Kingsland is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

of the town

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 ...

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 ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It lies adjacent to the town centre of

across the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

by the

Kingsland Bridge Kingsland Bridge is a privately owned toll bridge, spanning the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It is located near Shrewsbury School and the cost for cars to cross is 20p. It is a Grade II listed building. History A bill promoting the ...

, built 1881. The Kingsland fields from the Middle Ages were a fairground to where the trade guilds of Shrewsbury used to parade, each guild having an arbour there, on the Monday after the feast of Corpus Christi, which became known as the Shrewsbury Show. Thomas Anderson, a soldier in the Dragoons was executed, as a deserter and Jacobite sympathizer, near the Butchers' Arbour on Kingsland, on 11 December 1752. He was the last English martyr for the Stuart cause.Thomas Phillips, James Bowen,

Charles Hulbert Charles Hulbert (18 February 1778 – 9 October 1857) was an English businessman and writer. Life The son of Thomas Hulbert of Hulbert Green, near Cheadle, Cheshire, he was born in Manchester on 18 February 1778, and educated at the grammar sc ...

,(1837) ''The History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury: From Its First Foundation to the Present Time, Comprising a Recital of Occurrences and Remarkable Events, for Above Twelve Hundred Years'', Volume 1.p. 256 Horse racing used to be held on Kingsland's common land, otherwise used for grazing, until crowding led to the creation of a race course at Bicton Heath in 1729. The first recorded cricket match in Shropshire was played on Kingsland, by a Shrewsbury Cricket Society, in August 1794.Published under Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. From Introduction. In the early 19th century the Shrewsbury Show was thought to be in decline but it revived after the advent of rail transport to the town. However the disorder and growing size of the crowds caused a petition for its eventual abolition in 1875. This measure was a precondition to the residential development of the area for homes of the wealthy, which grew after

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into the ...

moved there. For the building of the houses, brickyards were set up at Copthorne which were linked to Kingsland by a tramline running along the line of Porthill Drive, Porthill Road, Roman Road and Kennedy Road. The campus of

occupies some of the land overlooking the River Severn. The main building was originally built in the 18th century as a

foundling hospital The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" w ...

, and was later a

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

for Shrewsbury before the School moved into it from the town centre in 1882. One of the former Victorian mansions, Kingsland Grange, became the preparatory school today (2015) called Shrewsbury High Prep School.

References

Populated places on the River Severn Suburbs of Shrewsbury {{Shropshire-geo-stub