Author: Sheila Davies

2026 calendar still available

Our fabulous 2026 calendar makes a wonderful Christmas present, providing lovely photographs of the local area .

They are still on sale in Church Stretton Library, Peppers and the Outdoor Depot. For those who live outside the area or have difficulty visiting the town, calendars can be ordered by emailing admin@strettonlibraryfriends.org.uk

All profits from the sale of this calendar will go to supporting our local library here in Church Stretton.

You can browse the photos below which appear in the 2026 calendar below.

Two Long Mynd ponies taken with hard frost
Jan Hoar frost -High Park ponies
Farmer leading sheep downhill in deep snow
Feb – Farming on Ragleth hill
Mar Photo - Walk to Cardington - view of road heading towards Cardington at dawn, showing trees and hedgerows and blue sky with pink clouds
Mar – Walk to Cardington – dawn
Photo of lone tree on the Long Mynd
Apr – Long Mynd tree
View of Church Stretton nestling in front of the Long Mynd, taken from the top of Caer Caradoc
May- Church Stretto from Caer Caradoc
Portrait photo of Kingfisher on perch
June – Kingfisher
View of top of Caer Caradoc with Church Stretton below
July – Caer Caradoc towards Church Stretton
Photo of sun rays shining between the trees in a wood
Aug – Early morning at Wart Hill
Photo of three dogs on the Long Mynd
Sept -Long Mynd Dogs
Photo of fungi on rocks in Carding Mill Valley
Oct – Autumn at Carding Mill Valley
Photo of fireworks in sky above Rectory hill celebrating Bonfire Night
Nov – Fireworks on Rectory Hill
Picture from Yearlet at dawn in heavy frost showing sun rising behind Caer Caradoc opposite,
Dec – Yearlet at dawn

Swifts in the Strettons

Discover the secrets of the Swift with Julia Cowley from the Stretton Area Wildlife Group

16th July at 7.30pm in the library. Admission £5.00

The Common Swift (Apus apus) has graced our skies for millions of years. These remarkable birds spend almost their entire lives on the wing – feeding, mating, even sleeping in flight – and touch the ground only to nest.

Each year, swifts return from Africa to breed in the very places they were born. Many of us delight in watching them swoop and soar over Church Stretton on warm summer evenings.

But swifts are now critically endangered due to the loss of their breeding habitat and the global decline in insect populations – their only source of food.

Join Julie Cowley from the Stretton Area Wildlife Group at the Library on Wednesday 16 July at 7.30pm for a fascinating talk about these ancient aerial acrobats, learn how dependent they are on us, and what we can do to help them.

Admission: £5 on the door
All proceeds go to support the Library.

AGM 2025

AGM 2025, Wednesday 11th June

United Reform Church Hall, 7.30pm

You will hear more about the new funding agreement made between the Town Council & Shropshire Council to support the running of the library.  

Hayley Reynolds, Church Stretton Library Manager will also give a short presentation on  the impact  the Friends of Church Stretton Library has on library’s operations.

The AGM will include the annual report and accounts presented by the Chair and Treasurer, as well as a vote on new trustee appointments.

Following the AGM there will be wine, soft drinks and nibbles in the URC garden.

You can download the agenda and papers for the meeting here

ALL WELCOME

Geology Talk

Photo of the Long Mynd from Caer Caradoc

An illustrated talk by local resident Peter Toghill

March 19th 2.30pm in the library. Admission £5.00

Following his previous popular talks, we are delighted that Dr Peter Toghill has agreed to return with a third talk. This time he will be focusing on the rocks we find in the area and what they have been used for.

Church Stretton lies in one of the most varied geological areas in the UK, with rocks representing 11 of the 12 recognised periods of geological times. The great variety of rocks found around Church Stretton has been used for so many economic purposes, including building stone, road stone, roofing tiles, metal ores, sand and gravel, fertilisers and so much more.

You can expect to see some fantastic photos of the area which will illustrate this talk. 

Come and find out more about this fascinating topic.

All proceeds to go to the library

News Update

Trustees needed – can you help?

We are delighted that our recent fundraising work has supported a three-year agreement between Church Stretton Town Council and Shropshire Council to keep our lovely local library open.

We are totally run by a small committee of volunteers and want to recruit two additional people to join us .

Our Main Activities

  • Raise funds to support and enhance the work of the library

This involves planning, organising and publicising a host of events from quiz nights to sea shanty concerts, including the creation of our ever-popular calendar!

  • Run activities of educational and cultural interest

Recent talks we have organised have covered a variety of topics such as local geology, the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis, healthy living, Syria, book illustrations and Medical Royal colleges.  Our events are nothing if not varied!

  • Opening the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) on Mondays and Wednesdays

To do this, we have volunteers who open the VIC on days when the library is closed.  This helps make visitors to Church Stretton feel welcome and thus supports local traders in the town.

We are a registered CIO charity, fully insured and Trustees are not financially liable for the running of the charity.

What does being a Trustee involve?

We want people who would be able to commit around eight hours a month, some of which could be worked from home. Computer access for email and documents is essential.  Anyone with a working knowledge of social media would be very welcome, but it is not an essential requirement.

Trustee meetings take place once a month and last one to two hours.

As well as attending Trustee meetings, Trustees are expected to help in some way with the running of the charity. This could be helping with admin, running events or helping with publicity, depending on your personal skills and preference.

We are a friendly group of local volunteers where everyone’s contribution is welcomed and we work around our members’ work and family commitments. 

Our activities are both interesting and rewarding.

If you might be interested, please get in touch to find out more.  You are welcome to attend a few Trustee meetings before making any final commitment.

Medical Royal Colleges  

Gentlemen’s Clubs or Medical Movers and Shakers?

An illustrated talk by Andrew Hall

What role do they play in the health care we receive? 

What might their role be in the future?

 For most people, the medical royal colleges come into their consciousness only when some medical stories are in the news. However, the colleges feature heavily in the lives of doctors training to take up specialist medical practice. The colleges have been around in some form and in some cases, for over 500 years. The model has lasted – even if it has changed hugely – new colleges are still being established in the twenty-first century.  

So, what do they do? What have they contributed to British and international medical advancement over the years?  What might their role be in the future? 

With such a long history it is unsurprising that the colleges are far from being a uniform set of bodies.  There are similarities, but each is a separate and independent organisation with a different provenance and different characteristics.

Andrew held senior roles in two medical colleges for over 20 years. Do join us for this talk which will lift the lid on the medical royal colleges – unique but, perhaps, obscure institutions. And, may be, answer for yourself if they are “gentleman’s clubs or medical movers and shakers”. 

  • Date:  Wednesday 29 January 2025
  • Time:   2.30pm
  • Venue: Church Stretton Library
  • Cost:  £5 per head
  • All proceeds will go to the library

Library agreement in sight!

We are delighted to tell you that a verbal agreement has been reached between Church Stretton Town Council and Shropshire Council regarding the future of the library in Church Stretton.

Under this agreement, Shropshire Council will continue running the library for the next few years with a contribution from the Town Council of £20,000 per annum. Friends of Church Stretton Library have committed to contributing £5,000 a year towards this in order to reduce the load on the Town Council precept.

We are now waiting for a formal written contract to be signed.  Once signed, the library’s future will been secured for at least another three years.  One possible obstacle to this is if Shropshire Council declares itself insolvent by raising a section 114 before the contract is signed.  

Since the campaign to keep the library in Church Stretton began back in 2014, we have often been uncertain whether the library would be funded the following year.  Now, ten years, on we have secured an agreement for at least three years, after which another conversation can be expected on the library’s future.

We would like to thank the Mayor, Andy Munro, for his hard work in securing this agreement and the Town Council for supporting the proposal.

We would also like to thank all our supporters, especially our regular donors, who have helped us through the years.

If you would like to help us raise the money required, you can donate on our website at How To Donate – Friends of Church Stretton Library, or fill in a donation form at the library and leave a cheque payable to ‘Friends of Church Stretton Library’.

Thank you

Sheila Davies Chair, Friends of Church Stretton Library

Stretton Planning Diary

Focus have recently developed a ‘Whats On’ calendar – see Calendar of Events in The Strettons

 The Focus calendar now allows organisations to add their events months in advance, so they can alert other organisations of their plans and avoid two similar events taking place on the same day.

Organisations can then add more details about their event later on, to help promote their event to the community. 

It makes sense for only one organisation in the Strettons to have a planning calendar – and Focus is the obvious website to host this.   

We have therefore taken down the Friends Stretton Planning Diary down from our website – and are encouraging organisations to use the Focus one . 

To add an entry you can use the template on their website at  Submit an Event | Stretton Focus  ‘