Introduction to the county of Shropshire

Shropshire is one of England's best kept secrets

It is a county of wide-ranging appeal both for residents and the many visitors who come each year. Shropshire is steeped in history with an outstanding natural landscape combined with modern developments, which offer an unrivalled quality of life for people living, working or visiting the county.

Shropshire's beautiful scenery varies from the meres of the north to the hills of the centre and the south, with breath-taking views from Wenlock Edge, the Long Mynd and The Wrekin, and around the River Severn as it wanders through the county.

Everywhere in Shropshire there is evidence of the county's remarkable past. Attractive villages and market towns boast handsome medieval churches and decorated half-timbered buildings from Tudor times, while the Ironbridge World Heritage Site reminds us that Shropshire is where the Industrial Revolution began.

But it is also a working landscape with farming and related industries, busy commercial centres, and business parks catering for a vast range of businesses. New businesses, modern leisure centres, cultural events, shopping malls and out-of-town retail parks have been developed to take Shropshire forward into the future.

Shropshire is England's largest inland county, covering an area of 1,347 square miles. To the west it borders Wales and to the south rural Herefordshire. In the north is Cheshire and, to the east, Staffordshire and the West Midlands conurbation. With a population of less than half a million, it is one of England's most sparsely populated counties and agriculture is an important part of the local economy.

The county town is Shrewsbury, with other major centres including Oswestry, Whitchurch, Market Drayton, Ludlow, Bridgnorth and Church Stretton. The historic county also includes the Borough of Telford & Wrekin, which is a unitary authority.

Some two-thirds of the population live in Shrewsbury, Telford or one of the ten main market towns, while the county's 600 villages and many scattered hamlets are home to the rest.

For more information about Shropshire follow the links on this page.

The Audit Commission 'area profiles' website offers a comparison of the quality of life and services across different areas of the UK.