Everything about Shrewsbury totally explained
Shrewsbury (/ˈʃruːzbri/ or /ˈʃroʊzbri/) is the
county town of
Shropshire, in the
West Midlands region of
England. Lying on the
River Severn, it's home to 70,689 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement of the borough of
Shrewsbury and Atcham, which has a population of 95,850. including several examples of
timber framing from the 15th century and 16th century.
Shrewsbury Castle, a
red sandstone castle fortification, and
Shrewsbury Abbey, a former
Benedictine monastery, were founded in 1074 and 1083 respectively, by the
Norman Earl of Shrewsbury,
Roger de Montgomery. The town hosts one of the oldest and largest
horticultural events in the country,
Shrewsbury Flower Show, and is known for its floral displays, having won various awards since the turn of the 21st century, including
Britain in Bloom in 2006.
Today, lying east of the
Welsh border, Shrewsbury serves as a cultural and commercial centre for the ceremonial county and a large area of mid-Wales, with retail output alone worth over £299 million per year. There are some light industry and distribution centres, such as
Battlefield Enterprise Park, located mainly on the outskirts. The
A5 and
A49 trunk roads cross here, as do five railway lines at
Shrewsbury railway station.
History
The town was known to the
ancient Britons as
Pengwern, signifying "the alder hill"; and to the
Anglo-Saxons as
Scrobbesburh (
dative Scrobbesbyrig), which has several meanings; "fort in the scrub-land region", "Scrobb's fort", "shrubstown" or "the town of the bushes". This name was gradually corrupted in three directions, into 'Sciropscire' which became
Shropshire, into 'Sloppesberie', which became Salop/Salopia (the historical name for the county), and into 'Schrosberie' which eventually became the name of the county town, Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury is known as a town with significant
medieval heritage, having been founded ca. 800 AD. It was during the late Middle Ages (14th/15th Centuries) when the town was at its height of commercial importance. This was mainly due to the
wool trade, a major industry at the time, with the rest of Britain and Europe, especially with the River Severn and
Watling Street as trading routes. It is believed that
Henry VIII intended to make Shrewsbury a cathedral city after the formation of the
Church of England, but the citizens of the town declined the offer.
The town is home to the
Ditherington Flax Mill, the world's first iron-framed building, which is commonly regarded as "the grandfather of the skyscraper". Its importance was officially recognised in the 1950s, resulting in it becoming a Grade I
listed building. Shrewsbury in the Industrial Revolution was also located on the
Shrewsbury Canal which linked it to the
Shropshire Canal and wider
canal network of Great Britain.
Shrewsbury has also played a unique part in Western intellectual history, by being the town in which the naturalist
Charles Darwin was born and raised. Darwin later published his seminal text
On the Origin of Species and developed the theory of
natural selection. Nearby is the village of
Wroxeter, to the south-west, where the now ruined
Roman city of
Viroconium Cornoviorum lies. Viroconium was the fourth largest
civitas capital in
Roman Britain. As Caer Guricon it may have served as the early Dark Age capital of the
kingdom of Powys.
The town avoided bombing in
World War II and so many of its ancient buildings remain intact and there was little redevelopment during the 1960s and 1970s, which arguably destroyed the character of many historic towns in the UK. However, a large area of half timbered houses and businesses were destroyed to make way for the Raven Meadows multi-story car park, and other historic buildings were demolished to make way for the
brutalist architectural style of the
1960s. The town was saved from a new 'inner ring road' due to its challenging geography.
Shrewsbury won the
West Midlands Capital of Enterprise award in 2004. The town has two expanding business parks - the
Shrewsbury Business Park and the
Battlefield Enterprise Park. There are many residential developments currently under construction in the town to cater for the increasing numbers of people wishing to live in the town and commute to
Telford,
Wolverhampton and
Birmingham. In 2000 and again in 2002, Shrewsbury unsuccessfully applied for
city status.
Governance
The Borough of Shrewsbury's first Charter was granted by
King Henry I allowing the collection of rents. King Richard I granted another early charter in 1189 and from that time the town’s regional importance and influence increased, as well as its autonomy from the county of Shropshire. Further charters were granted in 1199 (
King John), 1495 (
Henry VII), 1638 (
Charles I), and 1685 (
James II). In 1974 a charter from
Queen Elizabeth II incorporated the Borough of Shrewsbury and Atcham.
Shrewsbury is the administrative centre for both the Borough of
Shrewsbury and Atcham and County of
Shropshire (which doesn't include the Borough of
Telford and Wrekin, a
unitary authority area). Shropshire County Council have their headquarters in the Shirehall, on Abbey Foregate, and the Borough Council have their headquarters in The Guildhall, on
Frankwell Quay. The Borough Council have moved from their old Guildhall, now known as "Newport House" (as it was before it became the Guildhall), on
19 March 2004.
Shrewsbury is in the
Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency and is the only large settlement in the constituency. Before 1997 Shrewsbury and Atcham's
Member of Parliament (MP) was
Derek Conway, a
Conservative.
Paul Marsden of the
Labour Party was elected to serve the constituency in Labour's 1997 landslide victory, the first time Shrewsbury had a Labour MP. Marsden defected to the
Liberal Democrats following the
Afghanistan war, deciding not to stand for election again. Following this, 2005 saw Labour lose a lot of votes to the
Liberal Democrats, allowing
Daniel Kawczynski of the Conservatives to be elected with a majority of 1,808. Previous MPs for Shrewsbury have included former Prime Minister
Benjamin Disraeli.
Shrewsbury is twinned with
Zutphen in
The Netherlands. The town also serves as the administrative headquarters of the
British Army's
5th Division, which has its administrative HQ at the
Copthorne Barracks.
Town Council
Shrewsbury is at present an
unparished area and so has no town or parish council(s), the Mayor of Shrewsbury and Atcham being also the mayor of the town. However as part of wider changes to local governance in Shropshire, the town is likely to be
parished in 2009, with one large parish covering the entire town created and a Town Council established. Current proposals are for town councillors to be elected from 17 wards which would be coterminous with
Shropshire Council wards. There are plans for the Town Council to have Rowley's House as their headquarters and meeting place.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms of the former Shrewsbury Borough Council depicts three loggerheads, with the motto
Floreat Salopia, a Latin phrase that can be translated to "may Shrewsbury flourish". The coat of arms is the same as that of the
borough council of
Shrewsbury and Atcham - Shrewsbury council's shield is the same but without the bridge (which is the
Atcham Bridge). Shrewsbury Town FC historically have used the Loggerheads but now have a bespoke badge, retaining a single Loggerhead.
Geography
Shrewsbury is located approximately to the west of
Telford, west of
Birmingham and the
West Midlands Conurbation, and about north-west of the capital,
London. The Frankwell flood defences were completed in 2003, along with the new offices of the borough council. More recently, such as in 2005 and 2007, flooding has been less severe, and the defences have generally held back floodwaters from the town centre areas. However, the town car parks are often left to be flooded in the winter, which reduces trade in the town, most evidenced in the run up to Christmas in 2007.
The town is situated near Haughmond Hill, a site where
Precambrian rocks, some of the oldest rocks in the county can be found, and the town itself is sited on an area of largely
Carboniferous rocks. A fault, the Hodnet Fault, starts approximately at the town, and runs as far as
Market Drayton.
Suburbs and surrounding settlements
Shrewsbury has a large number of
suburbs and surrounding villages. As the town continues to expand, however, it's becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between the suburbs, which are joined to the town, and the surrounding villages, which often join on to the suburbs.
An example of where this has happened is
Bayston Hill, which has grown considerably in the last 20 years; now separated from the
Meole Brace suburb by only a few fields and the
A5 road. It remains, however, a separate entity to the town, with its own parish council, etc. Bayston Hill lies south of the town centre of Shrewsbury and on the A49 and near to the A5. The smaller village of
Battlefield, this time to the north of the town, is also considered now as a suburb of the town due to growth in the surrounding area. It is covered by the unparished town area of the borough and is included in a town ward.
Climate
The
climate of Shrewsbury is similar to that of the rest of
Shropshire, generally moderate. Rainfall averages 76 to 100 cm (30 to 40 in), influenced by being in the
rainshadow of the
Cambrian Mountains from warm, moist
frontal systems of the
Atlantic Ocean which bring generally light precipitation in Autumn and Spring. The nearest weather station is located at
Shawbury.
Demography
| Shrewsbury & Atcham Compared |
| 2001 UK Census |
S'bury & Atch. |
West Midlands |
England |
| Total population |
95,850 |
5,267,308 |
49,138,831 |
| White |
98.5% |
86.2% |
87.0% |
| Asian |
0.4% |
7.3% |
4.6% |
| Black |
0.1% |
2.0% |
2.3% |
| Over 65 years old |
17.2% |
16.0% |
15.9% |
| Christian |
77.9% |
72.6% |
71.7% |
| No Religion |
13.7% |
12.3% |
14.6% |
According to the
United Kingdom Census 2001, the population of the town of Shrewsbury is 67,126. The same census puts the population of the borough of Shrewsbury and Atcham at 95,850. Shrewsbury is Shropshire's
second largest town, after
Telford. The population of the town centre (the area within the loop of the Severn) is approximately 1,300. In line with the rapid growth of town population, a 2005 report on prison population in the UK has found that the prison,
HMP Shrewsbury, is the most overcrowded in England and Wales.
The 2001 census also indicates that the population of the town consists of 51.1% females, and 48.9% males, which echoes the trend of
Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough, and that of
Shropshire as a whole. According to the same census, the
ethnic composition of the town is largely
white, at 98.5% of the total population. The next largest ethnic group is
mixed race, at 0.5% of the town's population. 0.4% of the population is
Indian,
Pakistani or
Bangladeshi, and 0.1% of the population is
South Asian or
British Asian. A further 0.1% is
Black,
Caribbean or
African. and used its position on the River Severn to transport goods across England via the canal system. Unlike many other towns in this period, Shrewsbury never became a centre for heavy industry. By the early 1900's, the town became focused on transport services and the general service and professional sector, owing to its position on the
A5 road, part of the strategic route to
North Wales.
The town is the location of the borough and county councils, and a number of
retail complexes, both in and out of the town centre, and these provide significant employment. Four in five jobs in the town are in the
service industry. Within this sector, the largest employers are the
administration and
distribution sectors, which includes retail, food and accommodation. Shrewsbury is home to two small shopping centres, the
Darwin and Pride Hill centres, which house many high street retailers such as
Marks & Spencer,
TK Maxx and
Boots. There is also the large
Meole Brace Retail Park to the south, and the
Harlescott Retail Park to the north. Major supermarkets in the town are the 2007-opened environmentally friendly
Tesco Extra at Harlescott,
Morrisons on Whitchurch Road,
ASDA on Old Potts Way and
Sainbury's at Meole Brace. Shrewsbury's position of being the only sizable town for a large area, especially to the west in
Mid-Wales, allows it to attract a large retail base beyond that of its resident population. This isn't only evident in the retail sector, but also in the
healthcare sector, where the
Royal Shrewsbury Hospital has the only
A&E department eastwards until
Aberystwyth, approximately away.
In terms of social and
economic deprivation, according to the Overall Index of Multiple Deprivation of 2004, one Super Output Area (SOA) in the town is in the bottom 15% of all areas nationally. This area is located in the ward of
Harlescott. A further four SOAs fall into the bottom 30% nationally, these being located in the wards of
Monkmoor,
Sundorne,
Battlefield and
Heathgates, and
Meole Brace. The most affluent areas of the town are located to the south, surrounding
Shrewsbury School. Areas such as
Kingsland and
Porthill tend to have higher house prices than average.
Landmarks
The historic town centre still retains its medieval street pattern and many narrow streets and passages. Some of the passages, especially those which pass through buildings from one street to the next, are called “shuts” (a suggestion is that this is because they were once shut at night). Many specialist shops, traditional pubs and local restaurants can be found in the hidden corners, squares and lanes of Shrewsbury. Many of the
street names have also remained unchanged in centuries and there are some more unusual names, such as Butcher Row, Longden Coleham, Dogpole,
Mardol, Frankwell, Roushill,
Grope Lane, Gullet Passage, Murivance, The Dana, Portobello, Bear Steps, Shoplatch and Bellstone.
The town was also used as the set for the popular 1984 movie,
A Christmas Carol, which filmed many of its interior and exterior shots in and around Shrewsbury. The facade of the Shrewsbury Music Hall doubled as the
London Exchange Building in the film. The gravestone of
Ebenezer Scrooge (played by
George C. Scott), which was used in production, is still present in the graveyard of St. Chad's Church.
In the centre of the town lies
The Quarry. This 29 acre (120,000 m²) riverside park attracts thousands of people throughout the year and is enjoyed as a place of recreation. Shrewsbury is known as the "Town of Flowers" and this was the motto printed onto many of the signs on entrance to the town via major roads, although in 2007 the signs were replaced, instead branding the town as 'the birthplace of Charles Darwin'.
The
British Army's
Light Infantry has been associated with Shrewsbury since the 17th century when the first regiments were formed and many more regiments have been raised at Shrewsbury before being deployed all over the world from the
American Revolutionary War to the current conflicts in
Iraq and
Afghanistan. Today, after several major reorganisations, the
Light Infantry Brigade now forms part of the regiment known simply as
The Rifles. Shrewsbury's
Copthorne Barracks, spiritual home of the Light Brigade, still houses the Headquarters of the British Army's
5th Division.
Between 1962 and 1992 there was a hardened
nuclear bunker, built for
No 16 Group Royal Observer Corps Shrewsbury, who provided the field force of the
United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and would have sounded the
four minute warning alarm in the event of war and warned the population of Shrewsbury in the event of approaching radioactive fallout. The building was manned by up to 120 volunteers who trained on a weekly basis and wore a
Royal Air Force style uniform. After the break up of the communist bloc in 1989, the Royal Observer Corps was disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995. However, the nuclear bunker still stands just inside Holywell Street near the Abbey as a lasting reminder of the cold war, but is now converted and used as a veterinary practice.
The
tourist information centre is at the
Music Hall on The Square in the town centre. The three main museums are Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery (located at Rowley's House),
Shrewsbury Castle (which houses the Shropshire Regimental Museum) and the
Coleham Pumping Station. Also, there's the Gateway arts and drama centre and there are also various private galleries and art shops around the town. Another notable feature of the town is
Lord Hill's Column, the largest free-standing
Doric column in the world.
Religious sites
There are many
church denominations represented in Shrewsbury, housed in a range of buildings, including
Shrewsbury Abbey, founded by
Roger de Montgomery in 1083. The Orthodox Church's main building, which is located on Wenlock Road to the east, is over 1,000 years old. Shrewsbury is home to the Roman Catholic
Shrewsbury Cathedral, located by Town Walls, as well as two other parishes in
Harlescott and
Monkmoor, within the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury.
There are several
Anglican Churches in Shrewsbury. Other denominations, such as
methodists and
baptists are represented alongside newer church groups, which include:
Elim pentecostal and two
Newfrontiers churches. Many community projects in Shrewsbury are based in, or have been started by local churches, including the Isaiah 58 project, which is the primary work amongst homeless people in the town. Basics Bank is another example, based at The Barnabas Centre, which provides debt relief for local people. Churches Together in Shrewsbury is seeking to continue its long term commitment to helping homeless people through The Ark project.
Culture
Events and venues
Shrewsbury is home to one of the largest and oldest horticultural events in the UK - the annual Shrewsbury Flower Show. A two day event, the Flower Show takes place in mid-August, has been running for more than 125 years, and attracts around 100,000 visitors each year. Set in the Quarry park, there are a multitude of events, exhibitions and displays, with a fireworks display at the end of each day. The town is well known for its flower displays, and has won numerous awards in recent years.
Shrewsbury is also home to one of the region's main agricultural shows - the West Mid Show. This is held every year, usually in May, at the Shropshire Agricultural Showground on the outskirts of town at Coton Hill. The town is host to the Shrewsbury International Music Festival, when musical groups from all over the world come to perform for about a week for local residents, and give a final concert in the Abbey. The festival is organized by WorldStage Tours. 2006 saw the first Shrewsbury Folk Festival, after the event moved to the town from nearby Bridgnorth. Held annually over the August Bank Holiday, the event is very popular, with people travelling from across the UK to attend. In 2006 much of the event was held in the Quarry, with other related festivities happening around the town. For 2007 the event moved to the West Midlands Showground on the other side of the river. A new annual arts festival - the Shrewsbury Summer Season - was established in 2004 and runs each year from June to August with an extensive programme of music, visual arts, theatre and spectacle.
There are some very old public houses, which have been continuously open as pubs, such as the Golden Cross (established 1428 - the oldest pub in the town), the Dun Cow and the King's Head.
Construction of Theatre Severn, a new entertainment complex in Frankwell, was commissioned in September 2006. Actual construction began on the site in April 2007 when the Borough Council appointed a contractor. The design will feature a prominent glass curve and steel frame. The site is positioned next to the Guildhall, alongside the namesake River Severn. The new complex is to replace the existing theatre, the Shrewsbury Music Hall. The Music Hall will then be refurbished, and take on the role of Rowley's House Museum, which will then be closed for renovation for the foreseeable future.
Cultural references
The town appears in the Brother Cadfael novels by Ellis Peters, aka Edith Pargeter. The novels take Shrewsbury Abbey for their setting, with Shrewsbury and other places in Shropshire portrayed regularly, and have made Medieval Shrewsbury familiar to a wide worldwide readership.
The local author, Carol Ewels has written two children's books, including Jack the Cat, which are set in the town. Also, the children's author Pauline Fisk writes about a town called Pengwern, which is based entirely on Shrewsbury, in books including Midnight Blue, and Sabrina Fludde. Frank Cottrell Boyce, another children's author, writes briefly about Shrewsbury in his book Millions.
Media
Two newspapers are published for Shrewsbury - the Shrewsbury Chronicle, and the local edition of the county's Shropshire Star. There are presently three radio stations that specifically serve either the Shrewsbury area or encompass it as part of a Shropshire-wide broadcast. They include: Beacon Radio, part of the wider network of radio stations owned by GCap Media; BBC Radio Shropshire, which is based in Shrewsbury; and, as of September 2006, The Severn, which broadcasts live from Abbey Foregate.
Sports
Shrewsbury is home to a variety of established amateur, semi-professional and professional sports clubs, including
Shrewsbury Town, a
Football League team currently playing in
Football League Two. Shrewsbury Town's achievements include winning The Welsh Cup 6 times, a record for an English club, a sustained run in the old
Second Division in the 1980s and victory in the
Conference National Playoff Final 2004. The club relocated to the
New Meadow stadium in 2007, to a purposely built site located near
Meole Brace. Prior to this, the club played at the
Gay Meadow stadium, situated just outside of the town centre, for a 97 year period from 1910 to 2007.
There is also a local
rugby club, Shrewsbury Rugby Club. The River Severn in the town is used for rowing by both Pengwern Boat Club and the
Shrewsbury School Boat Club. Shrewsbury Sports Village, a new sports centre, was recently opened in the
Sundorne district of the town, with the aim of providing a wider and improved range of sports facilities for townspeople. There are also a number of motorsports and golf facilities (including
Meole Brace Municipal Golf Course) in the area. The local motorsports heritage includes the
Loton Park Hillclimb and
Hawkstone Park Motocross Circuit situated near Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury Motocross Club has staged
motocross events in the area for over 30 years.
Education
The long established
Prestfelde School is an
independent preparatory school, located on London Road, close to the Lord Hill column. As part of the
Woodard Schools group, it's affiliated to the largest group of
Church of England schools in the country. Whilst originally a school for boys only it diversified and, in the late 1990s, started also accepting girls between the ages of three and thirteen. The school is set in thirty acres of grounds on the outskirts of the town.
Shrewsbury is home to
Shrewsbury School, a
public school, located on a large commanding site ("Kingsland") just south of the town centre overlooking the loop of the Severn. The school was once located in the town centre, in the buildings that are now the main county library on Castle Street. Opposite it on the other side of the river is
Shrewsbury High School, an
independent girls' day school.
However, the majority of the town's pupils attend one of the eight comprehensive schools.
The Priory School, formerly a
grammar school for girls, generally has the best GCSE exam results in the town.
Meole Brace School currently carries the status of Science College;
The Grange the status of Arts College;
Sundorne the status of Sports College and
Belvidere has the status of Technology College.
The Wakeman School, which is geographically the nearest school to the town, situated next to the
English Bridge, was previously known as 'Shrewsbury Technical School', which was attended by the famous war poet
Wilfred Owen. Additionally, there are two other establishments located out of the town which serve the town's students.
The Corbet, located to the north at Baschurch; and
Mary Webb School, located in the large village of
Pontesbury, to the south-west.
Post-16 education is handled by
Shrewsbury Sixth Form College, which has some of the best A-Level results in the country, and
Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology, which handles primarily vocational courses. Proposals from 2007 to co-locate the two colleges have met with fierce opposition, from the fear that town centre trade will suffer from the loss of the student population, as well as the reduced access to the London Road site, which lacks the rail and bus stations of Shrewsbury town centre.
Transport
Shrewsbury is the county's
public transportation hub and has extensive road and rail links to the rest of the county and country.
Rail
Five railway lines connect the town to most corners of Shropshire and the town is regarded as the "Gateway to
Wales".
Shrewsbury railway station is served by
Arriva Trains Wales and
London Midland. Trains frequently run east to
Birmingham via
Telford and
Wolverhampton, north to
Chester,
Manchester,
Crewe and
Wrexham, south to
Hereford and
Cardiff, and west to
Aberystwyth. On 28 April 2008 open access service provider
Wrexham & Shropshire commenced services to London. This restored the county's direct rail link to
London; previously Shropshire was the only English county without a dedicated service to the capital.
Roads
Shrewsbury is connected to the national road network and nearby towns via a number of significant roads.
The
A5 connects the town northwest to
Oswestry, and east towards
Telford, where it becomes the
M54. The A5 once ran through the town centre, until a
bypass was built in the 1930s. Subsequently, in 1992, a seventeen mile
dual carriageway was completed at a cost of 79 million pounds to the south of the town, and was made to form part of the A5 route. This dual carriageway was built further out of the town to act as a substantial link to
Telford, as well as a bypass for the town.
The
A49 also goes to Shrewsbury, joining the A5 at the south of the town, coming from
Ludlow and
Leominster. At this point, the road merges with the A5 for three miles, before separating again to the east of the town. From there it runs north, passing
Sundorne, then
Battlefield, before heading out towards
Whitchurch. At Battlefield, the
A53 route begins and heads northeast towards
Shawbury and
Market Drayton then onwards towards
Newcastle-under-Lyme and
Stoke-on-Trent.
The
A458 (
Welshpool-
Bridgnorth) runs through the town centre, entering in the west and leaving to the southeast. The
A528 begins in the town centre and heads north, heading for
Ellesmere. The
A488 begins just west of the town centre in
Frankwell and heads out to
Bishop's Castle,
Clun and
Knighton crossing the border in the southwest of Shropshire.
Major roads within the town include the
A5112,
A5191 and
A5064. The A5191 goes north-south via the town centre, while the A5112 runs north-south to the east of the town centre. The A5064 is a short, one mile stretch of road to the southeast of the town centre, called "London Road". Additionally, the
A5124, the most recent bypass, was completed in 1998, and runs across the northern edge of the town at Battlefield (connecting the A49/A53 to the A528), though it did exist before as Harlescott Lane (which has since become unclassified).
Buses
Bus services in the town are operated by Arriva and serve most parts of the town, congregating at the town's bus station adjacent to the Darwin Shopping Centre and a short stroll from the railway station. Arriva also operate county services both independent of and on behalf of Shropshire County Council. There are other bus companies operating around the Shrewsbury area, including Minsterley Motors.
Shrewsbury has a Park and Ride bus scheme in operation and three car parks on the edge of town are used by many who want to travel into the town centre. The three car parks are located at Harlescott (to the north, colour-coded orange), Oxon (to the west, colour-coded brown) and Meole Brace (to the south, colour-coded green). It is proposed that a fourth one be built to the east of the town, at either Emstrey or Preston.
Bridges
The town has many bridges, which cross the River Severn and the Rea Brook. Frankwell footbridge is a modern pedestrian footbridge between Frankwell and the town centre spanning the River Severn. Downstream is the Welsh Bridge, which was built in the 1790s to replace the ancient St George's Bridge. Further along is the Porthill Bridge, a pedestrian suspension bridge running between The Quarry and Porthill, built in 1922. The next bridge along the river is the Kingsland Bridge, a privately owned toll bridge, and the subsequent bridge is the Greyfriars Bridge, a pedestrian bridge between Coleham and the town centre. Following the Greyfriars Bridge is the English Bridge, historically called "Stone Bridge", which was rebuilt in the 1930s, and beyond it's the railway station, which is partly built over the river. After the station is the Castle Walk Footbridge, another modern pedestrian footbridge.
A. E. Housman wrote of the area this verse, which mentions the bridges of the town:
Notable people
There have been a number of notable
Salopians, and people otherwise associated with the town of Shrewsbury, including
Charles Darwin, a biologist and
evolutionary theorist, one of the most important thinkers of the nineteenth century, who was born in Shrewsbury on
12 February 1809 at The Mount House, and was educated in the town at
Shrewsbury School.
People with political associations also have connections with the town.
Leo Blair, the father of former Prime Minister
Tony Blair, is a resident of the town. Former residents have included
Michael Heseltine, a
Conservative politician who was educated at Shrewsbury School, and
Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet, who was once Britain's richest man, and was MP for Shrewsbury. He lived in apartments at Shrewsbury Castle.
Robert Clive was MP for Shrewsbury, and also the mayor.
Ian Hunter (or Ian Patterson), the lead singer of the 70's pop group
Mott the Hoople, was a resident of 23a Swan Hill in the town centre, and wrote a song of the same name. Also a resident of the town was
John Peel, a
DJ and radio presenter, who was educated at Shrewsbury School. Another DJ from the town is
Lange, a producer of dance music, who was born in Shrewsbury. The 1980s pop group
T'Pau was formed in the town and the band's vocalist
Carol Decker was born and educated in the town, along with other members of the band.
Shrewsbury has also been home to contributors to literature. Prior to the First World War,
Wilfred Owen, a poet lived in the town.
Paul Gustafson, an author, self-publicist and biologist was born in Shrewsbury, and
Mary Webb is buried there.
Michael Palin, the writer, actor and comedian attended Shrewsbury School. Other actors with associations with the town include
Nick Hancock, presenter of
They Think It's All Over, who, like Palin, was educated at Shrewsbury School.
Nick Conway is another actor connected to the town, and was born in it in 1962.
Sporting Salopians include
Danny Guthrie, a footballer who was born in Shrewsbury; and
Joe Hart, an under-21 international footballer, born in the town, and educated at Meole Brace School.
Sandy Lyle, a professional golfer, was also born in the town.
Other notable people of the town include
Robert Cadman, a performer and
steeplejack, who is buried in the town, at St. Mary's Church.
Simon Gosling, a
designer was born in the town, and was resident there until 1994.
John Gwynn, an 18th century
architect, who designed the
English Bridge and the bridge at Atcham was born in the town.
Percy Thrower, the gardener and broadcaster was a resident of Shrewsbury.
Flight Lieutenant Eric Lock DSO,
DFC and
Bar was born in nearby
Bayston Hill and was educated at
Prestfelde public school on London Road. Lock became internationally recognised as a high scoring
fighter ace of the
Royal Air Force during
World War II with twenty six victories before his death in combat at the age of twenty one. He was the RAF's most successful
British-born pilot during the
Battle of Britain, shooting down 16.5 German aircraft in a period of just a few weeks.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shrewsbury'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://shrewsbury.totallyexplained.com">Shrewsbury Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
