Historic Towns

Shrewsbury
Scrobbesbyrig to the Saxons, the county town of Shropshire is first mentioned in a charter of 901. Shrewsbury is stunning historic town with over 660 listed buildings and some very strange street names - Dogpole and Mardol, Gullet Passage and Grope Lane.

Shrewsbury’s history is out there in its higgledy-piggledy streets of now wonky buildings. The new Museum is ideally placed to help you discover it: in the red sandstone of the Castle, the stained glass of St. Mary’s Church and the ancient banks and ditches that encircle the surrounding hills.

When you look down on Shrewsbury from above, you can see that the river Severn forms an almost perfect loop around the town – like a moat, designed and built by nature. You can walk the whole loop from Welsh Bridge to English Bridge. The towpath passes right through the Quarry Park and Frankwell where Charles Darwin spent many happy hours as a boy. Look out for Shrewsbury's shuts and passages - a unique maze of narrow alleys which criss-cross the town centre and are part of the town's medieval street plan.

In a world of identikit high streets, Shrewsbury is one of the few places where the independent shops outnumber the big chains – interesting shops with names you’ve never heard before.  Click here to access more general information on the town. 

Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth sits high on a sandstone cliff and is divided in two - a high town and low town. Here are caves, a castle, a cliff railway, a civil war and catastrophes that all had a bearing on the town you see today. Bordered and divided by Britain’s longest river, the Severn, there are spectacular views of the valley and low town from the high town.

The town has two unique heritage railways: a Cliff Railway that climbs from the Severn to the high town and the famous Severn Valley Railway, operating vintage trains on a beautiful sixteen mile stretch of riverside line.

There are two markets - a livestock market and a Saturday street market as well as a permanent indoor market area and a Friday market under the Town Hall.

Much Wenlock
Much Wenlock a stunningly beautiful medieval town and also the birthplace of Dr William Penny Brookes who founded the Wenlock Olympian Society. It was his inspiration that contributed to the modern Olympic Movement.

A market town for over 700 years the architecture is as varied as the history as Medieval, Georgian and Victorian buildings all jostle for position. A short stroll from the town centre are the dramatic ruins of Wenlock Priory ruin, laid upon the site of St. Milburga's Abbey at around 680 AD.

Walk around the town centre and it may seem you have stepped back fifty or more years. You won’t find any ‘big names’, but you will find a great selection of traditional shops, all offering good old-fashioned personal service. Much Wenlock is a place where folk still have time for you.

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