Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury , city (1991 pop. 57,731), county seat of Shropshire, W England, on the Severn River. Shrewsbury is a road and rail junction with varied manufactures. It was an ancient Saxon and Norman stronghold. The earldom of Shrewsbury was an important marcher lordship (see Welsh Marches ). There are ruins of an 11th-century castle and abbey and several old churches. The narrow streets are lined by many oak-timbered, black-and-white houses of the 15th, 16th, and 17th cent. A public garden and park add to the city's beauty. In 1403, Henry IV defeated Henry Percy (Hotspur) on a plain near Shrewsbury and had the body of the rebel displayed to the townspeople as proof. Shrewsbury School, a public school founded in 1552 by King Edward VI, overlooks the Severn. Philip Sidney , Charles Darwin (who was born in Shrewsbury), and Fulke Greville studied there.

Shrewsbury. County town of Shropshire, its old centre built on a defensive hill nearly surrounded by the river Severn. It has been a regional centre since Anglo-Saxon times, a military strong point in the Welsh marches, and a centre of cloth trading and manufacture from the Middle Ages to the 19th cent. In the 16th and early 17th cents. it was also, with Ludlow, a centre of the Council for Wales in the Marches. It has a fine legacy of historic buildings, especially timber-framed houses of the Tudor and Stuart period. Holy Cross abbey (Benedictine), near the English bridge, has a fine early Norman nave. There is a very pleasant riverside walk, past the boathouses of Shrewsbury school, and outside the old school (c.1600) is a seated statue of Charles Darwin, one of the distinguished former pupils. The railway station nearby is jolly mock Tudor.

David M. Palliser/ and Professor J. A. Cannon