Commissioned by Shrewsbury BID, with funding from the Shrewsbury Recovery Taskforce, the tours are being produced by Alex Whiteley, of the Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast, as part of the Shrewsbury’s Open campaign. 

Called Shrewsbuy’s Open Stories, the idea is that people can download the tours onto their smartphones to either listen as they walk around the town centre, or just to listen to at home. 

They are designed to complement the walking tours, which are run by the Visitor Information Centre and will be available when safe to do so following the Covid-19 outbreak. For more information contact guided.tours@shropshire.gov.uk  

The first four audio tour episodes feature St Mary’s Church, The Bear Steps, Shrewsbury Castle and Old St Chad’s, and there are plans to record more in the near future. 

Producer Alex Whiteley said: “When I got asked to put these audio tours together, I was hit with so much excitement. I know how much this town values its rich history, and I knew there would be a huge amount of passion behind this project. 

“There are so many extremely knowledgeable tour guides in Shrewsbury, that I didn't know where to start, but I met up with Maggie Love who was brilliant and hooked me up with Robert Milton and Nigel Baker. 

“When it comes to The Bear Steps there is no one I could rely on more than Bibbs Cameron from the Shrewsbury Civic Society, who with so much knowledge and passion for historic Shrewsbury, knocked it out of the park! 

“I want to say thank you to Shrewsbury BID for giving me this opportunity and of course Maggie, Robert, Nigel and Bibbs for helping us put together these tours that can hopefully be enjoyed by many. 

“We have many more places of interest to cover in Shrewsbury and I'm sure these first four audio tours are just the first of many to come.” 

Maggie Love, who is a town guide and visitor and museum assistant, added: “We are so lucky to have such a fabulous history to share with our visitors and residents, and the audio tours will provide the listener with great detail on some of Shrewsbury's hidden gems. 

“We have much more to discover and the understanding of just how important Shrewsbury was through the centuries will grow. We hope people will enjoy hearing what we understand in 2020 about these special places.” 

Download Shrewsbury’s Open Stories on the Original Shrewsbury website here: https://originalshrewsbury.co.uk/SO-stories