Darwin’s Birthplace: The Mount, Shrewsbury

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Darwin’s bedroom: the room in which he was born, The Mount

Darwin was brought up in Shrewsbury in a house called The Mount. I went to Shrewsbury and The Mount to check out where it all began and to see if I could not fathom something in the life of a young boy growing up there that may have contributed to his later outlook on the world.

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Shrewsbury: a charming town

I was surprized by how little the people of Shrewsbury seem to acknowledge the greatness that once lived within their midst. To be sure, there is a statue of Darwin in front of the library, which originally was the site of the school that Darwin attended. But almost without exception, the people I encountered knew nothing of Darwin’s time in Shrewsbury.

The Mount itself, incredibly, is the site of the Shrewsbury Valuation Office and not the national monument – hell, international monument – that it deserves to be. At least there is now a group working to have The Mount recognized for what it is: the birthplace of one of the world’s great minds, the beginnings of nothing less than one of the greatest ideas of all time.

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The Mount, Shrewsbury
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