Thirteen tonnes of straw have gone up in flames after a fire in Shropshire last night.

Crews from Baschurch and Oswestry were called to Ruyton XI Towns just before 22:00.

A trailer was also destroyed in the fire.

West Midlands Trains Ltd has been announced as the new rail operator for routes currently run by London Midland.

Image source, WM Trains

It's a joint venture between a dutch train company called Abellio and two Japanese train companies. It will be jointly managed by the Department for Transport and West Midlands Rail - which is a consortium of 16 local councils.

The consortium has pledged an investment of £1bn, as well as more services, longer trains, more seats for passengers along with free wi-fi.

Charlie Slater
BBC Weather presenter

A generally dry and fine day with some blue sky and sunshine - highs of 20C (68F).

Welcome to live updates from BBC Shropshire on Thursday morning.

We'll be bringing you all the news, sport, travel and weather as it happens.

If you'd like to get in touch you can email, tweet us on @bbcshropshire, external or message via Facebook, external.

We'll be back with our usual mix of news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 tomorrow, but keep an eye out here for more updates this evening and into the morning.

The Royal British Legion is appealing for volunteers across the West Midlands to help with the 2017 Poppy Appeal.

The charity, which sells around 45m poppies across the UK each year, has a particular shortage of help in Coventry, Bedworth, Solihull, Nuneaton and Stratford-upon-Avon.

Some of the existing volunteers are now too old to support the campaign.

A couple of Shropshire breweries have picked up bronze awards at Champion Beer of Britain awards., external

The Ludlow Brewing Company was recognised in the Golden Ale category for its Ludlow Gold and the Salopian picked up a prize in the Strong Bitter category with its Automaton beer.

Image source, Ludlow Brewing Company

The overall winner of the awards, organised by CAMRA, was the Church End brewery from Warwickshire.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

We're forecast a dry night and we should see some sunshine tomorrow, with temperatures reaching 22C (73F) in places.

Young actors are needed to play the parts of John and Michael Darling in this year's Oakengates pantomime - Peter Pan.

Auditions are going to be held on Sunday 3 September and Oakengates Theatre said they want boys aged nine and over, who are no taller than 5'3" (1.6m).

The actors must be able to dance and be "energetic, confident and committed" the theatre added.

Looking ahead to the end of the week, we are forecast a bit of rain for the first day of the Shrewsbury Flower Show, on Friday.

But Saturday is expected to be a lot better with sunshine and temperatures up to 18C (64F).

And we're expected dry weather for the fireworks on both nights.

AFC Telford United manager Rob Edwards said he was "really encouraged" by the performance of midfielder Jordan Lussey, who scored on his debut against Brackley last night.

The 22-year-old started out at Liverpool's academy and played for Southport last season, before getting injured.

Image source, Getty Images

Lussey has won two England under-18 caps and came off the bench to score Telford's consolation goal.

Police are hunting a man who is reported to have punched two women in the face in Telford and then returned to threaten them with a bladed weapon.

The incidents took place yesterday between 14:00 and 15:00 on Blakemore in Brookside, and the man is also said to have spat on the women, who were aged in their 50s and 20s.

After making the threats with the weapon, police say the man, who is slim, black and with short dreadlocks left with a group of others.

He was wearing flip flops with blue socks.

The campaign group Shropshire Defend our NHS says the financial situation facing the out-of-ours provider Shopdoc is "tremendously worrying".

As well as manning a telephone advice line, the organisation also has contracts to support community hospitals and community nursing in the county, and campaign member Peter Gillard said he was worried that if it had to withdraw from those contracts, the community hospitals "would no longer be able to function".

Image source, Thinkstock

Shropdoc has said it would like to renegotiate its contracts with the NHS and will look to make internal changes to save money.

Harper Adams University has done well again in a student satisfaction poll, ranking sixth in the country in the National Student Survey., external

It is also ranks top out of higher education institutions in the Midlands area.

Image source, Google

The survey gathers the opinions of students in the final six months of their courses and the university scored well for its veterinary nursing courses and also rated highly for the support and advice offered and for the way subjects were explained.

Shrewsbury's English Bridge gyratory system will be reopened on Friday and Saturday, for the Shrewsbury Flower Show.

Shropshire Council said "temporary signage and cones will remain in place at the temporary give way junctions" and there may be some barriers on the pavements, keep people away from excavation work.

Image source, Google

The authority said there would be some "limited work" taking place there during the two day event.

Listen to BBC local radio commentary from Saturday's action in the National League, National League North and Evostik South Premier.

Three police officers "have been interviewed under criminal caution" after Dalian Atkinson died.

The ruling from the Mayor of London's office that the Shropshire Knife Angel doesn't meet the criteria to stand on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is still causing debate on BBC Radio Shropshire's Facebook page, external.

A number of people have pointed out the statue is designed to highlight the issue of knife crime and Rachel Webb wrote: "The Angel is needed to highlight the growing epidemic we have on our streets."

Some have reacted by saying it should stay in Shropshire, while others, like Geraldine Dunkerley, suggested it go to another big city. She wrote: "This is such a powerful sculpture. Forget London... how about Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds."

But Anna Jane Roberts was one of those who thought London was the proper place for it, writing: "Far too much work and effort has been put into it to be kept here. He needs to go to London for the capital exposure."

Two men and two women have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with a fatal crash in Telford on Monday night.

A Go Carz driver in his 50s died after his car hit a tree on Ironbridge Road and the police say they are investigating reports that the occupants of a silver Peugeot 307, had argued with him before the collision.

Police say the women, aged 37 and 18, and two men aged 31 and 18, were arrested yesterday and are being held in police custody.

Shropshire Star

Campaigners and council leaders are being urged to attend a conference , externallooking at bringing in 20 mile per hour speed limits in the area.