History of Shrewsbury

ch collapsed in 1788 after attempts to expand the crypt compromised the structural integrity of the tower above; it was, however, rebuilt just four years later as a large neo-classical round church in a new location close to the Quarry Park. Local soldier and statesman Robert Clive was Shrewsbury's MP from 1762 until his death in 1774. Clive also served once as the town's mayor in 1762.

In the period directly after Napoleon's surrender after Waterloo, the town's own 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot was sent to guard him in his exile on St Helena. A locket containing a lock of the emperor's hair (presented to an officer of the 53rd) remains, to this day, in the collections of the Shropshire Regimental Museum at Shrewsbury Castle.

Late Modern

Shrewsbury has also played a part in Western intellectual history, by being the town where the naturalist Charles Darwin was born and raised. The town is also home to the Ditherington Flax Mill, the world's first iron-framed building, which is commonly regarded as "the grandfather of the skyscraper". Its importance was officially recognised in the 1950s, resulting in it becoming a Grade I listed building. Shrewsbury in the Industrial Revolution was also on the Shrewsbury Canal, which linked it with the Shropshire Canal and the rest of the canal network of Great Britain. Despite this, Shrewsbury escaped much of the industrialisation taking place in 19th-century Britain due to its isolation from other large manufacturing towns and ports.

The town suffered very little from the bombing runs in World War II that did damage to many English locations. The worst case in Shrewsbury, was in 1940, a woman and her two grandchildren were killed when a cottage was destroyed on Ellesmere Road, the only local air raid deaths. Therefore many of its ancient buildings remain intact and there was