The Shrewsbury Biscuit Podcast

Aaah got there in the end! AL sits down with Cerin Mills to talk about The Hive. It has been a while since The Hive has featured on The Biscuit and of course the world has changed an awful lot since then. What has The Hive been doing to help it's users during the Pandemic? What do they have planned when the world re-opens  for them in July? And what improvements have been made to the building itse...

Taken from their live show on Sunday 7th March, AL and Jules are joined by Hanna from Café On The Cop and Gaynor from Vinterior....it's a Cop special! Despite some technical issues the Biscuiteers still have fun getting to know their guests. Of course it has been a tough time for many recently, but AL was drawn to speaking to Hanna because of the super positive things that he had been hearing abou...

AL sits down with High Sheriff of Shropshire, Dean Harris for the last time in her role. This episode is bittersweet yes we get to discuss the amazing journey that Dean Harris has been on this year, but we also have to say goodbye to her as High Sheriff. However, I believe that the influence that Dean has had across the county will live long in the memory. Not only has she worked unbelievably hard...

AL and Shane begin their journey with young budding film producers Luke Allen and Alex Yousefi as they aim to document the making of their latest film "Reduced To Clear" with a series of podcasts. With a hugely successful crowd funding appeal behind them and a great cast ready to jump into this project, it seems like it's going to be an exciting journey! Here is chapter 1, where we discover how th...

AL is joined by George McCay, creator of Hoke Poke, a place where you can order vibrantly colourful and extremely tasty food. George's food is growing extremely fast in popularity. The comments on any picture posted on social media are largely, absolutely glowing. But where did this all begin? What is the inspiration behind this strange, colourful food that everyone is raving about and what...is P...

AL and Deedee bring on Amy Tuitt from Madame LLama's Flower Bar and Mickey Evans from Bake Shrewsbury.  The guys get into a fun, open, yet structured discussion about these 2 fantastic businesses. They find out the Why's, When's and How's businesses like these begin, Who inspired them most. The moments that made then feel like quitting and those Eureka moments where everything seemed to work perfe...

Shane and Deedee are joined by Matt and Andy, 2 brothers who went through the terrible ordeal of being abused as youngsters, while being a part of the foster system. Through their pain and struggles, come a determination to help others. Smash Life is something that the guys put together to approach the issues of abuse, troubled youngsters in care and offer amazing advice for both youngsters and di...

AL sits down with Marcus Bean, a beloved local chef who has had an amazing journey. From having to learn to cook out of necessity, to becoming a TV chef, Marcus' has a fantastic story to tell. How does someone go from a self taught chef to being on the telly? How does Marcus deal with the pressures of cooking on live TV? What happens when the taster on a show doesn't like the food? What advice doe...

AL speaks to Paula Pierce from the Shropshire federation of the W.I.  A 3,500 member strong community that usually come together with events, classes and competitions in crafts and arts. But what happens when a community like this cannot meet up anymore? Paula talks to AL about all of the work that is going in to keep this wonderful community connected. Including the amazing Shropshire Way Scarf C...

AL and Jules speak to Marianne Blaauboer and Penny Ward about the Flaxmill Maltings in Ditherington. Why is this such an important building to the world and why is so much effort being made to restore it? Of course the real answer is because our heritage tells us important stories from the past and offer us an identity. There is no one better to talk to about this than Penny who has been hard rese...

AL speaks to John Hughes from Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Sharon, who literally lived in Darwin's garden for many years. We discuss the young Charles Darwin who developed a curiosity about the life that blossomed in that same garden 200+ years ago. That is the Charles Darwin that Shrewsbury owns and we can all take a huge amount of inspiration from his journey. Sharon is offering a talk titled L...

When it comes to the Darwin Festival, there is no one better to talk to other than the guy who started it all. AL and Shane talk to Jon King who started and then organised the Darwin Festival. Planning was then taken up by Shropshire Wildlife Trust and now Shrewsbury BID puts all of this together. Leaving Jon to do what he loves. Every year Jon invites people to join him in a toast on Charles' bir...

AL sits with Tim Dawes for a short catch up. Tim has always shown a serious amount of enthusiasm when it comes to The Darwin Festival and over the past few years he had brought in intellectuals for Sci-Bars and lectures. This year Tim brings a virtual quiz that people can take part in. Why does this festival mean so much to Tim and what makes this year such and important opportunity? If you would...

AL speaks to Jess Bailey from Team 4 You.  So the world stops and millions of people are suddenly displaced from their jobs or careers. How did this effect recruitment experts like the guys at Teams 4 You? Surprisingly we hear about remarkable tenacity and an inspired look into a different market. These times are not easy for so many, how are Jess and Team 4 You adapting themselves, so they can in...

AL sits with Roo Nicholls who has a great story of a business that was started during the Covid-19 Pandemic and has snowballed into success. We are talking about The Little Shropshire Lass. Roo is very talented at making beautiful items out of textiles. Facemasks, hand-bag liners, hand warmers, jewellery and much more can be ordered. We discuss the why's, how's and where this all came from. How di...

AL and Jules speak to man of many talents, George Bilcliffe. Now George is a fantastic photographer so primarily the discussion is that of, photography. However! George is very unique in the fact that he refuses to put all of his eggs in one basket, whether it's colouring black and white photos, working hard trying to get his survival school up and running or being utterly brill guest on a podcast...

We....LOVE Shrewsbury Town in The Community (STITC) and the fine work they do for locals in need. We last spoke to Jamie Edwards from STITC at the beginning(ish) of the Pandemic. Challenges were faced with positivity and to great effect.  AL and Shane catch-up with Jamie now, in what seems like lockdown a billion! We talk about recent approaches made by STITC, how they are able to still be a posit...

Jules and AL speak with dog behaviourist Caroline Lewis. What is it that Caroline does? What has changed over the decades when it comes to the way we treat our K-9 friends? and what advice can Caroline give to dog owners during lockdown, a time that might offer added stress to their pets? With the rise of complaints of dogs being attacked while out walking, we had to cover the definitive rules whe...

AL and Shane speak with Lajina Leal about the family traditions when it comes to food. Whether it be preparing the food as a family, the ways we can keep things interesting during dinner time or even, more importantly learning to cook great food without having to rely on jars, we really dive in to this. Lajina Masala is a company that offers to make cooking easy, fun and tasty! Lajina offers so ma...

AL and Deedee speak to George Evans from The Shropshire Macaron Co. A drunk ordered book off Amazon was the spark of a new taste revolution in Shropshire. Having never tasted a macaron in his life, AL ordered some from George and they simply blew his mind. Growing quickly into a very popular product throughout the county we find out all about George's story, his favourite flavours to play with and...

The NFL has become increasingly popular in the UK. The Superbowl is the biggest event on the planet, attracting audiences from around the world. When it comes to getting people together to enjoy Superbowl with a bang, Hickory's really are experts. AL attended Superbowl 2020, a night where the atmosphere was electric. This was just before the world slammed shut with the Pandemic. How do we celebrat...

AL and DeeDee speak Matt Doyle AKA Ease The Artist. He is a rapper from Shrewsbury and his music is phenomenal! It's always amazing to talk about the ever growing hip-hop scene in Shrewsbury/Shropshire, it's such a raw and expressive art. What inspired Matt growing up? How has music changed through the years and how does this new generation of artists approach things like marketing and promotion?...

Instantly curing what was a bad start to the day, photographer James Warman joins AL on the Biscuit this week. What is a photo worth these days? Most of us have access to hundreds if not thousands of photos, has this changed how we think about them? How hard is it to get those shots that matter? Chess pieces on the ceiling, what is it like to almost obsess about an ability? Does a photographer hav...

The first Open Studio Session of the year is brought to you by half the Biscuit (hence the firmly implanted pun on the pod-art!) AL and Jules get this week long party started. We discuss the events of the past couple of months, including the current flood problems across the county. We also chat about some new ideas we've had as a show.

When you think of artists in Shrewsbury, the first name on the top of that list will almost certainly be Lyn Evans. AL speaks to Lyn about how her very distinctive style of art came to be. Beautiful, detailed landscapes or pictures of nature made entirely from torn pieces of paper. In a discussion about where her art has taken her, we discuss Lyn's trip to America and what it meant to take her wor...