(
Pronounced /, -/), alternatively known as '''''Salop''''' or abbreviated '''''Shrops''''', is a
County in the
West Midlands of
England . It borders
Wales to the west. Shropshire is one of England's most rural and sparsely populated counties, with the population of the
Non-metropolitan/shire county 289,100 - making it the
Least Populated Two-tier Governed Area in the
United Kingdom . The borough of
Telford And Wrekin , included in Shropshire for ceremonial and geographical purposes, has been a unitary authority since 1998.
The
County Town is
Shrewsbury , which is culturally and historically the most important town in the area, although the
New Town of
Telford , which was constructed around a number of older towns, is today the most populous. Other notable towns are
Oswestry ,
Bridgnorth and
Ludlow . The
Ironbridge Gorge area has become known as the
Birthplace Of Industry . It is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site , which covers
Ironbridge ,
Coalbrookdale and a part of
Madeley . There are additionally other notable historic industrial sites located around the county such as
Coalport ,
Snailbeach and
Highley as well as the
Shropshire Union Canal .
The
Shropshire Hills Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty covers about a quarter of the county, mainly in the south.
The Wrekin is one of the most famous natural landmarks in the county, though the highest hills are the
Clee Hills ,
Stiperstones and the
Long Mynd .
Wenlock Edge is another significant geographical and geological landmark. The
River Severn , Britain's longest river, runs through the county.
The area under the control of the county council, or is a unitary authority which forms part of the county for various functions such as
Lord Lieutenant but does not come under county council control. Oswestry, Shrewsbury & Atcham and Telford & Wrekin have the status of
Borough s. The county including Telford and Wrekin, the
Ceremonial County , borders
Cheshire ,
Staffordshire , Worcestershire,
Herefordshire , and the
Welsh Preserved Counties of
Powys and
Clwyd .
The border with Wales was defined in the
16th Century - the hundreds of
Oswestry (including
Oswestry ) and
Pimhill (including
Wem ), and part of
Chirbury had prior to the
Laws In Wales Act formed various Lordships in the
Welsh Marches .
In
2006 a
Local Government White Paper supported proposals for new
Unitary Authorities to be set up in England in certain areas. Existing
Non-metropolitan Counties with small populations, such as
Cornwall ,
Northumberland and Shropshire, are favoured by the government to be covered by unitary authorities in one form or another (the county can either become a single unitary authority, or be broken into a number of unitary authorities). Existing unitary authority areas within these counties'
Ceremonial Boundaries (such as Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire) will not be affected and there will be no boundary changes.
Shropshire County Council, supported by South Shropshire District Council and Oswestry Borough Council, have proposed to the government that the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire become a single unitary authority (i.e. the
District/borough Councils would be abolished). The process would be similar to that of the
Isle Of Wight in the early
1990s , when its districts were abolished, leaving a
Unitary County Authority . The ceremonial county of Shropshire would therefore consist of two unitary authorities - Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire. However, there has been opposition to the proposals, from
Shrewsbury And Atcham ,
North Shropshire and
Bridgnorth , who criticize the loss of local power. The proponents, however, feel that the move will save funds and allow the area to gain more national prominence.
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Part of the proposals include parishing and establishing a
Town Council for the currently
Unparished Area of Shrewsbury. This would create one of the largest
Civil Parish es in England, with a population of over 70,000.
See Also: History of Shropshire
,
Shrewsbury .]]
at
Ironbridge .]]
The political area now considered Shropshire was annexed to
Mercia by King
Offa in the eighth century, at which time he built two significant dykes there to defend his territory against the Welsh or at least demarcate it. In subsequent centuries, the area suffered repeated Danish invasion, and fortresses were built at
Bridgnorth and Chirbury.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, major estates in Shropshire were granted to Normans, including
Roger De Montgomerie , who ordered significant constructions, particularly in Shrewsbury, the town of which he was Earl. Many defensive castles were built at this time across the county to defend against Welsh and enable effective control of the region, including
Ludlow and
Shrewsbury castles. Also in this period, a number of religious foundations were formed, the county largely falling at this time under the diocese of Hereford and that of Coventry and Lichfield. (Some areas in later times fell under the diocese of St. Asaph until it ceased to exist in 1920).
The county was a central part of the
Welsh Marches during the medieval period and was often embroiled in the power struggles between powerful Marcher Lords, the
Earls Of March and successive monarchs.
The county also contains a number of historically significant towns, including
Shrewsbury ,
Ludlow and
Oswestry . Additionally, the area around
Coalbrookdale in the county is seen as highly significant, as it is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the
Industrial Revolution . The village of
Edgmond in Shropshire is the location of the lowest recorded temperature (in terms of weather) in England and Wales.
The modern county boundaries are the same as the historic ones, except for the removal of several , 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.
Vision of Britain - Ancient county boundaries
Geographically, Shropshire is divisible into two distinct halves - North and South. The county has a highly diverse
Geology .
is the primary waterway of the county.]]
Politically, North Shropshire is composed of 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 (Telford, Wellington, 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 down 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
Aggregate s is still going on in North Shropshire, notably on
Haughmond Hill , near
Bayston Hill and around the village of
Condover . Lead mining also took place at
Snailbeach and the
Stiperstones , but this has now ceased. 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 parallel to the line of
Watling Street an
Ancient Trackway . The A5 then turns 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 .
is a prominent geographical feature located in the east of the county.]]
The new town of Telford is built partly on a former industrial area centred on the East Shropshire Coalfield as well as on former agricultural land. There are still many ex-colliery sites 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. In addition,
Telford Steam Railway runs from
Horsehay .
Politically, the area is composed of South Shropshire district and Bridgnorth district.
near
Church Stretton .]]
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 significant hill ranges and river valleys, woods, pine forests and 'batches', a colloquial term for small valleys and other natural features. Farming is more pastoral than the arable found in the north of the county. The only substantial towns are
Ludlow , with a population of around 10,000 people,
Bridgnorth and
Church Stretton . The
Shropshire Hills AONB is located in the south-west, covering an area of 804 km&
2; it forms the only specifically protected area of the county. Inside this area is the popular
Long Mynd , a large plateau of 536m
Stiperstones and 516 metres high to the East of the
Long Mynd , overlooking
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. 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 and quarrying 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 and joining the River Severn.
One of the Clee Hills, the
Brown Clee Hill , is the county's highest peak at 546 m.
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 .
Shropshire is connected to the rest of the United Kingdom via a number of road and rail links. Historically, rivers in the county and the
Shropshire Union Canal were used for transport also, although their use in transport is now significantly reduced. The county's main transportation hub is Shrewsbury, through which many significant roads and railways pass and join.
Major roads in the county include the
M54 Motorway , sometimes referred to as the "Telford Motorway", which connects Telford to the rest of the motorway network, and more specifically to the
West Midlands County . The
A5 also runs through the county, in an east-west direction. The road formerly ran through Shrewsbury, although a large dual-carriageway bypass has since been built. Other major trunk roads in the county include the north-south
A49 , the
A53 and the
A41 .
There are a number of major railway lines running through the county, including the
Welsh Marches Line , the
Cambrian Line , the
Heart Of Wales Line and the
Wolverhampton To Shrewsbury Line . The two train operating companies working in the county are
Central Trains and
Arriva Trains Wales , but a new company, the
Wrexham, Shropshire And Marylebone Railway , may soon begin operating.
Shropshire is also the home of two major water supply
Aqueduct s, the Elan Aqueduct running through South Shropshire carrying water from
Elan Valley to
Birmingham and the Vyrnwy Aqueduct running through North Shropshire delivering water from
Lake Vyrnwy to
Liverpool .
Shropshire has no cities, but 22 towns, of which 2 can be considered major.
Telford is the largest town in the county with a population of 138,241; whereas the county town of
Shrewsbury has a lower, but still sizeable population of 70,560. Other substantial settlements include
Oswestry ,
Bridgnorth and
Ludlow . The majority of settlements can be classed as villages. Towns and villages are primarily concentrated in a central belt that roughly follows the
A5 /
M54 roadway. Other settlements are concentrated on rivers, i.e.
Ironbridge on the Severn, as these waterways were historically vital to trade.
.]] department store opened in 2004 at the west end of
Telford Shopping Centre .]]
The economy of Shropshire was traditionally dominated by agriculture. However, in more recent years it has become more service orientated. The county town of
Shrewsbury , the historic castle-dominated
Ludlow and the industrial birthplace of
Ironbridge Gorge are the foremost tourist areas in Shropshire, along with the reclaimed canal network which provides canal barge holidays on the
Shropshire Union Canal and linked canal networks in the region, although the natural beauty of the county draws people to all areas.
Industry is mostly found in
Telford ,
Oswestry ,
Whitchurch ,
Market Drayton and Shrewsbury, though small industrial estates can be found in other, rural towns such as
Church Stretton and
Newport . Shrewsbury is becoming a centre for distribution and warehousing, as it is located on a nodal point of the regional road network. In Telford, a new rail freight facility is being built at
Donnington .
Telford and Shrewsbury are the county's two main retail centres, with contrasting styles of shopping - Shrewsbury's historic streets and Telford's modern mall,
Telford Shopping Centre . Shrewsbury's situation of being the nearest substantial town for those in a large area of
Mid-Wales helps it draw in considerable numbers of shoppers, notably on Saturday.
Well-known companies in Shropshire include
Müller Dairy (UK) Ltd in
Market Drayton . The RAF have two bases at
RAF Cosford and
RAF Shawbury , and the charity
PDSA has its head office in
Priorslee , in Telford.
Below is the chart of regional gross value added for the non-metropolitan county (without Telford & Wrekin) of Shropshire at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
With the statistics for the borough of
Telford And Wrekin added, the total for the Shire (
Non-metropolitan ) county is:
Shropshire has a completely comprehensive education system, with thirteen independent schools, including the prestigious
Shrewsbury School , which the famed
Charles Darwin attended. In the ceremonial county, the Telford and Wrekin borough has two selective schools and two independent schools.
The average number of pupils achieving five good GCSEs at grades A-C in England including Maths and English is 45.8%. For Shropshire it is 50.3, which is very good and the highest in the whole of the
West Midlands for traditional counties (although excluding low-performing Telford will artificially boost Shropshire's average significantly). Every district is above the England average. Around 3500 school pupils take GCSEs each year in Shropshire, with the Oswestry district only having two schools and the Shrewsbury and Atcham district having the largest school population. Year sizes are mostly under two hundred; some counties have typical year sizes between 2-300. The best school at GCSE is
The Corbet School in
Baschurch , followed by the
Church Stretton School and
Priory School in Shrewsbury. Bottom place is shared by two schools in Shrewsbury - the
Sundorne School And Sports College and the Wakeman School, however, it should be noted that these results can be skewed as there is no method to distinguish which schools use the GNVQ system (1 GNVQ = 4 GCSEs) and which do not. As such, The Wakeman, which uses no GNVQs, may appear worse than it actually is results-wise.
Below are the GCSE results as percentages, for each district/borough of the county:
At A level, results are above the England average, although only two schools perform well. The best is
Shrewsbury Sixth Form College , getting results only slightly lower than Shrewsbury School, followed by
Bridgnorth Endowed School . Sixth form colleges often do very well - much better than traditional schools. Telford and Wrekin, although producing some lower than average GCSE results in general, has three superlative schools - two selective (
Adams' Grammar School and
Newport Girls' High School ) and a
City Technology College (
Thomas Telford School ) that produce results much better than any state or independent school in Shropshire (except the
Concord College in Shrewsbury). Overall, Telford has slightly lower results than Shropshire at A level, although
Telford New College performs at the England average.
- Attingham Park , Atcham
- Blists Hill , Madeley
- Bishops Castle
- Boscobel House , nr. Wolverhampton
- Brown Clee Hill , South Shropshire
- Burford House , Burford
- Caer Caradoc , nr. Church Stretton
- Cardingmill Valley , Church Stretton
- Clun Castle , Clun
- Flounder's Folly , nr. Craven Arms
- Haughmond Hill , nr. Shrewsbury
- --- Haughmond Abbey
- Hawkstone Park , North Shropshire
- Hopton Castle , nr. Craven Arms
- The Ironbridge , Ironbridge
- Kynaston's Cave , nr. Nesscliffe
- Langley Chapel , nr. Shrewsbury
- The Long Mynd , Church Stretton
- Ludlow Castle , Ludlow
- Mitchell's Fold , Chirbury
- Moreton Corbet Castle , Moreton Corbet
- Offa's Dyke Path , Welsh Marches
- Shrewsbury Abbey , Shrewsbury
- Shrewsbury Castle , Shrewsbury
- Shropshire Hills Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty ( AONB ), South Shropshire
- Shropshire Union Canal
- Snailbeach nr. Shrewsbury
- St Laurence Church, Ludlow
- The Stiperstones , nr Pontesbury
- Stokesay Castle , nr Craven Arms
- Telford Steam Railway , Telford
- Titterstone Clee Hill , nr. Ludlow
- Wenlock Edge , Much Wenlock
- --- Wenlock Priory
- Whittington Castle , nr. Oswestry
- The Wrekin (and Ercall ) nr. Wellington
- Wroxeter , nr. Atcham
- Robert Clive "Clive of India"
- Lords And Ladies Craven (of Stokesay Castle )
- Abraham Darby early industrialist
- Charles Darwin emminent naturalist
- K.K. Downing , guitarist with Judas Priest
- William Farr epidemiologist and early bio-statistician
- 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
- Stephen Marchant , ornithologist
- Len Murray , (former head of the T.U.C)
- Mirabel Osler , author
- Wilfred Owen leading First World War poet
- 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 novellist
- Morris Telford Author of "A Salopian Odyssey", philosopher, traveller and bingo enthusiast.
- T'Pau , 1980's pop group
- Sir Philip Sidney prominent Elizabethan
- Mary Webb (1881-1927), author
- Matthew Webb , (first man to swim the English Channel )
- Billy Wright , Captain of Wolves and England
- Humphrey Kynaston (1474-1534) - Highwayman
- John Mytton 'Mad Jack' Mytton, Regency rake, MP, gambler and horseman.
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 to the right).
The current MPs 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 shire 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.
There are a number of significant sporting clubs and facilities in Shropshire, many of which are found in
Shrewsbury , in addition to a number of clubs found locally throughout the county. Below are some of the more major sporting entities of the county:
