Cantlop

Cantlop is a small village in the English county of Shropshire. It is part of the civil parish of Berrington.

Cantlop
Signpost at Cantlop Cross, the crossroads. The centre of Shropshire is in this vicinity.
Cantlop is located in Shropshire
Cantlop
Cantlop
Location within Shropshire
OS grid referenceSJ517055
Civil parish
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSHREWSBURY
Postcode districtSY5
Dialling code01743
PoliceWest Mercia
FireShropshire
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament

Nearby villages include Condover, to the west of Cantlop, and the village of Berrington to the north-west, on the other side of the Cound Brook which flows to the north of Cantlop, and Pitchford to the south. The area is largely agricultural. The elevation at Cantlop Cross is 96 metres (315 ft) above sea level.[1]

Etymology

Various meanings have been suggested for the name, such as an enclosed or cut-off valley[2] or an enclosure in a waste or common.[3]

History
Cantlop Bridge

To the north of the village there is a cast-iron single-span bridge — the Cantlop Bridge — now generally accepted to have been designed by Thomas Telford, who was the County Surveyor of Shropshire.[4] The bridge crosses the Cound Brook and was built in 1818. Today it no longer takes road traffic, as a modern bridge exists adjacent to it, but is open to pedestrians.

The bridge carried the 1797 turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Acton Burnell, which continued through Cantlop itself. A late 18th-century milestone exists just to the north of Cantlop Cross (the crossroad junction at Cantlop) which marks 5.0 miles (8.0 km) from (the centre of) Shrewsbury (written on the milestone as "Salop"); it is now Grade II listed.[5]

Centre of Shropshire

On 1 August 2014, on BBC Radio Shropshire, it was confirmed by Andy Stegall from Ordnance Survey that Cantlop is the geographic centre of the ceremonial county of Shropshire. This is also shown on the Ordnance Survey's mapping of the ceremonial counties, where the name of Shropshire is centred immediately to the southwest of Cantlop Cross.[6]

References
  1. Ordnance Survey mapping
  2. Bowcock, E. Shropshire place names, Wilding & Son, 1923, p.61
  3. Gelling and Foxall, The place-names of Shropshire, Volume 1, English Place-Name Society, 1990, p.69
  4. Cragg, R. Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and west central England, Telford, 1997, p.242. ISBN 978-0-7277-2576-9
  5. Shropshire History
  6. Ordnance Survey

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