What is "harlescott"

Harlescott is a suburb of the town of Shrewsbury, county town of Shropshire. It is one of the most industrial parts of the town, and is the 5th most deprived ward in non-metropolitan Shropshire Neighbouring suburbs include Sundorne to the east and Ditherington to the south. Note that many locals, particularly those born before about 1985, use the term "Harlescott" to refer to a wider area than the council ward, including much of what is officially "Sundorne" (to the east of Whitchurch and Battlefield Roads) and also much of the Heathgates and Mount Pleasant areas (sometimes called "Heath Farm").

Shrewsbury's livestock market was at Harlescott (between 1956 and 2006 - it is now at a new site out-of-town at Battlefield). The site has been redeveloped with a Tesco supermarket. Next door there is a Park and Ride car park. Every Sunday, when there are no Park and Ride buses, an open air market is held at this site. There are four bank branches nearby on Harlescott Lane. There are currently plans to expand the Tesco, including new units to accommodate the banks.

There was once a military supply depot here, RAF Harlescott, but this has closed and the nearest RAF base is now a few miles away at Shawbury. Harlescott was also once a fairly notable railway centre, but now all the sidings have gone. Only the Welsh Marches Line itself and Harlescott Crossing and its signal box, remain.

There are two pubs in Harlescott, one called The Anchor Inn and the other Harry Hotspur. The latter is named after Harry Hotspur, who fought at the Battle of Shrewsbury, which took place in the Harlescott area. ("The Coracle", Sundorne Road, "The Heathgates" on the Heathgates island, and "The Steam Wagon" on Mount Pleasant Road are also in Harlescott according to the wider definition, see above). Another pub, The Harlescott, recently closed and was later set alight by arsonists. It has now been demolished and a new supermarket ( Lidl) has been built on the site.

Harlescott's Secondary school is The Grange School, a co-educational secondary school with students aged between 11 and 16 with approximately 300 pupils. There is currently a plan to combine it with Sundorne School into a split-site school with a new title, "The Shrewsbury Academy".