Shropshire Routes to Roots

2. The view from the air - Shrewsbury

This map shows the southeast section of Shrewsbury, the Belle Vue and Coleham area. The map dates from 1881. As well as the image on this page, you can also view:

• Larger 1881 map, unhighlighted (Opens in a new window [Large file: 223kb])
• Modern map, grid SJ505115 (Link courtesy of Streetmap.co.uk. Opens in a new window.)

Reproduced from the 1881 Ordnance Survey map [Shropshire Archive reference: QC/23/2]

Suburbs

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Shrewsbury's population was about 28, 395. By the 2001 Census, the population of Shrewsbury was 66, 200. In 1900, the town was largely contained within the boundary of the river. The new population came from the building of suburbs outside the river. As the town expanded, it absorbed previously separate villages such as Bayston Hill and Meole. In the 1950s, in response to the housing crisis caused by the Second World War, the council built new housing estates such as those in the Belle Vue area (1).

Roads

Old towns and modern cars don't mix. Roads built for horses and carts are narrow and are unable to take two streams of traffic - hence the use of one-way systems. In urban centres, when traffic stops flowing this creates pollution. This was not so much of a problem when traffic was low at the turn of the century. In 1900, there were less than 200 cars on the road throughout the entire County; today, up to 10, 000 cars pass through Shrewsbury every day.

To combat this growth, a new bridge was built at Kingsland, and the English Bridge was widened. Pride Hill was pedestrianised in the 1980s and in 1992 a new bypass was opened (2). This still did not solve the problem of vehicles in the town, however, and the council is looking at even more drastic measures such as closing the town centre to all non-commercial traffic.

You can discover more about the development of roads in Shropshire in the From Trackways to Motorways theme.

Out-of-town development

With the growth of the car, and the demand for convenience shopping in the form of supermarkets, facilities have moved out of town. There simply isn't room to build large stores in the town centre. Likewise, big municipal buildings such as the hospital, the fire station and the Shirehall (3) have all moved to the outskirts.

Railway

In the area of Shrewsbury visible here, there was originally a large carriage and wagon works, owned by Midland Railway. Supermarkets and a cinema complex have taken the place of the works and the tracks (4).

Shrewsbury once had two railway lines, the main line and the Old Potts Line which stopped at a station outside the Abbey (5). The full story of this railway is told in the Abbey Station theme.

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