'Shrewsbury' supporters hit by new salvo from 'Shrowsbury' camp

To recap. Richard Harper (Shrowsbury supporter, aged 92) had said that only in modern times had people in the county town, especially the younger generation, tried to change the pronunciation to Shrewsbury, and David Meredith (Shrewsbury supporter) responded to say that that got his goat and he could trace his family history back to the 1740s living in Shropshire and every one in his and his parents' memory pronounced it as Shrewsbury.

Joining the fray now is Alan Bason, a Shrowsbury supporter, from Shrewsbury.

"David Meredith's claim that a phonetic pronunciation must be correct really gets my goat," he said. "Presumably he says 'War-wick' for Warwick, 'Green-witch' for Greenwich, 'Liver-pool' for Liverpool, 'Der-Bee' for Derby, 'Leo-Minster' for Leominster, and so on.

"How on earth can he know how his ancestors pronounced the name of our county town in 1740?

"My old dad, who would be over 100 were he alive, said, like the Lancastrian teacher Mr Sinkerson, who presumably had bothered to find out, that the correct pronunciation was Shrowsbury. This revelation came from him when I had some school homework and a question was 'does the name of your town cause confusion with visitors? Is it pronounced differently from its spelling?' I said 'no' and was corrected.

"Very few people I know refer to the local football team as the 'Shrews'. This seems to be a modern invention and people I talk with discuss the fortunes of 'The Town' or just 'Town'."

Alan said the chant at matches was "Salop" and not "Shrews".

"Richard Harper, at 92 is probably right, but no doubt you could find someone older who claims it's 'Shrews'."

Alan gives a p.s. saying: "I'm a born Salopian and 93 per cent bred." So, for those following the twists and turns of this debate, it's time to put the tin helmets on again.