Caro's Bed & Breakfast

Secret histories in tiny hamlets and villages, ancient churches and country inns serving proper beer. Market towns, local festivals and literary legends. Grand country houses in landscaped parklands. Shropshire has over 90 places to visit - historic houses and castles with beautiful gardens, the famous Ironbridge, museums & family attractions.

Shrewsbury, the stunning historic county town of Shropshire, birthplace of Charles Darwin and almost surrounded by the River Severn, is a medieval delight of black and white buildings. It has over 660 listed buildings and was first mentioned in a charter of 901. A contemporary visual arts scene thrives together with a varied cultural scene including The Music Hall, the Jazz & Roots Club, Shropshire Music Trust and The Gateway. Shrewsbury also has great shops, especially the kind of interesting, independent shops that so many towns have lost.

Shropshire is geologically unique and creates the special habitats that ensures that Shropshire wildlife is so diverse. All this adds up to making Shropshire great walking country. For millions of years Shropshire was the setting for violent upheaval and, as the land mass slowly moved from south of the equator, the mineral rich Stiperstones and the escarpment of Wenlock Edge were created. The Meres & Mosses, the valleys of the Longmynd and the Ironbridge Gorge were carved out by glaciers during the ice age.

A stormy past has left us with a littering of hillforts, castles and abbeys. You'll find about 25 hillforts - clear evidence of the Iron Age civilisation of around 600BC - built with deep ditches and ramparts to keep out the riffraff. Offa's Dyke, built by King Offa in the 8th Century to keep the Welsh Princes at bay, is the longest archaeological monument in Britain. The Romans built Viroconium, the 4th largest city in Roman Britain and Watling Street which connected us with Canterbury. We can boast 32 castles in all with Ludlow, Stokesay, Whittington and Clun being perhaps the finest. Ruined abbeys are reminders of our medieval spiritual past and there are fine ecclesiastical buildings, from Shrewsbury Abbey to the tiny Melverley Church.

Shrewsbury Tourism :: Shropshire Tourism :: Virtual Shropshire :: Shropshire County Council