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Tuesday 10:30am - 4pm Wednesday 10:30am - 4pm Thursday 10:30am - 4pm Friday 10:30am - 4pm Saturday 10:30am - 4pm

Soldiers of Shropshire Museum

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Soldiers of Shropshire Museum

Soldiers Of Shropshire Museum, Shrewsbury Castle, Castle Street, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 2AT An Arts Council England Accredited Museum.

Nearly three-hundred years of British Army Evolution seen through the eyes of the Shropshire Soldier. The county regimental museum housing the collections of :

The 53rd Shropshire Regiment 1755 - 1881
The 85th King's Light Infantry 1759 - 1881
The King's Shropshire Light Infantry 1881 - 1968
The Shropshire Yeomanry 1795 - 1970
The Shropshire Royal Horse Artillery 1860 - 1967
The Militia, Voluntee

rs and Territorials of Shropshire. One of the most complete and comprehensive Regimental collections in the UK. Member of the Association of Independent Museums. Proud to be a supporting member of the Heritage Volunteering Group

19/05/2026

🎺Join us for the final Friends talk of the season 😔 on Thursday 11 June at 19:30 with Brigadier (retired) Ben Barry OBE who presents a talk based on his new book, ‘The Rise and Fall of the British Army, 1975–2025’.

Brigadier Barry, who trained at the Light Infantry Depot in Shrewsbury, will draw on his own personal experiences, as well as a wide range of new sources to set out a new interpretation of the Army’s recent evolution.

Tickets available here; https://www.ticketsource.com/soldiers-of-shropshire-museum

After training at the Light Infantry Depot in Shrewsbury, Brigadier Barry commissioned into its First Battalion. He commanded Second Battalion the Light Infantry in Germany and Bosnia, on United Nations and NATO operations. The tour is described in his book “The Road from Sarajevo”. He is Fellow for Defence and Military Analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and author of ‘Blood, Metal and Dust: How Victory Turned into Defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq’.

📸 Shrewsbury Castle from Laura's Tower.

16/05/2026

🎺We’re proud to announce a new online exhibition for everyone, available at our website, inviting you to explore how comfort has helped ease worry and distress for armed services personnel and their families from Shropshire, past and present, during deployment. 👇
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/strength-from-comfort-military-deployment-and-the-power-of-comforting-things/

The importance of objects in providing comfort takes centre stage here, from rations 🍫🍞 to watercolours 🎨, letters 📧to good-luck badges. Critically, they have contributed to mental strength and resilience, helping personnel and families keep going, whether that means fighting, enduring, or simply getting through each day.

Our online exhibition is a sister to our new veteran-wellbeing display at the Headley Court Veterans’ Orthopaedic Centre, part of The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) in Oswestry. For more about the display at Headley and how we have produced the displays you can check out our article in the January edition of the Army Museums Network newsletter, link in the comments.

📸 For image descriptions please see the comments section to the individual images.

05/05/2026

Join us for a fascinating talk this Thursday 7th May with Victoria Graham - "The Biscuit Club" -
Retired Lieutenant Commander Victoria Graham QCVS RN talks about the challenges of living and working in Camp Bastion Afghanistan. Victoria established the full-time burns unit and plastic surgery nurse role in Camp Bastion for which she received the QCVS.
Talk is at Shrewsbury Castle, 7.30pm, Thursday 7th May
Tickets available here: https://www.ticketsource.com/soldiers-of-shropshire

28/04/2026

Please note, the museum is closed on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd May while Loopfest takes place in the Castle grounds (and we are closed on Sunday and Monday as usual too).

17/04/2026

Watch our director Richard Gough introduce our new display on Joan Crooke! 😊

Articles about Joan 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c208k0jpd68o

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/shrewsbury-servicewoman-dress-museum-6576263

12/04/2026

Tune in to BBC Radio Shropshire this Monday (13th), from 10am to 1pm. ⏰ BBC Shropshire producer Richard Tisdale will be speaking with the donor of Major Joan Crooke’s mess dress and the museum team. Together, they’ll explore the story behind our new landmark display, the dress's recently completed conservation (thanks to an Association of Independent Museums project grant) and the story of the amazing Shrewsbury woman behind the uniform!

You can read about the conservation and display of the dress by checking out our article in the Army Museums Network newsletter (March edition)👇https://www.armymuseums.org.uk/newsletter/

At our website you can read about how we acquired the dress:
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/a-landmark-accession-haute-couture-army-dress-first-example-of-a-servicewomans-uniform-in-the-museums-39-year-history/

The Association of Independent Museums project grant was funded by the Pilgrim Trust and The Julia Rausing Trust.

📸 For image descriptions please see the comments section to the individual images.

24/03/2026

March is Women’s History Month 🙌, and in recent years our museum has worked to better present women’s contributions to Shropshire’s military story. Below, you can explore links to stories and online exhibitions highlighting a diverse range of women whose experiences form an important part of our collection and journey of curatorial change.

Emmie Chester – ‘Auntie Emmie’s suitcase: A wartime service life unpacked’.
The story of a First World War servicewoman through the personal items she kept in a hidden suitcase.
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/online-exhibition-auntie-emmies-suitcase/

Sylvia Price, Alice Preece and Mary Evans – First World War remembrance.
Three women’s responses to loss following the First World War.
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/five-stories-of-remembrance-from-remembrance-week-2024/

Mercy Price – ‘Mercy’s story: Love and loss and life after Aubrey’.
The story of a mother’s loss, as featured on BBC Radio 5 live and in an 11-part BBC Shropshire documentary.
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/mercys-story-love-loss-and-life-after-aubrey/

Joanne Peele – ‘Service Beyond Self’.
Three articles explore the varied Home Front contributions of Joanne Peele in Second World War Shrewsbury (part 1 below).
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/domestic-hospitality-on-the-world-war-ii-home-front-joanne-peele-louise-binnell-and-mary-mullineux-and-servicewomen-of-the-auxiliary-territorial-service/

Major Joan Crooke – Haute couture mess dress.
The 2024 story behind acquiring our first example of a servicewoman’s uniform. Now conserved and on display!
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/a-landmark-accession-haute-couture-army-dress-first-example-of-a-servicewomans-uniform-in-the-museums-39-year-history/

Lady Sybil Grant of the Pitchford Estate – ‘Recovering Jessie the Donkey: The Long Read’.
A creative figure who painted and later adopted Shrewsbury’s Second World War army donkey, Jessie, the beloved mascot of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/recovering-jessie-the-donkey-the-long-read/

Elizabeth Sagar and Elsie Gray - Land Army life during the First World War.
Two short articles explore archival documents relating to Elizabeth and Elsie respectively. Elizabeth's story here:
https://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/heavy-dirty-and-arduous-in-all-weathers-traces-of-land-army-life-on-the-land-during-world-war-i/

📸For image descriptions please see the comments section to the individual image.

14/03/2026

The castle was full of secrets and lies on Friday night…

Traitors plotted.
Faithful operatives searched for the truth.
And not everyone survived the night.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for TRAITORS AT THE CASTLE and helped raise funds to support the preservation of local military history.

NEW DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED VERY SHORTLY

Will you be a Faithful… or a Traitor?

03/03/2026

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/soldiers-of-shropshire-museum
Our Friends talks continue this month! 😊On Thursday 12th March, 19:30 Rupert Hague Holmes delivers “The Soldiers’ General – the Life and Times of Lieutenant General Sir George Lea (1912-1990)”

This talk is about one of the British Army’s leading post WW2 counter insurgency specialists. It charts his career as a young officer in pre WW2 China, serving with The Lancashire Fusiliers and his time as one of the first officers of 151/156 Parachute Battalion in India, in the early days of British Airborne Forces. In 1944 Lea commanded the 11th Parachute Battalion (part of Brigadier Shan Hackett’s 4th Brigade) at the Battle of Arnhem.

Tickets available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/soldiers-of-shropshire-museum

📸 Shrewsbury Castle in the spring sunshine, from Laura's Tower.

25/02/2026

Our dynamic duo, retired military professionals armourer John and Captain Nick, are back for another year of interactive weapons sessions! More below 👇

Once a fortnight on a Wednesday, starting 11th March, John and Nick demonstrate 300 years of British Army fi****ms. Suitable for all ages, you'll be able to handle (deactivated!) fi****ms, from the 'Brown Bess' musket of the 1720s to the 'SA80' rifle of today.

Also once a fortnight, starting on the 4th of March, John and Nick will be caring for the fi****ms, you'll be able to watch and talk to them about the important conservation work they undertake. 😊

Over the year, weapons demonstrations may take place on more or other days, do contact us near the date of your intended visit for clarification. All sessions are free with museum entry!

📸Nick and John at Shrewsbury Castle holding fi****ms from the museum's handling collection.

Address

Shrewsbury Castle, Castle Street
Shrewsbury
SY12AT

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10:30am - 4pm
Wednesday	10:30am - 4pm
Thursday	10:30am - 4pm
Friday	10:30am - 4pm
Saturday	10:30am - 4pm

Website

http://www.soldiersofshropshire.co.uk/

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