Shropshire
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!colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Geography
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|width="45%"|Status:||Ceremonial & (smaller) Administrative County
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|Region:||West Midlands
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|Area:
- Total
- Admin. council
- Admin. area||Ranked 13th
3,487 km²
Ranked 14th
3,197 km²
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|Admin HQ:||Shrewsbury
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|ISO 3166-2:||GB-SHR
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|ONS code:||39
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|NUTS 3:||UKG22
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!colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Demographics
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|Population:
- Total (2002 est.)
- Density
- Admin. council
- Admin. pop.||Ranked 42nd
445,780
128 / km²
Ranked 34th
285,204
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|Ethnicity:||97.3% White
1.2% S.Asian
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!colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Politics
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|colspan=2 align=center|Shropshire County Council
http://www.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/
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|Executive:||Labour & Liberal Democrat & Independents
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|MPs:||Peter Bradley, Matthew Green, Paul Marsden, Owen Paterson, David Wright
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!colspan=2 bgcolor="#ff9999"|Districts
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|colspan=2|
- North Shropshire
- Oswestry
- Shrewsbury and Atcham
- South Shropshire
- Bridgnorth
- Telford and Wrekin (Unitary)
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Shropshire (abbreviated Salop or Salops) is a county in the West Midlands of England, bordering Cheshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and the Welsh preserved counties of Powys and Clwyd.
Shropshire is one of England's most rural counties. The county town is Shrewsbury, and the largest town by far is 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 five districts: Bridgnorth, North Shropshire, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Atcham and 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, a name deriving from 'Salopesbiry', an older name for the county town, Shrewsbury. 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.
Cradle 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 Shropshire's diverse 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, 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.
Geography
Geographically, Shropshire is divisible into several distinct areas:
- The North Shropshire Plain is an extension of the flat and fertile Cheshire Gap. Traditionally, the economy of the area depended on agriculture (and some small scale ore fields around Wem) although recently a growing number of commuters have moved to the area.
- The area around Oswestry, also in Northern Shropshire, has more rugged geography than the North Shropshire Plain, and although farming was traditionally important in the eastern half of the area, the Western half is an extension of the Wrexham Coalfield and there are also copper deposits on the border with Wales.
- Central Shropshire is a farming area, but has more varied terrain than northern Shropshire, as the River Severn has shaped the landscape and economy of the area.
- Shrewsbury is a large market town in the centre of the county, and has traditionally been regarded with suspicion, often hostility, by the rest of the county, particularly by the inhabitants of the very rural South West (although since the 1960s, that hostility has been diverted toward Telford). Shrewsbury itself is a polarised town, with a very affluent district around Copthorne which contrasts sharply with the run down inner suburbs of Bayston Hill and Harlescott.
- Telford and the Wrekin Unitary Authority is in the east of the county, and is its industrial core. Telford's rapid expansion has changed the character of the region dramatically since the 1960s. Despite their relatively recent arrival, large areas of Telford are economically deprived and already in need of regeneration. However, this region is the cradle of the Industrial Revolution is also Shropshire's major tourist destination.
- South East Shropshire contains a relatively large town, Bridgnorth, fertile farmland in the Severn Valley and ex-mining communities in the Wyre Forest Coalfield (Highley, Alveley and the Stottesden area) and around Church Stretton is known as Little Switzerland. It includes the ancient town of Ludlow, old mining communities on the Clee Hills, notable geological features in the Onny Valley and Wenlock Edge and fertile farmland in the Corve Dale.
Towns and villages
- All Stretton, Alveley, Aston Munslow, Atcham
- Baschurch, Bayston Hill, Bishop's Castle, Bridgnorth, Broseley
- Coalbrookdale, Church Stretton, Cleobury Mortimer, Clun, Chirbury, Craven Arms, Church Preen
- Dawley, Diddlebury, Dorrington
- Eaton, Bishop's Castle, Eaton, Wenlock Edge, Ellesmere, Eyton
- Ford
- Grafton, Great Sutton, Gretton,
- Hatton, Highley, 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 American White House during the War of 1812.
Oswestry Football Club played in the Welsh League.
Shropshire holds the record for the coldest temperature recorded in England and Wales. This was set on the 10th January 1982 at -26.1C.
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.
