The Wrekin

The Wrekin /ˈriːkᵻn/ is a hill in east Shropshire, England. It is located some five miles (8 km) west of Telford, on the border between the districts of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Rising to a height of 1,335 feet (407 metres) above the Shropshire Plain, it is a prominent and well-known landmark, signalling the entrance to Shropshire for travellers westbound on the M54 motorway. The Wrekin is contained within the northern panhandle of the Shropshire Hills AONB. The hill is popular with walkers and tourists and offers good views of Shropshire. It can be seen well into Staffordshire and the Black Country, and even as far as the Beetham Tower in Manchester, Winter Hill in Lancashire and Cleeve Hill in Gloucestershire.

Name

The earliest mention of the Wrekin (pronounced locally as REE-KIN) occurs in a charter of 855, as entered in a late 11th century Worcester cartulary, spelled Wreocensetun. Its modern form is believed to have come into modern English by way of Mercian, and that is likely to have been taken from the early Celtic word Wrikon. It is presumed to be etymologically related to the Latin name for the town of Viroconium Cornoviorum (modern Wroxeter; the Cornovii were the Brittonic tribe inhabiting the area), related to similar sounding names such as Wrexham (a charter of 1236 refers to this place as Wrectesham) which was also part of the northwestern edge of the Cornovii Kingdom.

The Wrekin (UK Parliament constituency)

Coordinates: 52°42′58″N 2°27′14″W / 52.716°N 2.454°W / 52.716; -2.454

The Wrekin is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Mark Pritchard, a Conservative.

History

Anthony Trafford (Conservative) went on after serving as MP to serve as a health minister, from the House of Lords in 1989.

Gerald Fowler (Labour) reached the frontbenches of government as the Minister for Education and Science from 1969 to 1970, again in 1974 and 1976 and as Minister for the Privy Council Office from 1974 to 1976.

Bruce Grocott (Labour) went on, after serving as MP for the newly created neighbouring seat from 1997 to 2001, to serve as the Government's Chief Whip in the House of Lords for six years.

The seat saw a first winning candidate from the Labour Party relatively early in the country's history, in 1923. The seat alternated between the two largest modern parties eight times between 1923 and 1979.

In more recent history, reflecting the growing population of Telford and the rich iron smelting, railway and mining industries as major historic employers in the area, the seat was more Labour-leaning than the national average but still marginal, being represented by a Conservative for the first eight years of the Thatcher ministry and then (from 1987) returning a Labour member, who went on to serve a new seat created to serve Telford in 1997, and another Labour member until 2005, followed by the present Conservative who was elected that year. The present majority is over 10,000 votes.