The village straddles the A53 between Shrewsbury and Market Drayton.[2] The nearest railway station is at Yorton on the Welsh Marches Line for Shrewsbury/Crewe. The 2011 census recorded a population of 2,872 for the entire civil parish of Shawbury.[3]
History
Shawbury has an entry in the Domesday Book of 1085.[4] In the great book Shawbury is recorded by the name Sawesberie. The main landholder was Gerard from Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. The survey also mentions that there is a church and a mill.
Geography
The River Roden flows through the village. The village of Moreton Corbet, with its castle, is just to the north.
The main weather station for Shropshire is located in the village at the RAF base.[5] In December 1981, a temperature of -25.2 °C was recorded, one of the coldest on record for England.[6]
An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward covers much of the surrounding area with a total ward population as taken at the 2011 Census of 4,666.[10]
Landmarks
There has been a church on this site since at least the 12th century, although the present church is not from that date.
Many air force personnel from RAF Shawbury, an air station founded in 1917, are buried in the churchyard, which contains 32 Commonwealth War Graves, 3 from World War I and 29 from World War II, besides 7 Polish Air Force personnel from the latter war.[11]
William Hazledine (born Shawbury 1763–1840) an English ironmaster, he was a pioneer in casting structural ironwork, most notably for canal aqueducts and early suspension bridges
Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Butler (1870-1935 in Shawbury) a British Army general during WW1, lived in retirement at Roden Lodge where he died.[13]
^"A Famous General's Death – Sir R.H.K.Butler, of Shawbury". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 26 April 1935. p. 7. Both the Dictionary of National Biography and Oxford Dictionary of National Biography are erroneous in stating he died in Shrewsbury.
