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Shropshire (abbreviated Salop or Salops) is an county in
the West Midlands of England, bordering Cheshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and the Welsh preserved counties of Powys and Clwyd.
It is one of England's most rural counties. The current county town is
Shrewsbury, but was traditionally Ludlow, whose castle was once a royal residence and the seat of the Council of Wales and the
Marches, and the largest town is by far the major industrial centre and New town of
Telford. It also contains Coalbrookdale, where the Industrial Revolution started and Ironbridge, where
the world's first iron bridge was constructed.
The county is sub-divided into districts - Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Atcham, South
Shropshire. It used to contain Telford and Wrekin, which is
now a separate unitary authority, but considered part of
Shropshire for ceremonial purposes.
The county was called Salop in legal documents for some centuries. When a county council for the county was set up in 1888, it was called
'Salop County Council'. It renamed itself 'Shropshire County Council' with effect from April 1, 1980.
Cradle of Industry
Quite why a remote, rural county on the Welsh border, was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, mystifies many people.
However the reasons for this, surprising, fact is geology. Shropshire is the geological "capital" of the U.K, as just about every
rock type in Northern Europe is found within its borders, as are coal, lead and iron ore deposits. Add to this the fact that the River Severn flows through the county providing easy transportation, and it is
suddenly much easier to explain.
Geography
Geographically, Shropshire is divisible into several distinct areas:
- North Shropshire, is an extension of the flat and fertile Cheshire Gap, its economy is mostly based on Farming.
- The area around Oswestry, although geographically in the Northern part of
Shropshire, forms a distinct area of the county, and Oswestry
Football Club played in the Welsh League.
- Central Shropshire, is a farming area, but has more varied terrain than northern Shropshire and the River Severn flows
through the area.
- Shrewsbury, is a large market town in the centre of the county, and is
regarded with suspicion, often hostility, by the rest of the county, particularly by the inhabitants of the very rural South
West.
- Telford and the Wrekin Unitary
Authority, is in the east of the county, and is its industrial core. It is the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.
- South East Shropshire, is another agricultural area, and parts of it are an extension of the Herefordshire Plain. The major town here is Bridgnorth,founded by the Vikings and is regarded as a distinct from
the rest of the South East.
- South West Shropshire, is in many ways more like Powys than the rest of the county:
It's poor, very rural, has a history of lead mining, has no middle class,
is mountainous and exports water. It's also the part of the county that tourists come to visit: the views are stunning and the
area around Church Stretton is known as Little Switzerland.
Towns and villages
- All Stretton, Alveley, Aston Munslow, Atcham
- Baschurch, Bayston Hill, Bishop's Castle,
Bridgnorth
- Coalbrookdale, Church Stretton, Clun, Chirbury,
Craven Arms, Church Preen
- Dawley, Diddlebury, Dorrington
- Eaton, Bishop's Castle, Eaton, Wenlock Edge, Ellesmere, Eyton
- Ford
- Grafton,
Great
Sutton, Gretton,
- Hatton,
Hilton, Hope, Hope Bowdler, Homer
- Leigh, Ludlow, Little Stretton, Longville in the Dale, Longner
- Market Drayton, Much Wenlock, Munslow, Monkhopton
- Newcastle,
Shropshire, Newport
- Oswestry
- Pontsbury, Pickescott
- Ratlinghope, Richards Castle, Rushbury
- Shawbury, Shifnal, Shipley, Shrewsbury, Snailbeach, Stiperstones
- Telford, Ticklerton
- Wall under
Heywood, Wem, Whitchurch
Places of interest
- The Long Mynd, (means "long mountain", overlooks Church Stretton)
- The Stiperstones
- Clee Hill, (hill near(ish) Ludlow, ex-coalmining and famed for the unusual accent of the locals)
- The Brown Clee
- Cardingmill
Valley
- Caer Caradoc
- Mitchells Fold, (a
bronze age stone circle)
- Wroxeter, (a ruined Roman city and
Legionary fortress)
- Attingham Park
- Boscobel House
- Burford House
- Snailbeach, (a historic lead
mining village)
- Hopton Castle, (scene of a
Civil War massacre)
- Moreton Corbet
Castle
- Stokesay Castle
- Ludlow Castle
- Whittington
Castle
- Langley Chapel
- Blists Hill, (preserved 19th
century Industrial community)
- The Ironbridge, (the worlds first iron bridge)
- Wenlock Edge, (a long wooded
ridge and the Geological capital of the UK)
- Shropshire Union Canal
- Offa's Dyke Path, a long distance footpath
Famous People
List of MPs
- Peter Bradley, Labour, The Wrekin
- David Wright, Labour, Telford
- Owen Paterson, Conservative, Shropshire North
- Matthew Green, Liberal Democrat, Ludlow
- Paul Marsden, Liberal Democrat+, Shrewsbury and Atcham
+Marsden was elected as a Labour member, but defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2001, over a "disagreement" over the
military action in Afghanistan. He has since been successfully sued by the
Shrewsbury and Atcham CLP over the "misappropriation" of Labour Party equipment.
Trivia
The Shropshire Regiment burned down the White House in the War of 1812.
Links
- http://www.secretshropshire.org.uk/ - 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.
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