Shelton, Shropshire

Shelton is a suburb of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England, described by the Pevsner Architectural Guides as "Shrewsbury's principal interwar suburb."

It was once a village of its own, but the town of Shrewsbury has grown steadily in the area since the 1950s. It has a Church of England parish church, Christ Church (built 1854) which serves a parish formally known as Shelton and Oxon.

The 1861 six-inch OS map shows a footpath just south of the lunatic asylum as "site of Roman road". On later OS maps the marking was dropped from this location.

Shelton appears in the Domesday book as ‘Saltone’, with 4 households.

The Shelton Oak (see watercolour ) was a long lived oak tree which, by tradition, Owain Glyndŵr climbed to view the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. An oak tree which died in the 1940s (see photograph ), and the remnants of which were removed for road widening in the 1950s, was said to be the Shelton Oak.

In the 1880s an acorn from the Shelton Oak was planted in the Dingle in The Quarry, the main park in Shrewsbury. Shropshire Council is to plant an acorn from that tree in the Mytton Oak Remembrance Park.

A young oak tree located by the side of the modern junction, where the footpath from the end of Merlin Road emerges onto the main road, has a plaque at its base which reads:

Near this site once stood the Shelton Oak from which according to a tradition recorded in the late 18th century Owen Glyndŵr viewed the Battle of Shrewsbury on 31st July 1403. This tree was planted by the Mayor of Shrewsbury Councillor Mrs Jean Marsh on 27th January 1981 and was presented by Major W Manners MBE.

An inn called The Oak (see photograph) formerly stood between the Mount and Shelton Road where the two roads meet. It was constructed in 1939 and demolished 60 years later.

There is now a monument at the junction where the two roads meet, with a relief featuring the story of the Shelton Oak.

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Wikipedia