ounty of western England, which has contained the unitary authority The Wrekin since April 1998. Shropshire was officially known by the name Salop from 1974 until local protest reversed the decision in 1980.

Shropshire County Council - North Shropshire District Council - Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council - Telford and Wrekin District Council

Shrewsbury
Market town on the River Severn, There are service industries and light manufacturing and tourism is important. To the east at Wroxeter is the site of the Roman city of Viroconium.
Landmarks include Clive House Museum, the 18th-century residence of Robert Clive (of India) and the church of St Mary with its 14th-century Jesse window. The castle dates from 1070.
In the 5th century, as Pengwern, Shrewsbury was capital of the kingdom of Powys, which later became part of Mercia. In the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, Henry IV defeated the rebels led by Hotspur (Sir Henry Percy). The city declined an invitation in 1539, at the dissolution of the monasteries, to become a cathedral city.
The town centre is on a peninsula of rising ground within a horseshoe bend of the Severn; suburbs beyond the river are reached by two principal bridges which from their position on the main east-west highway are known respectively as the English Bridge and the Welsh Bridge. Shrewsbury retains much of its medieval character, particularly in the centre of the town, with its black and white timber-frame buildings, which sometimes lean out and almost touch, and its unusual street names.
At the narrowest point of the peninsula stands the castle, founded c. 1070 by Roger de Montgomery; it served as a royal fortress until the time of Charles II, but was rebuilt by Telford.
Roger de Montgomery also founded a Benedictine monastery at Shrewsbury in 1083, but at the dissolution the monastic buildings were demolished, together with the east end of the abbey church of SS Peter and Paul, the west end being spared as a parish church.

The church of St Mary, part Norman and part Early English, possesses some remarkable glass, including a 14th-century Jesse window of English glass, and stained glass from Trier (Trèves).
The town was formerly walled, though now only a portion of the original wall can be seen. Substantial remains of a unique 13th-century town house, probably the `Bennetteshalle´ known to have belonged to the abbots of Haughmond, were investigated in 1957, prior to demolition. The ruins of Haughmond Abbey, founded in 1135 by William Fitz-Alan for Augustinian canons, lie 5 km / 3 miles northeast of the town.

During the time of Elizabeth I many of the timber-framed mansions which survive today were built, for example Ireland's Mansion (1575) and Owen's Mansion (1592). Rowley's House (1595), another 16th-century timber-framed building, houses the museum of Roman antiquities from the city of Viroconium at Wroxeter near Shrewsbury. By the river is Shrewsbury School, originally situated in the town (the 17th-century school buildings are now the borough library and museum). Charles Darwin was a pupil here. The cattle market is one of the busiest in England.
Offa made Shrewsbury part of his kingdom of Mercia at the end of the 8th century; in the Saxon and Norman periods it was frequently raided by the Welsh. Early in the 13th century Llewelyn the Great twice captured Shrewsbury; Edward I made it his seat of government (1277-83), and here Dafydd, last Welsh royal prince, was tried and executed (1283).
Church Stretton, a small market town with spectacular scenery rising through Cardingmill Valley to the heights of the Long Mynd, 4,530 acres of heath & moorland.
Stokesay Castle, one of the finest fortified manor houses in England.
Ludlow, with its box framed houses and Norman Castle.
Bridgnorth, with its cliff railway which has a 1in 11/2 gradient linking high and low town. Bridgnorth stages the finishing point to many raft races down the river Severn from Ironbridge - the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

Ironbridge Gorge open-air museum of industrial archaeology, with the Iron Bridge (1779), the world's first cast-iron bridge; Market Drayton is famous for its gingerbread, and Wem for its sweet peas Shropshire became a county in the 10th century, as part of the kingdom of Mercia in its defence against the Danes. During the Middle Ages, it was part of the Welsh Marches and saw much conflict between the lords of the Marches and the Welsh. On the evidence of its numerous hill-top forts, Shropshire had a considerable population in the Early Iron Age. It was settled by the Romans, who established at Wroxeter the third largest city of Roman Britain, and was subsequently added to the Saxon kingdom of Mercia by Offa in the 8th century. There are several sections of Offa's Dyke, marking the boundary between Mercia and Wales, in the west of the county. Near Shrewsbury was fought the battle between Henry IV and the Percys (1403) at which Henry Percy was killed; the place is now marked by the church and village of Battlefield. The county contains many beautiful ruins, such as Haughmond, Buildwas, and Lilleshall abbeys and Much Wenlock Priory. There is a large number of castles, of which only fragments generally remain; Ludlow is the finest. Stokesay House is perhaps the best example in the country of a fortified manor-house of the 13th century. There are many other manor -houses of the 16th to 18th centuries, and many examples of the traditional timber-framed architecture characteristic of the area. Shropshire's churches display a range of architectural styles: Heath Chapel, Edstaston, and Holgate are Norman; Acton Burnell is a perfect example of Early English; and the church at Tong is in the Perpendicular style.