Shrewsbury: Church of Saint Mary's & the Chocolate Festival

After climbing the steep Wyle Cop street, we headed to The Church of Saint Mary's the Virgin.  The church was having a local chocolate and Christmas craft fair.  Local chocolatiers from across Shropshiere and beyond had booths and best of all samples.

Little did we know that the church itself was going to be absolutely gorgeous and also riddled with history.

Here's a quick summary of the history of the church:

The church dates to the 12th century.  It is the only remaining completely medieval church in the historic town of Shrewsbury, St Mary's stands on a rise in the centre of town, opposite the main post office. The church spire - said to be the third highest of any parish church in England - can be seen for miles around.

The spire collapsed in 1894, which some people believed was a sign that God was unhappy over plans to erect a statue of Charles Darwin outside the nearby site of Shrewsbury School. Biblical signs notwithstanding, the repaired spire was erected in 1897. 

from http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=4167

The church is also well-known for its stain glass windows, carved ceilings, and floor tile.  They were absolutely stunning.

One of the most interesting parts of the church for me was this random monument and the story of a tightrope walker who fell to his death from the top of the church's spire.  Here's what the monument says and the story behind the fall.

Monument to a Robert "Steeple Jack" Cadman

Robert Cadman walked the 800 feet up the rope that connected the 222-foot high spire on St Mary’s Church from where the rope was fixed to the ground in Gaye Meadow. Climbing up the rope, performing tricks on the way, across the River Severn. When at the top, near the pinnacle of the spire, he then fastened on a wooden breastplate with a central groove for stability and hurtled to earth along the rope.  Sadly On 2nd February 1739 he plummeted to his death when the rope broke.  

So enough about this amazing church, and let's dive into the good stuff...the Chocolate Festival.  We traveled to booth after booth of delicious chocolate samples.  Probably the strangest chocolate concepts we came across were Chocolate and hot curry spice & a local favorite chocolate and whiskey.  

They had a really neat spot for kids sponsored by an engineering school where kids could take chocolate squares and rub them against a glass bottle filled with hot water.  The chocolate would naturally melt and then kids could "glue" squares together to build bridges and chairs that could withhold some weight.  An awesome experiment for our little engineer, Sierra.