Shropshire
Shropshire (abbreviated
Salop or
Shrops) is a
traditional, ceremonial and non-metropolitan
county in the
West Midlands region of
England. The ceremonial county borders
Cheshire,
Staffordshire,
Worcestershire,
Herefordshire, and the
Welsh ceremonial counties of
Powys and
Clwyd.
Shropshire is one of England's most rural counties. The
county town is
Shrewsbury, although the
new town of
Telford is the largest town. Despite the county being so rural, the
Ironbridge Gorge area of Shropshire is known as the
birthplace of industry.
An estimate of the
population of the shire county of Shropshire for 2006 is put at 288,846 - making the county the least populated
two-tier governed area in the
United Kingdom.
See also the article History of ShropshireCradle of industry
Quite why this remote, rural county on the Welsh border became the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution is mystifying to many people. The reason, however, is mainly due to Shropshire's diverse
geology. Shropshire is the "
geological capital" of the
UK, as just about every rock type in Northern Europe is found within its borders, as are
coal,
lead,
copper and
iron ore deposits. In addition to this, the
River Severn flows through the county and has been used for the transportation of goods and services for centuries. The
Ironbridge Gorge became a focal point of new industrial energies in the
18th Century.
The towns of
Broseley and
Madeley were centres of innovation during the late 18th Century. It was in nearby locations where key events of the
Industrial Revolution took place.
Coalbrookdale is where modern
iron smelting techniques were developed,
Ironbridge is where the world's first
iron bridge was constructed and
Ditherington is where the world's first iron framed building was built. Other places notable for early industry are
Jackfield and
Coalport.
Salop
The origin of the name "Shropshire" is the Old English "Scrobbesbyrigscīr" (literally
Shrewsburyshire). It is also possible that it took its name from Richard FitzScrob (or
Scrope), the builder of
Richard's Castle near what is now the town of
Ludlow. However, the Normans who ruled England after
1066 found both "Scrobbesbyrig" and "Scrobbesbyrigscir" difficult to pronounce so they softened them to "Salopesberia" and "Salopescira".
Salop is the abbreviation of these.
When a
council for the county was set up in 1888, it was called "Salop County Council". The name was never popular, and the council renamed itself "Shropshire County Council" in 1980. However, the term "Salopian", derived from "Salop", is still used to mean "from Shropshire". The latin motto of "Floreat Salopia" (may Shropshire flourish) is also used for Shropshire on crests and emblems.
Salop can also mean the county town, Shrewsbury, and in historical records Shropshire is described as "the county of Salop" and Shrewsbury as "the town of Salop".
Regional
Shropshire is part of the
West Midlands region of England, though it is also described as being in the
Welsh Marches. Both Shrewsbury and
Ludlow have held the position of capital of the Welsh Marches, at a time when it was a political entity (with the
Council of Wales and the Marches). Historically Shropshire was part of the Kingdom of
Mercia and the name exists to this day in the police force which the county comes under - the
West Mercia Constabulary.
The
ceremonial county of Shropshire is now split up into the
administrative county of Shropshire and the
unitary authority of
Telford and Wrekin. The administrative county is then split up into five districts -
Shrewsbury and Atcham,
Oswestry,
North Shropshire,
South Shropshire and
Bridgnorth. The county, including Telford and Wrekin, is then further sub-divided into
parishes, except for the town of Shrewsbury which is unparished. Shrewsbury and Telford have no town councils.
The area covered by the county has not changed substantially since the county's creation in the
11th Century. The border with Wales was defined in the
16th century. The modern day ceremonial county is the same as the traditional county, except for the removal of several
exclaves and
enclaves, and other minor alterations along the border with
Herefordshire and
Worcestershire. The largest of the exclaves was
Halesowen, which became part of Worcestershire in
1844, and the largest of the enclaves was Herefordshire's
Farlow in South Shropshire, transferred to Shropshire in 1844 too.
Geographically, Shropshire is divisible into two distinct halves - North and South.
North Shropshire
Politically - Oswestry district, North Shropshire district, Shrewsbury and Atcham borough and the borough of Telford and Wrekin.
The North Shropshire Plain is an extension of the flat and fertile
Cheshire Plain. It is here that most of the county's large towns, and population in general, are to be found. Shrewsbury at the centre, Oswestry to the north west,
Whitchurch to the north, Market Drayton to the north east and the Telford conurbation (Telford, Wellington, Newport, Oakengates, Donnington and Shifnal) to the east. The land is fertile and agriculture remains a major feature of the landscape and the economy. The
River Severn runs through the lower half of this area (from Wales in the west, eastwards), through Shrewsbury and the
Ironbridge Gorge, before heading south to
Bridgnorth.
The area around
Oswestry has more rugged geography than the North Shropshire Plain and the western half is over an extension of the
Wrexham Coalfield and there are also
copper deposits on the border with
Wales. Mining of stone and sand
aggregates is still going on in North Shropshire, notably on
Haughmond Hill, near
Bayston Hill and around the village of
Condover. Other primary industries, such as forestry and fishing, are to be found too.
The
A5 and
M54 run from
Wolverhampton (to the east of the county) across to Telford, around Shrewsbury and then north west to Oswestry, before heading north into Wales in the Wrexham area. This is an important artery and the corridor is where most of Shropshire's modern commerce and industry is found, notably in Telford new town. There are also a number of railway lines crossing over the area, which centre at Shrewsbury. To the south west of Telford, near the Ironbridge Gorge, is
Ironbridge Power Station.
The new town of Telford is built on a former industrial area centred on the East Shropshire Coalfield. There are still many colliery heaps to be found in the area, as well as disused mine shafts. This industrial heritage is an important tourist attraction, as is seen by the growth of museums in the
Ironbridge,
Coalbrookdale and
Jackfield area.
Blists Hill museum and historical (
Victorian era) village is a major tourist attraction as well as the Iron Bridge itself.
South Shropshire
Politically - South Shropshire district and Bridgnorth district; Ludlow constituency.
South Shropshire is more rural, with fewer settlements and no large towns, and its landscape differs greatly than that of North Shropshire. The area is dominated by hill ranges and valleys, forests and glens, and other natural features. Farming is more pastoral than the arable found in the north of the county. The only substantial towns are
Ludlow,
Bridgnorth and
Church Stretton.
The
A49 is the main road through the area, running north to south, from Shrewsbury to
Herefordshire. A railway line runs through the area on the same route as the A49 with stations at Church Stretton,
Craven Arms and Ludlow. Infrastructure is generally quite poor in the south of the county, but this is due mainly to the low population density. The (heritage)
Severn Valley Railway runs from Bridgnorth into
Worcestershire.
Church Stretton is known as "Little
Switzerland" due to its valley location and character. Nearby are the old mining communities on the
Clee Hills, notable geological features in the
Onny Valley and
Wenlock Edge and fertile farmland in the
Corve Dale. The
River Teme drains this part of the county, before flowing into
Worcestershire to the South.
One of the Clee Hills, the
Brown Clee Hill, is the county's highest peak at 540m.
South West Shropshire, or simply "Clun", is a little known and remote part of the county, with
Clun Forest,
Offa's Dyke and the
River Clun. The small towns of
Clun and
Bishop's Castle are in this area. The countryside here is very rural and is in parts wild and forested. To the south of Clun is the Welsh town of
Knighton.
See the list of places in Shropshire.Shropshire has no cities, but 22 towns (of which 5 can be considered to be major - Shrewsbury, Telford, Oswestry, Bridgnorth and Ludlow) and hundreds of villages.
See also the
:Category: Towns in Shropshire and
:Category: Villages in Shropshire.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Agriculture | Industry | Services |
|---|
| 1995 | 2,388 | 238 | 618 | 1,533 |
| 2000 | 2,977 | 177 | 739 | 2,061 |
| 2003 | 3,577 | 197 | 843 | 2,538 |
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
See
Telford and Wrekin#Economy for the borough of Telford and Wrekin's economic figures.
*
Attingham Park, (
Atcham)
*
Blists Hill, (preserved 19th century industrial/victorian age community)
*
Boscobel House, (on border with
Staffordshire)
*
Brown Clee Hill, (highest peak in Shropshire)
*
Burford House*
Caer Caradoc, (near Church Stretton)
*
Cardingmill Valley, (
Church Stretton)
*
Flounder's Folly, near
Craven Arms*
Haughmond Hill, (forest park on the edge of Shrewsbury with the
medieval Haughmond Abbey ruins)
*
Hawkstone Park, (large rural park and
follies in north Shropshire)
*
Hopton Castle, (scene of a
Civil War massacre)
*
The Ironbridge, (the world's first iron bridge)
*
Kynaston's Cave*
Langley Chapel*
The Long Mynd, (means "long mountain", overlooks
Church Stretton)
*
Ludlow Castle*
Mitchell's Fold, (a
bronze age stone circle)
*
Moreton Corbet Castle*
Offa's Dyke Path, a
long distance footpath*
Shrewsbury Abbey, (of
Brother Cadfael fame)
*
Shropshire Hills AONB*
Shropshire Union Canal*
Snailbeach, (a historic lead mining village)
*
The Stiperstones, (mountainous ridge near
Pontesbury, including the "Devil's Chair")
*
Stokesay Castle*
Titterstone Clee Hill, (hill near
Ludlow, ex-coalmining and famed for the unusual accent of the locals)
*
Wenlock Edge, (a long wooded ridge and the
geological capital of the UK)
*
Whittington Castle*
The Wrekin, (long-extinct
volcano and
hill fort near
Wellington)
*
Wroxeter, (a ruined
Roman city and legionary fortress)
*
Robert Clive "Clive of India"
*
Lords and Ladies Craven (of
Stokesay Castle)
*
Abraham Darby*
Charles Darwin*
William Farr*
Chris Hawkins (of
Loppington), radio presenter, DJ, and celebrity
*
George Jeffreys of
Wem, (infamous judge)
*
Adrian Jones, sculptor of the Quadriga at Hyde Park Corner
*
Len Murray, (former head of the T.U.C)
*
Mirabel Osler, author
*
Wilfred Owen*
Edith Pargeter (1913-1995), author
*
Edmund Plowden (1518-1585)—legal scholar and theorist
* Sir
Edmund Plowden (1590-1659)—Proprietor, Earl Palatine and Governor of
New Albion*
Barbara Pym*
Morris Telford Author of "A Salopian Odyssey", philosopher, traveller and bingo enthusiast.
*
T'Pau, pop group
* Sir
Philip Sidney*
Mary Webb (1881-1927), author
*
Matthew Webb, (first man to swim the
English Channel)
*
Billy Wright*
Humphrey Kynaston (1474-1534) -
highwaymanAlso, British poet
A.E. Housman used Shropshire as the setting for many of the poems in his first book,
A Shropshire Lad.
Shropshire has
five constituencies, four of which returned Conservative MPs at the 2005 general election and one, Telford, returned a Labour MP. This is a marked change from the 2001 general election result, where the county returned only one Conservative, three Labour and a Liberal Democrat to the Commons (see maps below).
The current MP's of Shropshire are:
*
David Wright, Labour,
Telford (covering the town of
Telford)
*
Owen Paterson, Conservative,
North Shropshire (covering the
North Shropshire district and
Oswestry borough)
*
Philip Dunne, Conservative,
Ludlow (covering the
South Shropshire and (the majority of)
Bridgnorth districts)
*
Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative,
Shrewsbury and Atcham (covering the borough of
Shrewsbury and Atcham)
*
Mark Pritchard, Conservative,
The Wrekin (covering
Telford and Wrekin borough, minus Telford, and including a small area of Bridgnorth district)
In 2005 there was also a County Council election in which the Conservatives gained overall control of the administrative county. Telford and Wrekin Unitary Authority remains under Labour control. Being a rural county, there are a number of independent councillors on the various councils in the county.
The Conservatives gained complete control of Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council in the May 2006 local elections.
*
Shropshire Revolution American Football Team
*
Shrewsbury Town Football Club
*
AFC Telford United Football Club
Shropshire holds the record for the coldest temperature recorded in
England and
Wales (weather wise). This was set on January 10,
1982, in
Edgmond at -26.1 C. The following day the coldest daytime maximum temperature recorded in
England occurred in the county, at -11.3 C.
Shrewsbury has the tallest
town crier in the world, at 7ft 2in, and now also the tallest
MP in the United Kingdom -
Daniel Kawczynski is 6ft 8.5in tall.
The ceremonial county of Shropshire is the United Kingdom's largest inland (surrounded entirely by land) county.
There are 698
public houses in the county. The figure fell below 700 for the first time in modern history in April 2006. That means there are only 643 people per pub. See
:Category:Public houses in Shropshire.
The 1985 television programme
Blott on the Landscape was filmed mainly in South Shropshire, notably in Ludlow. The recently begun
2005 sit-com The Green Green Grass is set in Shropshire and is filmed near
Bridgnorth.
The John Cleese film '
Clockwise' was filmed partly in and around Much Wenlock.
The 1984 TV film version of Charles Dicken's '
A Christmas Carol' was filmed in Shrewsbury. Scenes from the film are still displayed inside Goldsmith's the jewellers in the Square.
*
List of civil parishes in Shropshire*
Railways of Shropshire*
Shropshire Star*
Etymological list of counties*
Geology of Shropshire*
53rd Regiment of Foot*
Shropshire Tourism- The official tourism website for Shropshire.
*
Shropshire Portal - links to the councils of the county*
Virtual Shropshire - Extensive tourism & leisure guide to Shropshire and the Welsh Borders.
*
Secret Shropshire - Document archives relating to Shropshire are being made available online, over 10,000 images including maps, photographs of scenery, buildings, famous people and natural history, sketches, and writings.
*
BBC Shropshire - A Salopian Odyssey - Morris Telford - A Salopian Odyssey.
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Shropshire Star - Local newspaper.
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BBC Shropshire history - BBC Shropshire's history page.
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Fords in Shropshire - Listing of all fords in Shropshire, including photos.
*
Pubs in Shropshire - A growing database on the public houses of the county, from the Shropshire Star.
*
Shropshire aerial photos - Fantastic website with many photos of places in Shropshire, taken from the air
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Inside Shropshire - historical and other information on Shropshire
*
Shropshire - Shropshire article in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
*
History of Shropshire - Domesday Book, 1750-1875*
Shropshire Gallery Photographs of Shropshire
*
iShropshire - Shropshire only search engine
