Last word on name debate?

LETTER: Regarding Mr J Wood's assertion that only snobs pronounce Shrewsbury as Shrowsbury, he admits that this is just another one of many in the futile argument, but it is difficult to understand why he then goes on to insist that his own opinion is the correct one.

Scholars do generally agree that the name probably arose when the Saxons gave it the name of Scrobbesbyrig, but it must be admitted that they were unlikely to have had Mr Wood's gift of absolute certainty.

It happens that I was born in Shrewsbury, as were my mother and grandmother, together with many friends, and we all lived there in the happy ignorance of the fact that we were snobs.

I do recall that it was sometimes pronounced Shrewsbury as in Shrew. But this was often by people from outside the town, and, indeed, Wellington people often called their town Wellitun, and the man from Oakengates came from Gairts.

I really do not think that anyone then thought about snobbery at all.

There is an old saying that Shrewsbury was spelt Shrewsbury, pronounced Shrowsbury, and called Salop.

Perhaps those were more innocent days.

Many dictionaries and guides do not consider that standard rules must apply rigidly to either place names or to personal names, although Mr Wood does give his carefully selected examples to prove his point.

The same dictionaries often show the origins of words and he may be interested to know that the origin of snob is cobblers.

Alec Roberts

Newport