Cantlop

Etymology

Various meanings have been suggested for the name, such as an enclosed or cut-off valley or an enclosure in a waste or common. Ekwall proposes a twofold origin: 'Cant' for being located on the Cound Brook, where Cound could be a name, and '-lop' from Old English 'hop', or valley. But being first recorded in the Domesday Book as Cantelop, and in an area highly coveted by Norman knights, it is very possible that the name comes from the Old French chante lou, lit. sing wolf (wolf song), for a place where wolves could be heard howling. This would be supported by the frequent occurrence the toponym in France today as well as its various alternative spellings, Chanteloup, Canteloup, Chantelouve, Canteleu and Canteleux.

History

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. 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 mi from (the centre of) Shrewsbury (written on the milestone as "Salop"); it is now Grade II listed.

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.

References

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. Ekwall, E. ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', 4th Ed., Oxford University Press, 1987
5. Cragg, R. ''Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and west central England'', Telford, 1997, p.242. {{ISBN. 978-0-7277-2576-9
6. [http://search.shropshirehistory.org.uk/collections/getrecord/CCS_MSA10025/ Shropshire History]
7. [http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/counties Ordnance Survey]