Coton Hill is a suburb of
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
, England. The
River Severn
The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...
flows to the west, and
Bagley Brook, the original river bed of the Severn, to the east.
History and development
The area is believed to have been populated before the
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...
, and its occupants were described as being
cotters (someone who farmed or reared cattle).
Coton Hill had an unusual number of
public house
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
s in proximity to each other, thanks to being on the historic route from
Ellesmere and
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...
. Pubs include the Woodman Inn, Bird in Hand, Royal Oak and Severn Apprentice. The Severn Apprentice closed in 2009 and was later gutted by fire, with the site it occupied being redeveloped for housing.
A strangely named passage exists in the old former village – "Pig Trough". The Shropshire Agricultural Showground is just outside Coton Hill, and this is used once a year, usually in May, to hold the
Shropshire County Show.
Council houses were built in the suburb after the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. These were to number 195, but in the end only 70 were built, with the project being completed in 1924.
Transport
During the 19th century the area became a centre for railway freight and two huge yards grew up in the area (Coton Hill North and Coton Hill South), on the
Shrewsbury to Chester Line
Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...
. Although the line is still running passenger and some freight services, only one of these yards still exists and it was disused for a long time. In 2015, freight trains started running from the yard again, carrying stone from
Bayston Hill (which is transported from the quarry south of Shrewsbury to Coton Hill by lorry) to destinations including
Theale and
Tinsley in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
. A
serious rail crash occurred at Coton Hill South in January 1965.
Notable people
*Coton Hill was the birthplace in 1653 of 17th century admiral
John Benbow
Vice-Admiral John Benbow (10 March 16534 November 1702) was an English Royal Navy officer. He joined the Navy in 1678, seeing action against Barbary pirates before leaving to join the Merchant Navy in which Benbow served until the 1688 Glorio ...
,
*
Edward Williams, antiquary, died at Coton Mount on Coton Hill in 1833.
*
William Wingfield, cricketer, died at Coton Hill in 1913.
*
Hugo Botstiber, Austrian musicologist, died at Cotonhurst on 15 January 1941 only a few months after arriving in Shrewsbury. Being of Jewish origin, he had emigrated from Vienna in 1938.
See also
*
Bagley Brook
*
Bagley
References
Suburbs of Shrewsbury
Populated places on the River Severn
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