40 Facts About Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury's known history commences in the Early Middle Ages, having been founded c 800 AD.

In 1283, Edward I summoned a parliament in Shrewsbury to try and condemn David III, last of the independent native line of Princes of Wales, to execution by hanging, drawing and quartering within the town after David was captured, ending his rebellion against the King.

In 1403 the Battle of Shrewsbury was fought a few miles north of the town centre, at Battlefield; it was fought between King Henry IV and Henry Hotspur Percy, with the King emerging victorious, an event celebrated in William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5.

Shrewsbury's monastic gathering was disbanded with the Dissolution of the Monasteries and as such the Abbey was closed in 1540.

Shrewsbury has played a part in Western intellectual history, by being the town where the naturalist Charles Darwin was born in 1809 and brought up.

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Town suffered very little from air raids in the Second World War, the worst case in Shrewsbury was in 1940, a woman and her two grandchildren were killed when a cottage was destroyed on Ellesmere Road, the only local air raid deaths.

One bomb detonated within the grounds of Shrewsbury Castle causing severe damage to the regimental museum of the Shropshire Light Infantry.

Shrewsbury won the West Midlands Capital of Enterprise award in 2004.

Shrewsbury is about 14 miles west of Telford, 43 miles west of Birmingham and the West Midlands Conurbation, and about 153 miles north-west of the capital, London.

Climate of Shrewsbury is similar to that of the rest of Shropshire, generally moderate.

Shrewsbury is the administrative centre for the new Shropshire Council, the unitary authority covering most of Shropshire .

Shrewsbury is in the Shrewsbury and Atcham constituency and is the only large settlement in the constituency.

Previous MPs for Shrewsbury have included 19th century Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Shrewsbury was until 2009 an unparished area and had no town or parish council.

In 1958 the Sentinel Waggon Works at Shrewsbury was taken over by Rolls-Royce Limited for the manufacture of their range of diesel industrial engines, so that the factory at Derby could concentrate on aero engines.

Shrewsbury is well known for being home to a high number of independent businesses, including shops, cafes and restaurants.

Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury is said to have the 'longest uninterrupted row of independent shops'.

Businesses in Shrewsbury voted in favour of a Business Improvement District in late 2013 and Shrewsbury BID started operating in April 2014.

Shrewsbury BID delivers on a five-year business plan of projects, which include major destination marketing campaigns, significant cost savings for businesses and strategic work ensuring the best possible town centre environment in which business can flourish.

Shrewsbury is governed by a board of directors and employs three staff full-time.

Shrewsbury has traditionally been known as the "Town of Flowers", a moniker incorporated into many of the signs on entrance to the town via major roads, although this was replaced in 2007 with 'the birthplace of Charles Darwin'.

Many community projects in Shrewsbury are based in, or have been started by local churches, including the Isaiah 58 project, which is the primary work amongst homeless people in the town, whilst 'Churches Together in Shrewsbury' works to help homeless people through the Ark project.

Shrewsbury spent his formative years in the town, the town's river and proximity to the countryside inspired his interest in the natural world and the abundance of ice-age boulders within the town sparked his interest in geology.

Classicist Mary Beard was educated in Shrewsbury and her father was a prominent Shrewsbury architect.

Shrewsbury drew on this experience in writing the comedy The Recruiting Officer.

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Shrewsbury'sffield Wednesday and Scotland striker Steven Fletcher was born in the town, where his serviceman father was stationed.

Shrewsbury was the RAF's most successful British-born pilot in the Battle of Britain.

Shrewsbury has a busy spring and summer events season, which includes music, art, food and sport.

In film, Shrewsbury was used as the setting for the popular 1984 film, A Christmas Carol, which filmed many of its interior and exterior shots in and around the town.

Shrewsbury is well known in culinary circles for being the namesake of a classic English dessert.

Shrewsbury is the origin of the most popular Simnel cake recipe.

Bury, Devizes and Shrewsbury produced large numbers to their own recipes, but it is the Shrewsbury version that became most well known.

Shrewsbury is home to Shrewsbury School, a public school, on a large site just south of the town centre overlooking the loop of the Severn.

Shrewsbury is the county's public transport hub; it has road and rail links to the rest of the county and country.

Main railway station building of Shrewsbury General includes a clock tower, imitation Tudor chimneys and carved heads in the frames of every window.

A49 goes to Shrewsbury, joining the A5 at the south of the town, coming from Ludlow and Leominster.

Shrewsbury has a comprehensive network of on-road and traffic-free cycle routes.

Shrewsbury is home to a professional football club, Shrewsbury Town Football Club.

Shrewsbury Sports Village is a sports centre in the Sundorne district of the town, aimed at providing a wide range of sports facilities for townspeople.

Until 2018 Shrewsbury was twinned with Zutphen, Netherlands, a move inspired by the fact Sir Philip Sidney, an alumnus of Shrewsbury School, was fatally wounded there in 1586.