England's counties: Shropshire

County motto: Let salop flourish

Best thing: The Wenlock Olympian Games, Much Wenlock, inspired Baron de Coubertin, one of the founders of the modern Olympic Games

Local food: Shrewsbury simnel cake; Market Drayton ginger-bread (locals dunk it in port); Ludlow farmer’s market; Shropshire sausage and home smoked bacon from Maynards Farm

Events: Arbor Day, Aston-on-Clun, a tree-decorating custom; Ludlow Rope-Pulling

Inventions: The skyscraper was born in Ditherington, where Charles Bage erected the world’s first iron-framed building in 1797 Heroes: Charles Darwin; Matthew Webb (first Channel swimmer); William Penny Brookes

Worst thing: Shropshire holds the record for the coldest outdoor temperature recorded in England or Wales on January 10, 1982, in Edgmond, it dipped to –26.1˚C Battle: The Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 between the Percy rebels and the Crown has Shakespearean connections with King Henry IV and Prince Hal defeating Hotspur. It saw the deadly effect of the longbow tactics that were employed at Agincourt 12 years later

Literary wealth: Wilfred Owen was born in Shropshire in 1893 What they say: ‘On Wenlock Edge the wood’s in trouble; His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves; The gale, it plies the saplings double, And thick on Severn snow the leaves’ (A. E. Housman) Architectural: identity Stokesay Castle exhibits the decorative panels incorporated into the half-timbering that Shropshire is famous for Etymology: Shrewsbury comes from the Anglo-Saxon scrobbesbyrig, which means either ‘scrubland fort’ or ‘Scrobb’s fort’

Myth: Shropshire Blue cheese is actually from Inverness and was renamed as a marketing ploy

Titbits: Ironbridge Gorge (a World Heritage Site) is known as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution for its mines, railways and blast furnaces

Nickname: Shropshire residents are still referred to as Salopians, an old abbreviation for Shropshire from the Anglo-French Salopesberia

First: The world’s first iron bridge was built in 1779 at Coalbrookdale

Houses: Attingham Park is a Georgian mansion with Classical interiors; Benthall Hall; Stokesay Castle is a 13th-century fortified manor; Hawkstone has a Rococo ballroom by Wyatt