Frankwell Quay Slipway

This reach of the Severn is the non-tidal upper river, carrying a statutory public right of navigation from Pool Quay near Welshpool down to Stourport; above Stourport no authority maintains it for navigation, so canoes, kayaks and paddleboards use it with little other traffic. From the slipway the river runs a broad loop that almost encircles Shrewsbury's medieval town centre, sitting on a peninsula within the meander with Shrewsbury Castle standing on its narrow neck. Upstream the town quickly gives way to wooded countryside; downstream the river curves past The Quarry park on its way to Shrewsbury Weir. The river rises fast on Welsh rainfall, and its behaviour is measured at the Welsh Bridge gauge beside the launch, which recorded a peak of 5.25 metres in November 2000 against a typical range of 0.4 to 2.7 metres; the weir downstream, normally easy water, strengthens to grade two-to-three conditions when the river is high.

The Welsh Bridge, a five-arch bridge of 1793 to 1795 by John Carline and John Tilley, spans the river immediately downstream of the launch, connecting Frankwell to the town centre; a single arch of its fortified medieval predecessor survives, preserved beneath the adjacent Theatre Severn. The riverside here is engineered against flooding: the Frankwell flood-defence scheme combines a permanent flood wall with demountable barriers that are raised when a flood warning is issued, and held back 1.9 metres of floodwater on their first use in February 2004, protecting Frankwell's properties for the first time in their history. The frontage a paddler sees at the launch is a hard, walled edge, built rather than natural.