Category Archives: Shropshire

England’s largest gold nugget found in Shropshire with faulty metal detector

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Richard Brock arrived late at detectorists’ outing, but within 20 minutes had found Hiro’s Nugget, likely to be worth over £30,000

A metal detectorist in Shropshire has unearthed England’s largest ever gold nugget worth £30,000 – despite turning up an hour late for the dig with a faulty metal detector.

Richard Brock, 67, travelled three and a half hours from his home in Somerset to join an organised expedition on farmland in the Shropshire Hills last May, and ended up arriving late. He also had problem with his metal detecting kit, and was forced to use an older machine that was not working properly.

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‘We can’t engineer our way out of this’: how to protect flood-hit Severn Valley

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Tens of millions have been spent on human-made defences over the years, but the impact of the climate crisis means flooding is inevitable

When Jo Bloom saw the monitoring station on the River Severn above Shrewsbury register water levels of 6.5 metres as Storm Henk struck in early January, she began preparing for the worst. Bloom, who runs the Bewdley Flood Group, a local initiative to disseminate information to the community, was crouched over her computer checking Environment Agency alerts on river levels as the storm battered southern and central Britain, bringing with it heavy rain on to already saturated ground.

“We have had one peak, we are all watching Crew Green gauge above Shrewsbury, which is 10cm off its 2000 record level,” she told the flood group.

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Charity criticises ‘crazy’ rules for flood defence funding in England and Wales

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The National Flood Forum says flooded communities face future misery if they can’t make a business case for help

People affected by this month’s floods will face the same problems in future because their communities cannot access government support, campaigners have warned.

Small towns and villages affected by floods in England and Wales can ask for flood defences and mitigation through their council or the Environment Agency (EA), but are being turned down because they cannot make a business case, according to the National Flood Forum.

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Two die in collision involving police vehicle in Shropshire

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Man in 60s and woman in 50s pronounced dead at scene of crash in Morville Heath on Saturday

Two people have died and two others sustained injuries after a crash involving a police vehicle in Shropshire.

A man in his 60s who was driving a Skoda Octavia and a woman passenger in her 50s died at the scene in Morville Heath on Saturday, West Mercia police said. A woman in her 20s who was also in the car sustained minor injuries.

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Shropshire firefighters rescue ‘one donkey, stuck in storm drain’

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Amigo the donkey hoisted to safety after falling waist-deep into muddy drain hole covered by leaves

Donkeys have a reputation for being stubborn. But in the case of “poor Amigo”, a donkey who has been rescued by firefighters from a field in Shropshire, it wasn’t stubbornness that kept him stationary – it was mud.

A spokesperson from Shropshire fire and rescue said a team of “10 or 11 firefighters” attended a call to rescue the hapless animal, who got stuck in waist-deep mud after falling into a hidden storm drain covered in leaves.

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