This is an owd shut dating back to at least 1305, it is 44 metres long and connects Fish Street to High Street.
Dunna be as cakey (silly) as me down here, mind yer yed (your head). Lots of towns had a Grope Lane but ours is one of, if not the last in England. Other names possibly previously used may have been Dark Lane and Boot Lane.
In 1536 a maltman was tying up his horse when an old chimbly (chimney) fell down and killed
him. These days you will need to watch you dunna bump your head.
There are a few versions of how this shut got it’s name, one is that the ‘bulging upper storeys steal the light’ so at night you had to ‘grope’ your way along, this may be an idea created to avoid any embarrassment, in an official guide book frum the 1980’s it said “The derivation of Grope Lane is too scurrilous to appear in print.” So what is it? I hear you cry, well in many market towns, dark passageways leading away from the market were used as red light areas and our Grope Lane was no different. If you are easily offended (or easily bored) you might want to look away now.
In 1324 this shut was recorded as Gropecounte Lane and, as if that isn’t rude enough, in Shropshire we have a habit of swapping our vowels around,the river Cound is pronounced “kund” and it is said that Gropecounte was probably pronounced Gropecunte. It was around this time that the friars from St Austin’s were regular customers here and Phillips’s history of Shrewsbury mentions “Scandalous lewdness of St Austin’s Friars nocturnal pranks.”-
As the name started to be considered vulgar, it was deemed necessary to change it, some towns changed the name to Grape Lane but in Shrewsbury we opted for Gropelone in 1341 and Le Grope Lane by 1404.
At the bottom of the shut, on the right hand side as you walk down, is the building where, in the 1841 elections, the Shrewsbury MP, Benjamin Disraeli adressed a crowd from the balcony and was pelted with eggs. He went on to twice be Prime Minister.
In 1917 the building on the opposite side was home to L Golling whose store was believed to have the largest tie selection in the country.
Across the road, at what was 37 High Street, used to be one, if not the oldest, of Shrewsbury’s
shuts. It had many names during it’s time, these include The Shut or Le Shutte, Dun’s Shut,
Seymor’s Shut, Gosnell’s Shut, Scoltock’s Shut, Bell Passage and finally Phillip’s Passage.
You can find out a lot more about Shrewsbury’s sebunctious shuts by purchasing our Stroll Booklets. Browse our Shop for details.