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Once the red-hot furnace of Britain’s industrial revolution, Shropshire is a county that has successfully blended its coal-fired heritage with rural charm, glorious vistas and a dash of Arthurian mythology.

Lying on the turbulent England-Wales border, it is blessed not only with top-quality hotels and restaurants, set in streets full of half-timbered buildings, but also ancient hillforts, powerful castles and natural wonders.

Home of Offa’s Dyke, the 150-mile defensive earthwork built by the King of Mercia around AD 785, the county offers a remarkably varied landscape, from river banks and mountain tops to ‘blue remembered hills’, peat bogs and wood-fringed lakes.

Originally populated by prehistoric tribes known as the Ordovices and the Cornovil, this Midlands region was at one time the heartland of the conquering Romans who built Viroconium, near Shrewsbury, one of the largest Roman cities in Britain with a population of more than 6,000.

Broad Street, Ludlow (Photo - Shropshire Tourism)

In the Dark Ages, Shropshire was part of the Kingdom of Powys and the earliest references to a real King Arthur suggest he was a pre-Saxon, Romano-British chieftain who lived in the Oswestry region. An old hillfort overlooking the town is supposedly the birthplace of Queen Guinevere.

Its border was the source of violent rivalry and the Normans finally tried to solve the problem by erecting a series of awe-inspiring castles.

One of Britain’s least-populated counties, modern Shropshire is divided by Britain’s longest river, the Severn, into a relatively low-lying northern and eastern part and a higher southwestern area dominated by the Shropshire Hills.

Iron Bridge (Photo Shropshire Tourism)

It was in the dramatic gorge of the Severn that the pioneering ironmaster Abraham Darby perfected the secret of smelting iron in the 18th century with cheap, readily-available coke instead of costly charcoal.

His discovery changed the world and put a spark to the Industrial Revolution.

The gorge is now a World Heritage Site containing the first-ever iron bridge, designed and built by Abraham Darby the Third in 1779.

Nearby are ‘hands-on’ museums which bring to life the heady days of innovation and invention in a celebration of this once-technological powerhouse. A real treat for visitors is Blists Hill Victorian Town. The Museum of Iron tells the story of smelting right up to the Great Exhibition of 1851 where the famous Coalbrookdale Company exhibited its work. The county is built on rocks from 11 out of the 13 known periods of geology, the smallest place in the world to boast so many.

In the north, both the Ironbridge Gorge and the valleys of the Long Mynd, a 1,700ft heather-clad ridge that runs for seven miles, were carved by Ice Age glaciers.

It explains why the county has its own ‘lake district’ around the meres and mosses of Ellesmere and has such diverse wildlife, including otters, the rare dormouse and some splendid flora.

The Long Mynd (Photo - Shropshire Tourism)
The Long Mynd (Photo - Shropshire Tourism)

The five-mile long ridge known as the Wrekin, near Telford, stands over 1,300ft high and is 900 millions years old. From its summit, where there is an Iron Age hillfort, you can see no less than 17 counties. The Cornovil were the last British tribe to hold this strategic high point against the Romans

Britain’s first-ever theme park is in Shropshire in the guise of Hawkstone Park, a place of crags, man-made caves and grottos. Opened in 1748, it became a Victorian sensation as popular as 20^th century Blackpool. It even claims to have links with King Arthur.

The county provides the perfect backdrop for the Severn Valley steam railway, which travels through 16 miles of countryside with seven station stops, and the Shropshire Union Canal which wends its way to Llangollen, skirting sandstone hills via lift bridges and staircase locks to the aqueducts of Chirk and Pont Cysyllte.

Shropshire has many famous sons and daughters including Clive of India, the war-time poet Wilfred Owen, evolutionist Charles Darwin, the Reverend Spooner, inventor of the ‘spoonerism’, writer A.E. Housman (‘A Shropshire Lad’) and novelist Mary Webb.

Reputedly it was the birthplace of both Dick Whittington and Guinevere and there is a fascinating possibility that it is the resting place of both King Arthur and his inscrutable Holy Grail.

Stokesay Castle

While the county has significant castles such as those at Ludlow, Eastnor, Cholmondeley and Stokesay, it offers a variety of less tangible attractions ranging from the internationally-acclaimed Shewsbury Flower Show to the Ludlow Food Festival, as well as an array of golf courses and angling destinations.

The county can also rightly boast that it possesses some of Britain’s best gardens and public markets.

Tourist Information Centres:

Bridgnorth
The Library, Listley Street, Bridgnorth, WV16 4AW
Tel: 01746 763257 Fax: 01746 766625
E-mail: info@bridgnorthshropshire.com

Church Stretton
County Branch Library, Church Street, Church Stretton, SY6 6DG
Tel: 01694 723133 Fax: 01694 723045
E-mail: churchstretton.tourism@shropshire-cc.gov.uk

Ellesmere
The Mereside, Ellesmere, SY12 0HD
Tel: 01691 622981 Fax: 01691 622981
E-mail: ellesmere.tourism@shropshire-cc.gov.uk

Ironbridge
The Wharfage, Ironbridge Telford, TF8 7AW
Tel: 01952 432166 Fax: 01952 432204
E-mail: tic@ironbridge.org.uk

Ludlow
Castle Street, Ludlow, SY8 1AS
Tel: 01584 875053 Fax: 01584 877931
E-mail: ludlow.tourism@shropshire-cc.gov.uk

Market Drayton
49 Cheshire Street, Market Drayton, TF9 1PH.
Tel: 01630 6512139 Fax: 01630 652139
Email: marketdrayton.tourism@shropshire-cc.gov.uk

Much Wenlock
The Museum, High Street, Much Wenlock, TF13 6HR
Tel: 01952 727679 Fax: 01952 727679
E-mail: muchwenlock.tourism@shropshire-cc.gov.uk

Oswestry Town
Heritage Centre, 2 Church Terrace, Oswestry, SY11 2TE
Tel: 01691 662753 Fax: 01691 65811
E-mail: ot@oswestry-welshborders.org.uk

Oswestry Mile End
Mile End, Oswestry, SY11 4JA
Tel: 01691 662488 Fax: 01691 662883
E-mail: oswestry.tourism@oswestry-bc.gov.uk

Shrewsbury
The Music Hall, The Square, Shrewsbury, SY1 1LH
Tel: 01743 281200 Fax: 01743 218213
E-mail: tic@shrewsburytourism.co.uk

Telford
The Telford Shopping Centre, Telford, TF3 4BX
Tel: 01952 230032 Fax: 01952 291723
E-mail: info@telfordshopping.co.uk

Whitchurch
12 St Mary's Street, Whitchurch, SY13 1QY
Tel: 01948 664577 Fax: 01948 665432
E-mail: whitchurch.heritage@ukonline.co.uk

Useful Links:

Car Parking in Shropshire - www.where2park.net

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