Cantlop is a small village in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

. It is part of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Berrington. Nearby villages include Condover, to the west of Cantlop, and the village of Berrington to the north-west, on the other side of the Cound Brook which flows to the north of Cantlop, and

Pitchford Pitchford is a small village in the English county of Shropshire. It is located between Cantlop and Acton Burnell and stands on an affluent of the River Severn. Pitchford takes its name from a bituminous spring/pitch in the village, located n ...

to the south. The area is largely agricultural. The elevation at Cantlop Cross is above sea level.

Etymology

Various meanings have been suggested for the name, such as an enclosed or cut-off valleyBowcock, E. ''Shropshire place names'', Wilding & Son, 1923, p.61 or an enclosure in a waste or

common Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

.Gelling and Foxall, ''The place-names of Shropshire, Volume 1'', English Place-Name Society, 1990, p.69

History

To the north of the village there is a cast-iron single-span bridge — the Cantlop Bridge — now generally accepted to have been designed by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

, who was the County Surveyor of Shropshire.Cragg, R. ''Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and west central England'', Telford, 1997, p.242. The bridge crosses the Cound Brook and was built in 1818. Today it no longer takes road traffic, as a modern bridge exists adjacent to it, but is open to pedestrians. The bridge carried the 1797

turnpike road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

from Shrewsbury to

Acton Burnell Acton Burnell is a village and parish in the English county of Shropshire. Home to Concord College, it is also famous for an early meeting of Parliament where the Statute merchant was passed in 1283. The population at the 2011 census was 544. ...

, which continued through Cantlop itself. A late 18th-century

milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

exists just to the north of Cantlop Cross (the crossroad junction at Cantlop) which marks from (the centre of)

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

(written on the milestone as "Salop"); it is now Grade II listed.

Centre of Shropshire

On 1 August 2014, on

BBC Radio Shropshire BBC Radio Shropshire is the BBC's local radio station serving Shropshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on Boscobel Drive in Shrewsbury. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 61,00 ...

, it was confirmed by Andy Stegall from

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

that Cantlop is the geographic centre of the

ceremonial county The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...

of Shropshire. This is also shown on the Ordnance Survey's mapping of the ceremonial counties, where the name of Shropshire is centred immediately to the southwest of Cantlop Cross.Ordnance Survey
/ref>

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Extremities of Shropshire