The Dingle A centrepiece to the park is The Dingle, a former stone quarry, but now a landscaped sunken garden. Between 1324 and 1588 it was known as the Wet or Water Quarry because it was liable to flood. It was quarried for both stone and clay. The project to clear out the Dingle and then plant it was funded by the Shropshire Horticultural Society, with the ornamental gardens opened in 1879, featuring many flower beds and borders, with ponds and fountains. Although there are still formal planted beds, in recent years the planting scheme has become more naturalistic in style, reflecting modern tastes.
Shoemakers' Arbour This important structure is associated with the town's unusual history for drama and pageantry and he dedication of Kingsland to that purpose in Tudor and Medieval times, and originally sited in
Kingsland, it was moved to the Dingle in 1879. It dates from 1679 and includes statues of
Crispin and Crispinian, the patron saints of shoemakers. The gateway is built of stone, and bears the date of 1679 and the initials, H. P. and E. A.; the wardens of the Shoemakers' guild at that time. The Shoemakers' Arbour plays a large part in the song "Thomas Anderson" by
David Harley that describes the execution in 1752 of a participant in the
Jacobite rising of 1745.
Statue of Sabrina A statue of the goddess Sabrina was presented by the
Earl of Bradford in 1879. The inscription on the statue is based on a poem by
John Milton (1608–1674). In myth, Sabrina (Welsh: Hafren) was a nymph who drowned in the
Severn.
War memorial Shropshire county's main war memorial, the focus for
Remembrance Sunday, is situated within the Quarry. near St Chad's Terrace. It consists of a bronze winged and armoured statue of St. Michael under a canopy designed like a classical Greek temple in the form of six
Ionic columns supporting a circular dome. It is inscribed: 'Remember the gallant men and women of Shropshire who gave their lives for God, King and country 1914-18 and 1939–45'. This War Memorial was built in 1922-3. It was designed by George Hubbard and Son and built in
Portland stone. The richly embellished floor shows the County,
King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI) Regimental arms and
French Croix de Guerre on a gold mosaic background. The seals or arms of the six boroughs of the County are embossed on the inside frieze. The bronze figure of Saint Michael beneath the canopy is by
Allan G Wyon and was cast at the foundry of A.B. Burton of
Thames Ditton. when it was sold to a local plumber for scrap metal, and then stood outside
Shrewsbury Prison before being puchased by a mayor and sited at the entrance to the park, opposite St Chad's Church, ultimately moved in 1881 to its present location. The original statue was lead but because of its value the statue in situ is a replica.
Wilfred Owen wrote a poem in 1917 describing the statue, while confined in a French
Casualty Clearing Station during the
First World War.
Victoria Avenue The broad traffic-free avenue that runs along the River Severn is called Victoria Avenue and the largest avenue that runs downhill from the town centre to Victoria Avenue is Gloucester Avenue. The latter was known as Central Avenue, but in 1974
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester came to the Shrewsbury Flower Show and the avenue was dedicated to her. A special feature of Victoria Avenue are the rows of lime trees on each side. These are actually the second generation of trees to be planted. Thomas Wright first planted avenues of hybrid limes in the Quarry in 1719. They had reached heights of over 40 metres by the early 1950s when they were felled on the orders of
Percy Thrower. A falling branch had killed a young girl and so the trees were considered unsafe. It was felt that the trees had originally been planted too close together. The felled trees were found to contain bee and wasp nests, large amounts of mistletoe and much dead wood. They were replaced with hybrid limes at much wider spacing which are now reaching maturity. The clone that was planted produces a large number of epicormic sprouts which have to be pruned off annually. crossing the
River Severn at The QuarryOpposite the School Boathouse is the remains of a wooden post used by a ferry crossing the river.In 1900, there were two ferry boats working on the River Severn in the Quarry, with the other operating across the river where
Porthill Suspension Bridge has been sited since 1922.
Other features and culture in the Dingle gardens of The Quarry, Shrewsbury. There are numerous
memorial benches and plaques within the Dingle. Of special interest is a bust of the gardening broadcaster
Percy Thrower, who for many years was also the Parks Superintendent for Shrewsbury. According to local legend, the Dingle is haunted by the ghost of Mrs Foxall, a local woman who was burnt at the stake nearby in the sixteenth century as punishment for witchcraft and murder. ==Events==