Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/479

SHROPSHIRE. 467 SHROPSHIEE. capital, being in direct communication with Chester and Liverpool by Crowe, Stafford, Birmingham, and Glou- cester and South Wales by Hereford. Coach roads were formerly very bad, but have of late years been much improved. The principal is the London and Holyhead road, which enters the county between Wol- verhampton and Shiffnal, and, passing Shrewsbury, leaves it near Chirk. Shropshire is as important from the richness and variety of its minerals as it is interest- ing from the beauty of its scenery and the numerous remains of antiquity which may yet be seen there. The New Red sandstone formation occupies the whole N. of the county, and the Old Red sandstone extends over most of the'S., the Severn being in most parts the boundary between the two systems. The northern limit of the older formation is the coalfield of Coalbrookdalo, and on the E. it extends to the Wyre, or Bewdley coal district which passes into the adjoining county of Wor- cester. Its south-western boundary consists of an extensive tract comprising nearly one-fourth of the entire county, and composed of stratified rocks of the Silurian and Cambrian systems, but there is a consider- able outlying district of the Old Red sandstone nearly 100 square acres in extent, separated from the larger portion of the Silurian rocks, which reaches into Rad- norshire, and includes nearly the entire of Clun Forest. The Ludlow hills belong to the Silurian system, and rise from the Old Red sandstone at Corvedale to elevations of 1,000 to 1,100 feet, and from these to Coalbrookdale extends an unbroken escarpment called Wenlock Edge, consisting of Wenlock limestone. W. of this rise the Cara- doc, or Church Stretton hills, where Ostorius is said by some to have defeated Caractacus, and which are formed of amorphous trap; Longmynd, which belongs to the Cambrian system, and raises its square-topped head to a heightof 1,674 feet; and Stiperstones, rough and ragged, in which is a rich lead mine. The New Red sandstone formation in the N. of the county is broken towards Market Drayton by a bed of lias containing fossils corresponding to those found in the great lias formation of Warwick and Worcestershire, from which it is distant upwards of 60 miles. The plain of Shrewsbury is in most parts formed of the newer sandstone, but several patches of coal are scattered through it, and they are also found at intervals between the transition chains which indent this same plain. The important coalfield of Coalbrookdale, the most extensive and most productive in the county, extends from Wormbridge to Coalport on the Severn. It is 8 miles in length and 2 in breadth ; the coal is of the kind called slate coal, and contains from 1 to 3 per cent, of ash. Some of the beds are very sulphurous, and the coals are only used in making lime on account of the foetid odour which they emit when burning. The most productive parts of the field are about Hadley, where 16 seams have a total thickness of 15 yards; Dawley, where the coal seams are 14 yards in depth ; and Madeley, where the beds are narrower, and 24 of them only measure 10 yards. The entire field is much faulted, some of the dislocations amounting to 600 or 700 feet. Coal is found at every part of the district at varying depths, and alternating with iron- stone, sandstone, and other substances. The ironstone is not rich, but being accompanied by the coal and flint supplies all the requisites for smelting, which is exten- sively practised. The ores of iron are peroxides in .sandstone, argillaceous carbonates in shale, and sul- phnrets in coal. Brown Clee Hill and Titterstoue Clee Hill, a few miles S. of Coalbrookdale, have their summits covered with overlying masses of granite, but coal is worked midway from the base. In the former it is found only in their strata, but in the latter the princi- pal bed is 6 feet in depth. At Cornbrook there is a very valuable field 1 mile long and a quarter of a mile in breadth. The Billingsley tract, to the E. of the Clee hilla, stretches from Dense Hill on the N. to the borders of Shropshire and Worcestershire, a distance of 8 miles, but it is doubtful whether this is one continuous field, or consists of several smaller ones adjacent to each other. The rocks which bound or separate these coal- fields consist principally of sandstone, limestone, trap, and schistus, containing lead and calamine, the most important of which, as already mentioned, are in Sti- perstones mountain. The matrix is crystallized quartz, with sulphates and carbonate of barytes, and carbonate of limo. The ore is sulphuret of lead, carbonate of lead, red lead, ore, and blende, which contains besides cala- mine, or zinc, and the rock at Pimhill is strongly tinctured with copper. Mineral pitch exudes from the red sandstone at Pitchford. Freestone, marble, slate, and pipeclay are raised. Saline springs are found among the New Red sandstone and coal measures in the N. and there is one also at Saltmoor, near Ashford, on the banks of the Tern, where salt is said to have been manufactured before the Norman conquest. Chalybeate springs also occur near Wenlock, at Moreton Bay, and in other places, and on the W. side of Longmynd, on Prolley Moor, there is a spring containing chloride of lime. The climate is generally salubrious, but varies much according to the elevation above the sea and the nature of the soil, the lands in the E. being level, are dry and warm, so that the harvests there are frequently ripe a fortnight earlier than in the W. and middle. The soils are too varied and intermixed to admit of any general description, but the laud is for the most part fertile and well cultivated, except the elevated districts, which are generally too rugged and barren to admit of much use being made of them except as sheepwalks. Agriculture is improving, grass lands receiving less attention than arable. The meadows near the Severn are very fertile, and are often enriched by the overflow of the river. The county is not remarkable for dairy produce, but a fine quality of cheese is made and sold as Cheshire. The cattle are generally of the improved Hereford, Lancashire, Leicester, and Cheshire breeds. The horses are of good quality, but of no particular kind. The sheep are remarkable for the excellence of their wool. In many parts there is a species of horned sheep peculiar to this county and resembling Soutli Downs. They are small and hardy, weighing about 10 Ibs. the quarter, and yielding fleece of about 2J Ibs. Pork and bacon are much used by the people. Largo flocks of turkeys are raised, and there are fine orchards, particularly in the S., where hops also are grown. China of delicate and elegant pattern is made at Coal- port and Caughley ; earthenware at Coalport, and a coarse quality is also made at Sroseley. There are glass works at Brockwardine, and porcelain is made at Bridgnorth, also carpets and cloth. Flannels are manufactured at Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Worthen, and Church Stretton, and linens and linen thread at various places. Gloves and paper are made at Ludlow, and there are paper works also in different parts of the county. The principal industry, however, is devoted to coal and iron. The collieries under inspection number 59. The yearly produce is estimated at upwards of 300,000 tons, most of which is consumed in the iron furnaces at Coalbrookdale, Lightmoor Ketloy, Donning- ton, Madeley Wood, and Snedshill on the N. of the Severn, and Calcot, Willey, Broseley, and Benthall S. of that river. Seven-tenths of tho iron produced in the county, or 7 per cent, of that in the entire kingdom, is raised at Wellington, Dawley, and Madeley. The manufacture at Wellington and its neighbourhood is yearly increasing by the establishment of iron foundries, saw mills, new workshops and forges for the making of bar iron, which is there extensively carried on. The county is divided into North and South Shropshire, the former containing the hundreds of Oswestry, Pimhill, North Bradford, South Bradford, and the liberty of Shrewsbury ; and the latter the hunds. of Brimstrey, exclusive of Halesowen parish, Chirbury, Candover, Ford, Munslow, Overs, Purslow, including Clun, Stot- teaden, and Wenlock franchise. It comprises 231 parishes, distributed among the dioceses of Hereford, Lichfield, St. Asaph, and Worcester, but all in the province of Canterbury. The civil government is eutrusted to the lord-lieutenant and citstos rotulorum, high sheriff, and about 138 deputy-lieutenants and magistrates. The 3p