No end to the name game
Monday 20th April 2009, 3:12PM BST.
Shropshire Star columnist Emma Suddaby throws her hat into the ring: Should we say Shroosbury, or Shrowsbury?
Now this may not seem a hot potato of an issue, considering the worries and woes of the world today, but to the people of Shrewsbury it’s virtually life and death.
- Give your view in our online poll below
The age-old debate on the proper way to pronounce Shropshire’s county town is currently enjoying a bit of a revival, with thousands of people showing just how much it matters to them by taking part in a Facebook site set up to argue the point.
I’m not originally from Shrewsbury but I’ve lived here for about 12 years now, and from the moment I arrived until the present day I’ve listened to the ongoing arguments for and against the two major contenders for the proper way to say it.
The question is this: Are you living in Shroosbury, or are you living in Shrowsbury?
I’ve known folk to get quite worked up about it, on both sides of the fence.
The thing is, what we all know but don’t really want to admit is that it’s quite clearly a class thing. Or perhaps it’s just that a portion of townsfolk believe it’s a class thing, and want to be on the right side of that divide!
On the whole, in my experience, most pronounce it Shroosbury, with a smattering of the more genteel amongst us sticking firmly to their Shrowsbury convictions. So far, the Facebook voting statistics bear that out.
I’m afraid I have no loyalty at all to either one way or the other. I am the floozy of pronunciation.
On the whole, I tend to go for the Shroosbury option but if I happen to be speaking to someone from the Shrowsbury side of the fence (or river, perhaps) then I have to admit I have no qualms at all in immediately swapping camps!
So I apologise now to all the proud Salopians whose blood will be boiling to hear of my fickle loyalties. But you know what? – a name is just a name and all the things I love about Shrewsbury and that make it the brilliant, beautiful, friendly, historical, thriving place that’s seen me make it my home, are no different whether I call it Shroosbury, Shrowsbury . . . or even the third option which some local people throw into the mix, Shewsbury.
Twelve years later, I’m still here and that’s testament to the town and its people, not its name.
So go and have your own vote on the Great Name Debate in shropshirestar.com’s online poll, but whatever the outcome, I have a feeling this is one squabble that will never quite be over.
[poll=107]
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Personally I call it Dump and would like to see it back under water like a couple of years ago only deeper.
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i have to say that if you are not from shrewsbury then i think you should go much more into the history of our town, its original name was spelt shroughsbury centuries ago im not a historian but i have lived in shrewsbury all my life and have always known the story it people from outside you will find have a problem with it,look up you history first before you vote on this. it was roland wycherly chairman of s t f c whom i have know for years and he was on opportunity knocks with hughie green and hughie asked him the question and he said it depends which side of the river you come from. i am going back 35 years or so and this argument has come from that.
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You forgot to put Standing Stillsbury in to the poll.
Some folk even want it to revert back to the mediaeval days but presumably without the sewage running down the streets, disease, poverty and pestilance but with the advantages of electricity, gas, fresh water, trains, cars etc. Basically, I suppose the town made to look pretend mediaeval like the back of the shopping centre but otherwise 21c.
Is it the aged population of the town or lack of a university that has held Shrewsbury/Shrowsbury/Standing Stillsbury locked in a timewarp of petty, self interested local government control?
Perhaps the new Unitary Authority could start by building a set of stocks, outside Theatre Severn, of course, for the entertainment value! Any argument about the pronounciation of the name of the town will be ordered to a number of hours being pelted with old fruit etc.
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Clever Dan – well thought out and thoroughly relevant.
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I think it should count itself lucky that it is known by two variations of name and still recognised…
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why not pronounce it amwythig, the old celtic welsh name for the town. translated it means the delight.
i am not bothered how it is pronounced.i always have and will pronounce it shrozebury. come on you shrows
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the other week we had a letter with shrewsbury spelt shoesbury
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Would you be the resident pond-life Dan?
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Oh Dan you are such a silly man :-)
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It SHOULD be pronounced Shroosbury as i think you’ll find that even ‘toffee nosed twits’ call a little mouse like creature a Shroo (shrew) and not a shrow …
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We here,in the metropolis that is Telford,call it Salop.(Pronounced Solop).
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does it matter how it is pronounced afterall its the place that matters not how the name is said isnt it about time your reporters reported some real news not this tosh
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etymology bears it out: it’s Shrowsbury! First it was Scrobbesbyrig, then Salopesberie which morphed into Shrobesbury.
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quite right mr jones, come on you shrows!!
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I was born and bred in Shrewsbury and all I can say is that over the years the only people who it really seems to matter to is people who aren’t from there.
How many times have you seen a band or act at the music hall; and the first thing they say is some achingly dull comment about the Shroooosbury or Shrooooowsbury question. It is merely an Ice-breaker for visitors and new to the town; local radio presenters etc…. so they can feel like they know something about the town without actually looking anything up.
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Perhaps this obsession with the subject is because there really isn’t anything interesting to talk about? Most towns and cities inhabitants do not use the boring mantra ‘I was born and bred here’ It is meaningless comment. Everywhere shares one thing in common, a history of some sort and I personally have bred animals but I do not consider myself to have bred my children nor do I intend to fatten them and sell them for profit although that is a thought!!!
I’ll have to change my name to Eva Lector.
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Ex-pat, proudly Salopian, Germany.
I suppose that the Shrewsbury Town FC could be called “The Shroos”. The same affected persons who say Shros… are probably well schooled in English Literature – who was it who wrote “The Tamimg of The Shrow?
People who insist on Shrowsbury should be politely treated as strangers to the area.
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The town is not named after the small mouse-like creature. It’s a completely fallacious argument to say that because the first five letters are the same it should be pronounced the same. There are no hard and fast rules – what about PLOUGH, THROUGH, ROUGH etc
I say ‘shrozebury’ but I consider Shroosbury equally corect unless we’re talking about the public School which is always ‘shrozebury’
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i think james alexander gordon has it right when he reads the football results on 5 live. for example this saturday he may say shrozebury town 5 lincoln city 1. personally i would rather have a debate about when our county town will become the city of shrewsbury. with all our medieval history etc it is long over due.
shrewsbury was where kings held court and i think it was a king edward offered the town a charter to become a city and a bishopric was created. then the towns elders said thank you but no we would prefer to remain englands premier borough. has shrewsbury’s time come again. when i see mickey mouse cities created like wolverhampton and brighton i think we are overdue. floreat salopia, amwythig am byth, and advance the cause of shropshire.
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Say it as it is spelt end of argument realy.
SHREWSBURY .The only people i have heard say shrowsbury are the fur coat no knickers type and they call scones scownes.
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Yes Tony, it should become a city, regardless of how it is spelt or pronounced. It is after all the county town of Shropshire and more deserving of city status than Wolverhampton or telford.
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There’s no “R” in it – it’s Shoosbury.
Or Salop for short.
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af, the argument is that the town’s original name was sciropsberie then shrozebury, hence the reason some people call it one thing and others another. sorry no fur coat and still wearing undergarments, it is still april after all. let us hear it for the city of shrewsbury and st chads cathedral!
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In the book The Counties Of Britain, a Tudor Atlas by John Speed, the name is spelt Showesbury and is described as being in Shropshyre.
I know my mother’s family, who have farmed the area for over 300 years, all use the Shrowes prefix. My aunts who were in their nineties when I was a child would have been horrified if someone had suggested it was a class issue!
By the way, how is the e in sew pronounced?
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the old way of spelling the word show was shew. i rest my case, the oze have it, the oze have it. now can we discuss the city of shrozebury.
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It’s Salop to me.
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I would like to see it called Little Telford after all it is just a matter of time that T & W Council merge with the new Shropshire council.
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T and W would never merge again(they used to be part of shropshire council) they are too full of their own self importance now to want to take orders off anyone else….unless it was Birmingham….they seem to want to suck up to the city boys for some reason.
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I’m not a native. I pronounce it “Shroosbury” and having seen some other places, I think it’s a fantastic town. Wish I could live there. Dan – move south east my boy, you’ll fit right in.
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