Encyclopedia
Shropshire 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.
History
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 "Scrobbesbyrigscir" . It is also possible that it took its name from Richard FitzScrob , 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, with local MP Jasper More raising an amendment to the 1972
Local Government Bill to rename the county "Shropshire" - at the time the council itself opposed the change, although later, in 1980, would exercise its power to legally change the name of the county.
The Times noted in a February 19, 1980 article about the name change that "there was no record of why the name Salop County Council was adopted". The decision to make the change was taken on March 1, 1980, at a special meeting of the council, with 48 votes in favour versus five against. It came into effect on April 1.
The term "Salopian", derived from "Salop", is still used to mean "from Shropshire". The latin motto of "Floreat Salopia" 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 . 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 county today
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 border with Wales was defined in the
16th century - the hundreds of Oswestry and Pimhill , and part of Chirbury had prior to the Laws in Wales Act formed various Marcher Lordships.
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.
Geography
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 Newport and the Telford conurbation 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 , 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 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 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
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.
Towns and villages
See the list of places in Shropshire.Shropshire has no cities, but 22 towns and hundreds of villages.
See also the and .
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire at current basic prices by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year | | | | |
|---|
| 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.
Places of interest
- Attingham Park,
- Blists Hill,
- Boscobel House,
- Brown Clee Hill,
- Burford House
- Caer Caradoc,
- Cardingmill Valley,
- Flounder's Folly, near Craven Arms
- Haughmond Hill,
- Hawkstone Park,
- Hopton Castle,
- The Ironbridge,
- Kynaston's Cave
- Langley Chapel
- The Long Mynd,
- Ludlow Castle
- Mitchell's Fold,
- Moreton Corbet Castle
- Offa's Dyke Path, a long distance footpath
- Shrewsbury Abbey,
- Shropshire Hills AONB
- Shropshire Union Canal
- Snailbeach,
- The Stiperstones,
- Stokesay Castle
- Titterstone Clee Hill,
- Wenlock Edge,
- Whittington Castle
- The Wrekin
...
,
Famous people
- Robert Clive "Clive of India"
- Lords and Ladies Craven
- Abraham Darby
- Charles Darwin
- William Farr
- Chris Hawkins , radio presenter, DJ, and celebrity
- George Jeffreys of Wem,
- Adrian Jones, sculptor of the Quadriga at Hyde Park Corner
- Stephen Marchant, ornithologist
- Len Murray,
- Mirabel Osler, author
- Wilfred Owen
- Edith Pargeter , author
- Edmund Plowden —legal scholar and theorist
- Sir Edmund Plowden —Proprietor, Earl Palatine and Governor of New Albion
- Barbara Pym
- Author of "A Salopian Odyssey", philosopher, traveller and bingo enthusiast.
- T'Pau, pop group
- Sir Philip Sidney
- Mary Webb , author
- Matthew Webb,
- Billy Wright
- Humphrey Kynaston - highwayman
Also, British poet
A.E. Housman used Shropshire as the setting for many of the poems in his first book, A Shropshire Lad.
Politics
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 .
The current MP's of Shropshire are:
...
...
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.
Sport
Trivia
Shropshire holds the record for the coldest temperature recorded in
England and
Wales . 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 county.
There are 697
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 .
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 a British [i] sitcom [i] written by John Sullivan [i] ...
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.
P.G. Wodehouse's fictional Blandings Castle, the ancestral home of Clarence, the ninth Earl of Emsworth, is located in Shropshire.
See also
External links
- - The official tourism website for Shropshire.
- - Extensive tourism & leisure guide to Shropshire and the Welsh Borders.
- - 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.
- - Official website of the county's own fire and rescue service.
- - Morris Telford - A Salopian Odyssey.
- - Local newspaper.
- - BBC Shropshire's history page.
- - Listing of all fords in Shropshire, including photos.
- - A growing database on the public houses of the county, from the Shropshire Star.
- - Fantastic website with many photos of places in Shropshire, taken from the air
- - historical and other information on Shropshire
- - Shropshire article in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
- Photographs of Shropshire
- - Shropshire only search engine
