, off Milk Street.

Council House Court - just off Castle Street, near to the castle itself, is the Council House Court, which is a very historical part of Shrewsbury.
Owens Passage - a dead shut, to the right of what was Deep Pan Pizza (the route it took has been replaced by the Castle Court shut).
Traitor's Gate - small private passage leading off Castle Street with a route through to St Mary's Water Lane.

Lion and Pheasant, Wyle Cop - there's a passageway and car park behind the pub, which now leads to the back of the new St Julian's Friars development.
Cornhouse, Wyle Cop - there's a small dead-end passage that leads from the left side of the Cornhouse restaurant on Wyle Cop.
Between 49 and 50 Mardol - there's an informal route that runs from Mardol to Smithfield Road between Phoenix Place and King's Head Passage. Start at the the right hand side of the "Bedroom" bar on Mardol, or from the left side of the garages on Smithfield Road (bit more tricky this way round).

School Passage, Wyle Cop - short passage and courtyard (private property) leading off Wyle Cop to the Old School House.
Nag's Head, Wyle Cop - there's an alley (called Nag's Head Court) and at the back is the beer garden where you can see the ancient medieval remains of the back of the pub.
Swan Hill Gardens - small street with only two houses at the very end of Swan Hill Court.

(Old) St. Chad's Churchyard - the path that cuts across St. Chad's Churchyard offers a shortcut between College Hill and Princess Street with Belmont.
Post Office, St. Mary's Street - there's quite a large open area around the back of the Post Office in the town centre, which serves as a car park/service area. There were almshouses here and also a gas holder in the mid-20th century.
Market Hall/Mardol House - the covered road that runs under the Market Hall/Mardol House, between Claremont Street and Shoplatch. Shame it's too wide to be a shut.

:blink:

I'm sorry if this is posted in an inappropriate place. I will understand if the moderators move it or delete it, as it is in a sticky thread.

Would there be any interest in putting together a photographic guide to the passages and shortcuts in Shrewsbury's pre-20th century suburbs like Frankwell, The Mount, Longden Coleham, Abbey Foregate, Coton Hill, etc?

The Edwardian suburbs, such as Belle Vue and Copthorne, have a few interesting passage ways and shortcuts as well which recall a time before roads were designed to be wide enough for motor cars - although they don't, of course, have the same medieval origins as the shuts in the town centre.

I'll go out with my camera to a few of the areas this weekend and see what I can find. This is something that I'm interested in (odd, I know!) and, if anyone else is, I can post some photos on here.

Yes it's an excellent idea. :)

I know of a couple outside the town centre, such as Pig Trough in Coton Hill, but there are loads of passages and shortcuts around the town as a whole.

Edit: Your thread (so it's linked from here): http://shrewsburyforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=440

Using rather clever mapping software I can now give the exact (to the nearest metre) lengths of the shuts and passages. Rather trivial for many, but interesting to some I'm sure.

The Dana - 204m (from Castle Gates to Howard Street)
The Slang - 152m
Wine Merchants' Passage - 150m (the entire route to the towpath)
Castle Court - 124m (includes the steps etc to Raven Meadows)
Phoenix Place - 105m
Seventy Steps - 102m
Blower's Repository - 101m
Lion Hotel Passage - 88m (includes the car park to Belmont Bank)
St. Julian's Shut - 75m
King's Head Passage - 64m
Victorian Arcade - 61m
Mardol Gardens - 59m
Carnarvon Lane - 58m
Compasses Passage - 56m
Barracks Passage - 51m
Bowdler's Passage - 51m (the entire route to Beeches Lane)
Drayton's Passage - 49m
Coffee House Passage - 47m
Grope Lane - 44m
Peacock Passage - 44m
St. Mary's Shut - 44m
Gullet Passage - 43m
St. Austin's Passage - 38m
Golden Cross Passage - 36m
Bank Passage - 32m
Bellstone Court - 29m
Plough Shut - 28m
St. Alkmund's Passage - 13m
Rowley's Passage - 6m
Bear Steps - 5m

Also, for those routes that do flood, here's the risk of flooding, where 0 = no risk and 5 = high risk.

Phoenix Place: 4-5 (the first "street" in Shrewsbury town centre to go usually)
King's Head Passage: 4 (the medieval ditch in the middle floods first)
The Slang: 3 (obviously the bottom end floods fairly often)
Wine Merchants' Passage: 3 (the car park end floods fairly often)
Carnarvon Lane: 2-3 (serious flooding needed, but it would then be cut off on both ends)
St. Austin's Passage: 2-3 (gentle slope gives good place to watch the water rise in serious floods)
Seventy Steps: 2 (only the very bottom section at Raven Meadows)
Blower's Repository: 1-2 (only the access at Raven Meadows really)
Mardol Gardens: 1-2 (the low lying part of the route, towards Roushill, has been raised recently - before this ground work it was a 4)
Castle Court: 1 (would require a serious flood and then only the access at Raven Meadows would be cut off)
Victorian Arcade: 1 (would require a serious flood)
Rowley's Passage: 0-1 (it would take a very serious flood, but it is possible)

:rolleyes:

Wow, when I get the printer sorted, I will print this off as it will be darn useful for us!

After having previously believed that shuts were called so because they were shut at night, I have been researching further into the etymology of the word "shut" in the Salopian sense of that word. Whilst many shuts were (and some still are) shut at night and at other times, the history of the word is much older and a little more complicated.

Below is the entry on Wiktionary (which I have added and other users have chipped in too). There is also an entry in the full edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Shut, noun

Basically it is derived from the word "shute" which is an old English variant of the modern day "shoot". A shut allows one to shoot through from one place/street to another.

There are local words for passages/alleys all over the country. See the Wiktionary article for some of them.