SHREWSBURY AND ATCHAM

borough (district), administrative and historic county of Shropshire, west-central England, in the west-central part of the county. Wales lies across the borough's western border. Shrewsbury and Atcham borough is an undulating plain covered with glacial drift and drained by the River Severn; it is edged on the west and south by a series of ridges oriented northeast-southwest, including the Long Mynd and Long Mountain. The borough is mainly rural and agricultural. The town of Shrewsbury, the administrative centre for both the borough and the county, is a market centre for the rich dairy-farming region to the north and has many specialized industries. Atcham, a town on the River Severn immediately southeast of Shrewsbury, is the site of Attingham Park, a building noted for its late 18th-century interior decoration. Area 233 square miles (603 square km). Pop. (1998 est.) 97,400.