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Founding
Founding of Shrewsbury
county town of Shropshire, England
- 1189
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Founding
county town of Shropshire, England
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
Shrewsbury ( SHROHZ-bree, SHROOZ-) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, 33 miles (53 km) northwest of Wolverhampton, 15 miles (24 km) west of Telford, 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Wrexham and 53 miles (85 km) north of Hereford. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 76,782. It is the county town of the ceremonial county of Shropshire.
Shrewsbury has Anglo-Saxon roots and institutions whose foundations, dating from that time, represent a cultural continuity possibly going back as far as the 8th century. The centre has a largely undisturbed medieval street plan and over 660 listed buildings, including several examples of timber framing from the 15th and 16th centuries. Shrewsbury Castle, a red sandstone fortification, and Shrewsbury Abbey, were founded in 1074 and 1083 respectively by the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery. The town is the birthplace of the naturalist Charles Darwin. It has had a role in nurturing aspects of English culture, including drama, ballet, dance and pantomime.
Located 9 miles (14 km) east of the England–Wales border, Shrewsbury serves as the commercial centre for Shropshire and parts of mid-Wales, with a retail output of over £299 million per year and light industry and distribution centres, such as Battlefield Enterprise Park, on the outskirts. The A5 and A49 trunk roads come together as the town's by-pass and five railway lines meet at Shrewsbury railway station.
The name comes from Old English Scrobbesburh (dative Scrobbesbyrig), meaning either "Scrobb's fort" or "the fortified place of the scrubland". The surrounding county was known as Scrobbesbyrigscir or simply Scrobscir, a name that later became Shropshire. The Normans, who had trouble pronouncing the initial consonant cluster, referred to the town as Salopesberie and the county as Salopescira, hence the abbreviation Salop.
The town's name can be pronounced as either (SHROHZ-bər-ee) or (SHROOZ-bər-ee), the correct pronunciation being a matter of longstanding debate.
Evidence of Neolithic occupation of a religious form dating back before 2,000 BC, was discovered in 2017 in the grounds of the medieval Church of the Holy Fathers in Sutton Farm, making it Britain's oldest place of worship. An Early Bronze Age urned burial was excavated at Crowmeole in 2015. An Iron Age double ring ditch has been excavated at Meole Brace. Amongst other finds, parts of an Iron Age sword and scabbard were recovered.
At Meole Brace, an extensive roadside settlement along the line of the Roman military road connecting Viroconium Cornoviorum and Caersws was uncovered, with evidence of trading of amphorae and mortaria. A major discovery was the finding of the Shrewsbury Hoard of more than 9000 Roman coins in a field near the town in 2009.
It is claimed that Pengwern, sometime capital of the Kingdom of Powys (itself established by the 440s), was at Shrewsbury, and it has been said in Parliament that the town was founded by the late 600s, the basis for this likely the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle's account of the 584 battle at Fethanleag, where Ceawlin defeated the Britons and captured numerous settlements including possibly Uriconium, which sets the historical context for the first likely textual mention of Shrewsbury in the poetry of the British prince Llywarch Hen, who mourned the destruction of Uriconium. Llywarch Hen's presence at the court of Prince Cynddylan at Pengwern, understood as the British name for Shrewsbury, implies the town's existence during this period. There is consistent tradition that the town was "founded in the 5th century, on occasion of the decay of the Roman Uriconium." Historian John Wacher suggests that Shrewsbury may have been refortified by refugees fleeing an outbreak of a plague in Viroconium around this time. Context for the nature of early Medieval period life in the wider district can be found in archaeological evidence on the nearby Attingham estate, where foundations of two rare 25m-long Anglo-Saxon timber halls dating to around 650 AD have been discovered, highlighting a significant and well-resourced Anglo-Saxon community in the region.
The first attested association of Pengwern with Shrewsbury is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century. Alternative suggestions as to the location of Pengwern include Whittington Castle near Oswestry, and Berth, a hillfort near Baschurch. The Historia Divae Monacellae, composed in the 14th or 15th century, says that Brochwel Ysgithrog, the 6th-century king of Powis, had a palace at Shrewsbury that became the site of the foundation of St Chad.
In the late 8th century, it is said that Offa took the town for the Mercians in 778, and he is associated by some sources with establishing the town's first church and dedicating it to St Chad. If so, then there may have been an ecclesiastical foundation in the town within a century of the death of Chad of Mercia.
Shrewsbury remained part of the Mercian kingdom until its incorporation into the larger realm of England under Egbert in the first half of the ninth century. During the subsequent Saxon period, historical records of the town are scarce.
Early in the tenth century Athelstan made a law to secure uniformity of coinage throughout his dominion, and this enactment specified the number of moneyers in the principal towns. Shrewsbury possessed one such moneyer, proving that while it reached a certain point of importance it did not rank among towns of the first class (this number was later raised to three in the reign of Edward the Confessor; and all through the period from Athelstan to Henry III, the Shrewsbury mint was busy).
Viking raiders from the north were reaching as far south as Bridgnorth by 910, and in 914, Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great and known as the Lady of the Mercians, fortified Shrewsbury, along with Hereford and two other fortresses, at Scergeat (a currently unknown location) and Weardbyrig (thought to be Whitchurch, which would make sense given the strategic importance of the Roman Road link via the Via Devana). Recent excavations at Shrewsbury Castle, funded by the Castle Studies Trust, revealed a massive defensive ditch surrounding the Norman motte and evidence of fortified presence on the castle site, predating the Norman invasion.
Some time before 918, the relics of St Alkmund were translated to Shrewsbury and back to Shropshire from Derby, this was probably the work of Æthelflæd. This return to Shropshire move followed Alkmund's initial burial in Shropshire after his death in 800.
Later, King Edgar (957–75) established a collegiate church with a dean and 10 prebendaries at St Alkmund's Church, it was a Royal peculiar, and subsequently, it became the property of Lilleshall Abbey in about 1145, when the relics were retranslated back to Derby.
Following Æthelflæd's fortification of Shrewsbury, the town largely avoided the devastating wave of the Danish invasions that impacted other parts of England. This immunity, which extended across Shropshire, is notable despite evidence of Danish ships on the River Severn (suggested by the name Danesford near Bridgnorth) and a recorded Danish defeat at Buttington (near Welshpool) in 894. The protection of the region is mainly attributed to Æthelred, the ealdorman of Mercia appointed by Alfred, and Æthelflæd herself. Subsequently, during the tenth century, Shrewsbury appears to have experienced a period of relative stability. An historical narrative, well established in the nineteenth century, asserts that during the devastating Danish invasion of 1006, Æthelred the Unready withdrew to his royal seat in Shrewsbury. In this account, the King experienced "great perplexity," reflecting the collapse of the national defense. This strategic withdrawal preceded the disastrous decision to pay the immense sum of £30,000 Danegeld in 1007 to halt the Danish advance.
Roger de Montgomery was given the town as a gift from William the Conqueror and was created Earl of Shrewsbury. He built at Shrewsbury Castle at around 1074, though there is evidence the location may have been a fortified site in the time of the Anglo-Saxons. This construction work destroyed 51 properties, and it is thought much of this hard labour was forced on local workers.
He also founded Shrewsbury Abbey as a Benedictine monastery in 1083.
The town's position just off Watling Street placed it within the Forest of Arden, a thickly wooded area, unpenetrated by Roman roads and somewhat dangerous in medieval times, so that travellers would pray at Coughton before entering.
In 1102, Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury was deposed and the title forfeited, as a consequence of him rebelling against Henry I and joining the Duke of Normandy's invasion of England in 1101. William Pantulf, Lord of Wem, assisted Henry in putting down the rebellion. To deal with the thickly wooded local forests, ideal for the concealment of archers, Pantulf brought in 6,000 foot soldiers to cut down trees and open up the roads. Henry subsequently took the government of the town into his own hands and in 1116 the nobility of England did homage to William Ætheling, Henry's son, at Shrewsbury, and swore allegiance to his father. The early death of William Ætheling without issue led to the succession crisis, known in history as the Anarchy, and during this period, in 1138, King Stephen successfully besieged the town's castle held by William FitzAlan for the Empress Maud.
In 1138, the relics of St Winifred were brought to Shrewsbury from Gwytheryn, following their purchase by the Abbot of Shrewsbury, the abbey being ready for consecration but having no relics prior to that time. The popularity of St Winifred grew in the 14th and 15th centuries and a new shrine for her relics was built in the late 1300s. Around this time the abbey illegally acquired the relics of St Beuno, uncle of St Winifred, by stealing them. As a result, the abbey was fined but allowed to keep the relics.
From 1155, during the reign of Henry II, there was a leper hospital dedicated to St Giles and associated with Shrewsbury Abbey. From the 1220s, there was also a general hospital dedicated to St John the Baptist.
In January 1234, Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Wales and Richard Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke burned down the town and laid siege to its castle.
In 1283, Edward I (whose military campaigns in Wales frequently brought him to Shropshire) summoned a parliament in Shrewsbury, later adjourned to Acton Burnell, to try and condemn Dafydd ap Gruffydd, last of the native Princes of Wales, to execution by hanging, drawing and quartering within the town after Dafydd was captured, ending his rebellion against the king. It is thought this parliament met in the Abbey. This is often considered to be the first Parliament at which commoners were represented.
Shrewsbury was devastated by the Black Death, which, records suggest, arrived in the spring of 1349. Examining the number of local church benefices falling vacant due to death, 1349 alone saw twice as many vacancies as the previous ten years combined, suggesting a high death toll in Shrewsbury.
"The Great Fire of Shrewsbury" took place in 1394: St Chad's church was consumed by an accidental fire, which spread to a great portion of the town, then chiefly consisting of timber houses with thatched roofs. The damage was so considerable that Richard II remitted the town's taxes for three years towards the repairs.
In 1398, Richard II summoned a Great Parliament in the town, which is believed to have met in the Abbey; dubbed the "Revenge Parliament," it originally met in Westminster but was prorogued to Shrewsbury (he publicly proclaimed it an act of affection for the people of Shropshire). It was a turning point in Richard II's reign, and sowed the seeds of his eventual downfall. This national drama played out against a backdrop of local controversy, as Shrewsbury itself grappled with its own internal power struggles and grievances against its ruling elite.
In 1403, the Battle of Shrewsbury was fought at Battlefield, a few miles north of the town centre, between King Henry IV and Henry Percy (Hotspur), with the king emerging victorious. Hotspur's body was taken by Thomas Neville, to Whitchurch, for burial. However, when rumours circulated that Percy was still alive, the king "had the corpse exhumed and displayed it, propped upright between two millstones, in the market place at Shrewsbury". That being done, Percy was subjected to posthumous execution.
One of the Princes in the Tower, Richard of Shrewsbury, was born in the town around 17 August 1473, the second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. In 1480, Edward V, then Prince of Wales (and the other prince of the Princes in the Tower), was resident in Shrewsbury. On 11 May Edward V confirmed the composition of the town's Mercer's Company, which had merged with the guilds of the Ironmongers and Goldsmiths. This fraternity were patrons of the Altar of St Michael in St Chad's Church and they kept a Mercers Hall on the site of the Sextry of Old St Chads.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Shrewsbury”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.