Shropshire: History
=== Prehistory and antiquity ===
Evidence of Neolithic occupation of a religious form dating back before 2,000 BC, was discovered in 2017 in the grounds of a church, the medieval Church of the Holy Fathers in Sutton, Shrewsbury, making it Britain's oldest place of worship.
The Shropshire bulla ("bulla" is Medieval Latin for "a round seal", Classical Latin for "bubble, blob", plural bullae), also known as the Shropshire sun pendant, is a Late Bronze Age gold pendant found by a metal detectorist in 2018 in Shropshire. At Mitchell's Fold there is a Bronze Age stone circle set in dramatic moorland on Stapeley Hill.
The area was once part of the lands of the Cornovii, which consisted of the modern day counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, north Staffordshire, north Herefordshire, and eastern parts of Powys. This was a tribal Celtic Iron Age kingdom. Their capital in pre-Roman times was probably a hill fort on the Wrekin. There is an important Iron Age Hill fort at Old Oswestry earthworks, this has been linked to where King Arthur’s Guinevere was born and called "the Stonehenge of the Iron Age."
According to tradition, Caratacus (or Caractacus) made his last stand against the Romans in Shropshire. Ptolemy's 2nd century Geography names one of their towns as being Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter), which became their capital under Roman rule and one of the largest settlements in Britain.
==== Early period ====
After the Roman occupation of Britain ended in the 5th century, the Shropshire area was in the eastern part of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys, known in Welsh poetry as the Paradise of Powys.
As 'Caer Guricon' it is a possible Shrewsbury was the site of the seat of the Kingdom of Powys in the Early Middle Ages. This would date establishment of the town to the 500s CE under Brochwel Ysgithrog. It is believed the area of Shrewsbury was settled in the 5th century by refugees from the nearby Roman City of Viroconium Cornoviorum, most physical evidence dates from the 7th century.
Oswestry saw conflict in the early mediaeval period and is traditionally suspected to be the site of the Battle of Maserfield, where Oswald of Northumbria was defeated and killed by the forces of King Penda in 641 or 642 CE. Oswald was later regarded as a saint, with Bede saying that the spot where he died came to be associated with miracles, and people took dirt from the site, which led to a hole being dug as deep as a man's height.
Around 680 CE Merewalh, a son of King Penda, founded a dual monastery for both monks and nuns at Much Wenlock. One of his daughters, Milburga, went on to be appointed as its second abbess, and later was canonised with the site of her bones becoming a popular pilgrimage destination, with the modern pilgrimage route of the Abbesses' Way running from Wenlock Priory to Shrewsbury.
King Offa of Mercia annexed the entirety of Shropshire over the course of the 8th century from Powys, with Shrewsbury captured in 778, with two dykes built to defend, or at least demarcate it from the Welsh. King Offa converted the palace of the rulers of Powys into his first church, dedicated to St Chad (a foundation that still survives in the town and operated on that initial site for over 1000 years, moving in 1792).
In later centuries, Vikings repeatedly invaded, with Wenlock Priory being destroyed in 874. To protect against this threat, fortresses were built at Bridgnorth (912) and Chirbury (913). …