Shropshire

Shropshire (; abbreviated Salop) is a ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England, on the border with Wales. It is bordered by Cheshire to the north-east, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south-east, Herefordshire to the south, and the Welsh principal areas of Powys and Wrexham to the west and north-west respectively. The largest settlement is Telford, while Shrewsbury is the county town. Shropshire has an area of 3,487 km2 (1,346 square miles) and had an estimated population of 528,407 in 2024. Telford in the east and Shrewsbury in the centre are the largest towns. Shropshire is otherwise rural, and contains market towns such as Oswestry in the north-west, Market Drayton in the north-east, Bridgnorth in the south-east, and Ludlow in the south. For local government purposes the county comprises the unitary authority areas of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. The county historically had a large exclave around Halesowen and Oldbury, which are now in the West Midlands county. The south-west and far west of the county are upland. The Shropshire Hills occupy most of the south-west and include the Stiperstones, Clee Hills, Long Mynd plateau, and the Wenlock Edge escarpment. Together with the Wrekin, which stands isolated to the west of Telford, they have been designated a national landscape. To their west is the upland Clun Forest, and in the far north-west of the county are the Oswestry uplands. The north of the county is a plain, and the far north contains Whixall Moss, part of a national nature reserve. The south-east is a sandstone plateau which forms part of the catchment of the Severn, the county's major river; it enters Shropshire in the west and flows through Shrewsbury before turning south-east and exiting into Worcestershire south of Bridgnorth. There is evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age human occupation in Shropshire, including the Shropshire bulla pendant. The hillfort at Old Oswestry dates from the Iron Age, and the remains of the city of Viroconium Cornoviorum date from the Roman period. During the Anglo-Saxon era the area was part of Mercia. During the High Middle Ages the county was part of the Welsh Marches, the border region between Wales and England; from 1472 to 1689 Ludlow was the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches, which administered justice in Wales and Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. During the English Civil War Shropshire was Royalist, and Charles II fled through the county—famously hiding in an oak tree—after his final defeat at the Battle of Worcester. The area around Coalbrookdale is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.