Shropshire

Covers 1,348 square miles (3,491 sq km), Situated in the West of England. It is also sometimes called Salop. The county seat is Shrewsbury. With a population of less than half a million, it is one of England's most sparsely populated counties. Some two-thirds of the population live in Shrewsbury, Telford or one of the ten main market towns, while the county's 600 villages and many scattered hamlets are home to the rest.

In Shropshire there are the popular towns of Shrewsbury, Telford, and Bucknell.

 

Geography

Shropshire's scenery varies from the meres of the north to the hills of the centre and south, with breath-taking views from Wenlock Edge, the Long Mynd and The Wrekin, and around the River Severn as it wanders through the county. The countryside to the north and east of the Severn, is level; toward the Welsh border and the south the land is hilly. The main river is the Severn

 

Industry

It is a working landscape with farming and related industries, business parks and busy commercial centres.

 

History

The ancient Watling Street and Offa's Dyke cross the county. In Anglo-Saxon times Shropshire was a part of the kingdom of Mercia, Athelflaed, daughter of King Alfred and wife of the Mercian King, fortified Shrewsbury as a regional administrative centre. After the Norman Conquest it became an important part of the Welsh Marches and was the scene of much border conflict and castle building for defence. There are ruins of many medieval castles and old monastic remains. Shropshire's economy prospered, largely thanks to wool, and that wealth did much over the centuries to shape the attractive towns that we know today.