Shrewsbury

SHREWSBURY (Salop; Welsh Amwythig), an ancient mar ket centre and the county town of Shropshire, England. Pop. (1930 32,370. Its position in relation to the routes leading into Wales and along the border has made it a town of great impor tance. The old part of the town, including churches, old houses and market hall, lies almost entirely within the remarkable south ward loop here described by the Severn.

History.

The picturesque red-sandstone castle, built origi nally by Roger de Montgomery (1070), crowns the narrow bluff which forms the neck of the peninsula. Under the castle clusters the town, with its half-timbered houses and narrow, quaintly named streets, leaving the public park or Quarry, outside the old walls but still within the loop of the river. Over its two ancient bridges, the English and the Welsh, the town early spread east and west into Abbey Foregate, around the abbey church and into Frankwell on the Welsh side. The strategic position of the penin sula rising above the Severn floodlands was recognized from the time of the princes of Powys, who made it their seat, called Peng wern, in the 5th and 6th centuries. At the end of the 8th century it was engulfed in the province of Mercia and given its Saxon name Scrobesbyrig, with alternative Sloppesbury, from which came the modern titles, Shrewsbury and Salop, respectively.

As a Saxon and Norman town it became the base of operations, alike of war and peace, extending up the lowland ways westward into the upper Severn valley. Being one of the chief border towns it was besieged and plundered by the Welsh on numerous occa sions, and was never without fear of sudden raids. The first ex tant charter, dated 1199, is a grant by Richard I. to the burgesses of the town at a fee farm of 4o marks, but Henry II. is known to have granted an earlier charter which was confirmed by King John in 1200. Henry II. in 1227 granted a gild merchant with a house. Besides these charters there are numerous confirmations before the incorporation charter of Elizabeth of 1586. Charles I. in 1638 altered the corporation to a mayor, 24 aldermen and 48 assistants. In 1684 the burgesses surrendered their charter to the king and received a new one in the following year which, however, did not change the form of government. In 1403, at Battlefield on the north side of the town, Henry Percy was defeated by Henry IV. During the late Middle Ages and again in Tudor and Elizabethan times the town profited greatly from trade with the Welsh in wool and flax. The Severn was navigable for about, 40 m. above Shrewsbury, and this enabled a vast amount of com merce to be carried on with Gloucester and Bristol.

With the establishment of law and order in the Marches in Tudor times, Shrewsbury and the border saw a period of great prosperity which had as one of its expressions the spread of the custom of building half-timbered houses. Ireland's mansion (c. 158o), Owen's mansion (c. 1592), the Drapers' hall and the stone

Market hall are examples of the art which culminated at this time. Another feature of border or "fall line" towns in general is exemplified by growth of the industry of printing, e.g., of many Welsh books in the 17th century. The importance of the town houses of the country gentry in the 18th century consolidated the position of the town as a regional centre ; while as a market and route town it has continued to flourish. The remarkable concen tration of road and rail routes can be seen best from a map. Since 1918 important steam-waggon works and other industries have grown on flat lands to the north of the old settlement ; and addi tions to the town are extending along all the main roads so that the effective urban population is much larger than the census figure given, being probably 35,000 or 40,000. Old established industries include brewing, melting and tanning. The general sta tion, a joint station of the G.W.R. and L.M.S.R., deals with a vast amount of traffic, and the labour attracted is one important feature of the town's development.

Buildings, etc.

Shrewsbury castle, now the property of the mayor and corporation, was restored by Telford, but retains the walls of the inner court and two round Edwardian towers. Op posite the castle entrance are the old grammar school buildings, in front of which is a bronze statue of Darwin, who was born at the Mount, in Frankwell. The schools now occupy a site south of the river, in Kingsland, formerly the scene of the Shrewsbury show, a pageant held during the Festival of Trinity. St. Mary's church, in a commanding position on high ground south of the castle, is a noble building with a lofty tower and spire, displaying examples of various styles of architecture from early Norman to Perpendicular. It has some interesting painted glass brought from the abbey of Altenburg and a large 14th century Jesse window at the east end, taken from Old St. Chad's. St. Alkmond's and St. Giles's are old foundations, much altered subsequently. Old St. Chad's church was destroyed by the f all of the tower in 1788, the new church being built shortly afterwards, on a new site, with a round auditorium. The restored Abbey church (Holy Cross), retains its massive Norman nave, built of deep red sandstone, and there also remain two Early English arches and an imposing decorated western tower. Of the monastic buildings little is left, save a remarkable roofed outdoor pulpit of ornate Decorated work.

In the centre of the old town is the Market square with the old market house, an Elizabethan building of 1596. Butcher row, up a narrow "shut" from the square, contains some noteworthy 15th century houses.

Shrewsbury is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop. For pur poses of parliamentary representation the borough is included in the Shrewsbury division, together with the rural districts of Atcham and Chirbury.