‘Shroosbury’ v ‘Shrowsbury’
Wednesday 6th February 2008, 11:42AM GMT.
A huge row has broken out on the internet site Facebook with more than 4,000 people having their say – about how to pronounce the name of Shropshire’s county town of Shrewsbury.
Rival groups have been set up on the site each claiming their own pronunciation of Shrewsbury is correct. And thousands of people have joined in to side with either Shroosbury or Shrowsbury.
Click on the numbers to read some local views and then have your say in the comment box below
The biggest group is “Shroosbury not Shrowsbury” with 3,438 members. The site features 49 pictures of the county town including Shrewsbury Flower Show, the station, the river, the castle and the Quarry .
The founder of the site is Elle Williams, from Manchester University, and dozens of people have sent her messages of support.
One message says: “We have a map in our house with it spelled Shrowsbury, we are talking a very long time ago, it is now called Shrewsbury.”
Another adds: “Is it the Taming of the Shrow or the Taming of the Shrew? Because it is spelt the same.”
Another asks: “It doesn’t help that the tannoy announcer at the New Meadow calls it Shrowsbury – they wouldn’t be called the Shrews if it was Shrowsbury would they?
But many don’t agree, and a rival site “Shrowsbury – not Shrewsbury” is boasting 608 members. The site shows pictures of Shrewsbury School and the Salop Floreate flags outside the Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council offices in Frankwell.
An introductory message on the site says SABC’s website carries this information: “It was only as bureaucracy increased in the 17th century that a single variation of the name was adopted for legal purposes which is essentially the Shrewsbury we know today – note that in middle English, Shrew was pronounced Shrow – although no doubt the majority of people wrote it phonetically as they always had done.”
But the argument has not stopped at one group each – “It’s not Shrowsbury, it’s Shrewsbury” has 21 members, “It’s pronounced Shrowsbury not Shrewsbury” has 49 members and another group rooting for Shrowsbury, which has been founded by a Shrewsbury School student, has 136 members.
Shrewsbury tourism officer Alison Patrick said: “Professionally I say Shrowsbury, personally I say Shrewsbury.
“Professionally Shrowsbury because of the historic origins of the name which was spelt with an o going back to the Saxon spelling of Scrobbesbyrig. But personally I do often say Shrewsbury just because it comes more easily to me.”
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
LIVE traffic updates
Road, rail and airport - latest
Our new, live traffic and travel updates service - check before you set out.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
should i throw another spanner in the works n point out many like myself dont even pronounce the r and say “shoosbury”… ?
Report abuse
I heard that the real old countryside pronounciation was Sozebree I think living memory has probably lost that now.
I grew up with Shewsbury (no r) as the normal way to say it.
These pronouciations aren’t going to change anyway.. so what is the point of proving one right or the other (or the other other).
Report abuse
It is pronouced Solop. As in: “Bist-e goin’ out?”
“Ah. I’m goin’ to Solop.”
Report abuse
I was brought up to say Shrewsbury. Also very common was the use of Salop.
So what is Alison going to do with Salop – Salop or more colloquial Solop?
There is a saying here in Germany that one should speak the way that has grown up in the beak!
Report abuse
Kawczynski!!!!! very shropshire name. maybe you should train your MP mates to give the forces a decent pay rise rather than teaching then to say shrowsbury when all salopians born and bred know its SHREWSBURY!!!
Report abuse
And what of the third option: Shoosbury?
Report abuse
Peter Nutting, being born and bred in Shoosbury like myself, has got it spot on. Anyone who differs is a foreigner to the town. Daniel Kawczynski should be re-educated.
P.S How do you pronounce Kawczynski?
Report abuse
Sammy, at a gues i’d say….
Cows-in-skee
Report abuse
I wonder if all those who pronounce it ‘Shrowsbury’ speak with a plum in their mouth?!
Report abuse
It has an ‘E’ in it so it must be shroowsbury.
It’s no longer called ‘salop’ because of a similar naughty french word.
Report abuse
so what.
a sloooow news day obviously.
Report abuse
come on you shrews not shrows, so all i can say is that the uneducated cannot pronounce a simple name correctly
Report abuse
Silly story and one that is quite boring, so i think i will call it SNOOZZBURY.
Night Night.
Report abuse
The actual correct answer is Shrowsbury. The reason for this if you go back in history to the original spelling of the the town it was Shrozesbury hence the correct way to say it now is Shrowsbury. There therefore is no arguement and any other way is obviously wrong.
I have known this fact for about 50 years but have never had the opportunity to share it publicaly before.
Report abuse
If E now means O then i must live in Wollington, Tolford Shropshiro.
And my namo is now Wondy.
Cool.
Report abuse
Salop by the way was the old name for Shropshire not just Shrewsbury
Report abuse
I can read, and can safely say that it’s Shrewsbury.
Report abuse
Clearly the name of the county town is SHREWSbury. Pronounced as its spelt – just like the small, rodent – SHREW. I believe KAWCZYNSKI is promounced KAV CHIN SKI (according to a phonetic explanation in the Chronicle shortly after our MP was elected. SALOP – isn’t that a woman of the night?
Report abuse
As someone not originally from Shropshire, but from the Black Country (don’t get me started on pronunciation there!), I’ve always found it safest to rely for pronunciation on what the local ‘ordinary’ people say – it’s their town, after all’s said and done. By ‘ordinary’ I mean local people who aren’t so posh as to have had their natural local accent beaten out of them and replaced with BBC ‘Received pronunciation’.
On that basis, I have to throw in my hat with the ‘Shoosbury’ pronunciation, since that is the way I hear it pronounced most often.
You can’t safely base the pronunciation on ‘Shrew’ as a separate word – if that were the case how on earth would you get to the pronunciation of such places as Leominster?
Report abuse
Wendy, you live in Well-e-ton, which is closer to the original spelling.
Report abuse
I’m not sure that we can rely upon ‘original’ spellings of anything. If you go back any more than a couple of hundred years, spelling was a far less formal thing, with multiple ways of spelling the same words having equal credence.
So whilst ‘Shrozebury’ may have been a spelling used in official documents dating back some time, it may well be that then as now, the posh people called it ‘Shrowsbury’, and the ordinary folk called it ‘Shroosbury’ or even ‘Shoosbury’.
Report abuse
So why is High Ercall pronounced High Arcal?
I seem to recall somewhere that Shrewsbury was once spelt Shraughsbury, maybe that is why we southerners call it Shrowsbury? Probably in the same way that we say walking up the bank and not walking up the bonk ;)
Don’t you just love regional dialects lol!!!!
Report abuse
Shoosbury born & bred. You don’t even pronounce the ‘R’!
Report abuse
Please call me Wondy.
Where do you live Matt? you fountain of knowledge you !
Report abuse
Iv’e called it Shoesberry for the past 70 years and my family before me and all my extended family. I don’t care what anyone else calls it – if they don’t say the same as me, I don’t regard them as a Shoesberrydonian.
Report abuse
Its Shrewsbury, definitely.
Unless you’re upper class.
Its always been that way here.
“Depends which side of the river you were born on”, I think was the old saying from the local residents.
Always best to spell things how they’re pronounced.
Makes life so much easier for people learning to read and write.
Why complicate a language already made up of of several other ones.
ps Wendy is funny.
Report abuse
I’m a “Shroze-bury” lass and nobody’s going to change my views. Those who call it “Shrews-bury” I can tolerate, but when the first “R” is dropped to make it “Shooze-bury”, I simply dispair!
Report abuse
I saw an old map of Shrewsbury were Shrewsbury was written as SHROESBURY.
I always knew I was right in pronouncing it Shrowsbury.
Report abuse
There are real two issues here.
1. The correct way to say it which is Shrowsbury because as I said earlier the original spelling wich was Shrozesbury
2.What the town is popularly known as. Clearly you pays your money and takes your chance. In this case there can be no correct answer because it is all down to what a person was originally brought up to believe it was.
I for one take the view that the correct way to say it is based on the original spelling. However if people want to say the name in a different way then thats fine because none of them can be correct because the original spelling can be the only right way to say it.
It is probably just an example of how language develops, words are changed mispelt etc and then come into common usage and are then accepted.
So I suppose in the end no one is right!!!!!!!
Report abuse
isn’t there more things to worry about than the way we pronounce SHREWSBURY.
Report abuse
Salope means “Slut” in French
Report abuse
Hello, I find the above very interesting. I recently moved to Shropshire and thought that at last I would learn how to pronounce Shrewsbury. To my amazement the majority of locals pronounce it SHOES-BURY so I am none the wiser. As the local team is called the Shrews I do now prefer “Shrew”sbury. Sandie
Report abuse
Didnt one william shakespeare pen..’The taming of the Shrew’, or am i now mistaken that it was the taming of the shrow!!
Report abuse
AFTER HAVING STAFFORDSHIRE PARENT’S BUT LIVING IN SALOP ALL MY LIFE FROM BIRTH I NOW HAVE 2 GRANDSON’S WHO ARE PROUD SALOPIAN’S SO WHY DROP SALOP JUST BECAUSE OF THE FRENCH?!! I DON’T LIVE IN FRANCE
Report abuse
its nom of the adove its pronounced shoesbrie
Report abuse
Why on earth is this age old argument being resurrected once more?
Also,why on earth is it being reported as if it’s something new?
As long as I have been alive the same old Shroosbury/Shrowsbury debate has been going.
Time to lay it to rest now,it’s getting boring!
Report abuse
I always thought it was a shrew, that was a member of the mouse family.
Oh and ‘The Taming of The Shrew’
Report abuse
Shrewsbury born and bred… I say it both ways…just to confuse matters .. Shrozebury in face to face conversations as that is easy to overcome the ..”Where?” statement, but I usually say ‘Shrews-bury’,(as in mammal), on the telephone to eliminate spelling errors for deliveries etc (Although occasionally deliveries have ended up in W. Yorkshire, Dewsbury!! Way out :-D )
Salop came and went I have, and always will, live in Shropshire, Salop just sounds like Slop!!
Good luck with this thread, this could go on and on
Report abuse
Sod the past its now spelt Shrewsbury so its Shrews__Bury end of story
Report abuse
How bist jockey… wee’m gooing to Shoowsbry through Wenlock, Harley Bonk, and have a couple of pints in Cressage, Cross Houses and enjoy the day in our our most beautiful county town.
Shrowsbury ??? Never !!!
Shrewsbury….. For ever !!!
Report abuse
We see the old arguement once again about pronouncing it as it is spelt. So how do you pronounce Worcester then?
The answer is simple. If you look at the ancient maps of Salop you will see the original spelling of Shrewsbury. With an O !!
Report abuse
Maybe we should start a third group, Scrobbesbyrig (“the settlement in scrubland”), referring to the county town of Shropshire is first mentioned in a charter of 901 A.D…….
Report abuse
Matt I think Wendy was just making a joke…
Report abuse
Matt its name was originally Weoleahington, meaning ‘The settlement by the temple’, or ‘by the sacred grove’.
Report abuse
Born & bred in Shropshire, I say both: Shroosbury Town, Shrowsbury School.
Does it really matter?
Out here in Bishops Castle we just call it ‘town’
Report abuse
A Shrew by any other name….
Report abuse
As a follow up to earlier it must be said that “Shoesbury or Shoosbury” are non runners in this arguement as they are just slang.
This is shown that in the media neither of those have ever been used. However even the BBC will us either Shrewsbury or Shrosebury but they mostly use Shrosebury. But miss out the “R” never that is just slovenly slang.
Report abuse
I avoid saying it where possible but when I have to I am more likely to say Shrowsbury. The Welsh name is Amwythig and the Latin name is Salopia which are the only names for it in other languages.
Report abuse
I’m from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch so I can’t see what all your fuss is about.
Report abuse
I work for Age Concern and can say that the majority of the very elderly people I visit in the area say Shoosebury, with the exception of one who does indeed have the proverbial plum in her mouth and refers to it as Shrosebury;)
Report abuse
i prounonce ot shroosbury or salop
Report abuse
I would like to dissmiss theories that people who say Shrowsbury have a plum in there mouth as that pronounciation is merely historic and I don’t even like plums! In the audio to the English version of Wikipedia it is pronounced Shrowsbury. In the Welsh version (Wicipedia) the town is refered to as Yr Amwythig and Shropshire as Swydd Amwythig (literally County Shrewsbury). I visited Llanfiarpwllgwyngyll in 05 and I also think all this fuss is pointless.
Report abuse
I grew up in this fine town and my parents are still there, although I now live in Asia. My understanding is that most of those born and raised in Shrewsbury pronounce it Shrowsbury. Visitors and new arrivals generally go for the literal pronunciation. Not far away is Ratlinghope (pronounced Ratchup). As any proud Shropshire Lad could tell you there are some peculiar pronunciations in the area which are rooted in the past and add to the richness of today.
Report abuse
Salop has my vote.
If it was good enough for the Great Western Railway, is good enough for me.
Report abuse
I grew up in Shrowsbury but have lived in Australia for the past 30 or so years. I haven’t read all the comments in full so not sure if I’m alone here. When I lived there it was always said the pronunciation of either Shroosbury or Shrowsbury was dependant on which side of the river you came from. Good old class distinction!
Report abuse
i am one of those who say shoosbury im afraid, and get very annoyed when people pronounce it as shrowsbury.That to me just doesnt sound right. For a start it doesn’t even have an ‘o’ in it.Even though im too lazy to put in the ‘r’i do believe that my way is the only way and shoosbury should be here to stay!!!
Report abuse
its shoozbree for me….
Report abuse
if your a salopian its shooosbury (no r-lots of o.s)
Report abuse
Shrewsbury!! It never has been Shrowsbury and never will be. The only people who call it shrowsbury are those who weren’t born here.
Report abuse
im from telford and always known it as shrewsbury, at the end of the day it is down to how people hear it rather then how you spell it these days, we could go on to the whole dictionary on how we spell words that sound different to how they are,the english language is complicated enough as it is without making it any worse so why not let it be…..
Report abuse
Sorry, but the only correct pronunciation is Shrowsbury. It makes me cringe when I hear the other version, and the thought “peasant” has often crossed my mind. I was born and bred in Belle Vue Gardens of what you would possibly call middle class parents and everyone I knew said the correct pronunciation, it seems to me that it was only in later years, after WWII when people came in from outside the area, and seemed to bastardised the pronunciation.
You may deem me to be a snob about this, but I am very proud of being a Salopian, even though I have been living on the other side of the world for many years I have not relinquished my allegiance and pronunciation to the town of Shrowsbury, especially the soccer team, who are Shrowsbury Town Football Club.
Report abuse
It is Shroosbury,only that lot that live in the past call it anything else,cobblers to history it is now 2008.
Report abuse
i went to a university fair a few months ago, and when speaking to a student from hull they asked where i was from…i replied shrewsbury [shroosbury] and they rather annoyingly replied with “ah shrOwsbury!” i just don’t think it sounds right. shrOwsbury is what people who aren’t proper salopians call it.
although i think that calling shrOwsbury the posh pronunciation is wrong…to be honest if you’re being posh you would say shrAhwsbury…i’ve heard it done, mainly from students from the public and private schools.
fair enough if people say that the pronunciation has evolved from the old spelling of the word…but if the old town name is what’s most important [and this new spelling with E is just faff] then shouldn’t we all be saying scrobbesbyrig? the fact is that the local language has changed, i think it makes more sense to just say shrEwsbury now…
katie -x-
Report abuse
I say Shrowsbury, but I am from the London area. I think historically it does matter, and the argument is won by the fact that those that want it pronounced Shroosbury go on and on about how it is spelt! I wonder how they say “Leicester”, “Worcester”, or “Hertford” (where I was born). Surely, sometimes, the informed should win the day, in a world where the apostrophe is a catastrophe; where the ignorant seem to rule in everything to do with grammar, even in schools.
Report abuse
Let’s put it this way… when you look at the title of the play The ‘Taming Of The Shrew’, how is it supposed to be pronounced? I very much doubt we would say,”Oh,I’m going to watch The Taming Of The Shro!”
Report abuse
I was born and bred in Oswestry. It is definitely Shoosbury with no r and no ow !
Report abuse
Hmmm, so ‘Local’ people are always correct? they also call Hanwood – Annud, Ratlinghope – Ratchup, Pontesbury – Ponzebury. And what about the English ‘Clun’ or Welsh version ‘Cleen’. As a Salopian of some 50 years I always have called it Shrosbury, as I was taught at school in Castlefields.
Report abuse