Welcome To the e-travelguide to Hotels, guest houses and attractions in Shropshire

Make the most of your time in Shropshire, use the information provided on this web site by clicking on the links above to plan your visit.

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands of England, and is bordered by the neighbouring counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Cheshire; one of England’s border counties, Shropshire is separated from Wales by a long, convoluted land border. Despite being one of England’s more rural counties, Shropshire (often abbreviated to Salop) is regarded by many historians as being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution; the area in and around Ironbridge Gorge, with its diverse range of rock types and deposits, was the scene of pioneering work undertaken in the 1770s to smelt iron ore more efficiently using coke – the resultant blast furnace cast iron was one of the most important engineering materials to be used in the Industrial Revolution, and the most iconic example of this is the superb iron bridge near Coalbrookdale, which was built in 1779 making it the world’s first bridge to be constructed from iron.


In addition to the Ironbridge Gorge – much of which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to its importance in Britain’s industrial might – there are other deviations from Shropshire’s rural character, such as Telford – designated a New Town in 1963 and named after the famous Civil Engineer Thomas Telford; Telford experienced rapid growth from the 1960s onwards, and eventually surpassed Shrewsbury as Shropshire’s most populous town. Shrewsbury is Shropshire’s county town and, while Telford is very much a product of the late 20 th Century, Shrewsbury is one of England’s best-preserved medieval towns. Industrialisation was very much concentrated in one area of the county, and places such as Shrewsbury continued their rather pastoral role up to the modern day. Despite this seemingly idyllic existence however, the history of rural Shropshire is a turbulent and often bloody one. Edward I built several of his imposing castles in the county to fortify his position in subjugating the Welsh – Oswestry castle for example was besieged four times in its history, although it was finally destroyed almost 300 years later, during the English Civil War.

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