Shropshire

Shropshire is an English county in the West Midlands on the border of England with Wales. It is one of England's most rural counties. The county name is often abbreviated to the nickname, Salop. It has the principal town of Shrewsbury, but the county town is traditionally Ludlow, whose castle was once a royal residence and the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches. Its major industrial centre is Telford. It also contains the town of Ironbridge, where the world's first iron bridge was constructed, bridging the River Severn. The abundance of charcoal for smelting in this area, in conjunction with this invention was one of the reasons that the Ironbridge area was one of the starting factors in the Industrial Revolution.

Notable hills in the county are the Long Mynd[?] and Stiperstones[?] in the south, and The Wrekin[?] in the east. The River Severn enters as a minor river from Welshpool[?] on the western edge, and exits the county substantially enlarged at Bridgnorth[?], in the south east. Shrewsbury station has direct trains to London, Manchester and Birmingham, as well as to western and southern Wales. There are also stations at Wellington[?], Telford, Church Stretton, Craven Arms[?], Whitchurch[?] and Wem[?]. The M54 links Shrewsbury to the national motorway network just north of Birmingham, and the A49 runs north-south through the county linking it with Hereford and Manchester.

Musician and composer Edward German was born and is buried in Whitchurch.

Towns and villages

Places of interest