Shoplatch was written down in 1209, a few years before King John signed Magna Carta. The earliest spellings of this street name tell us that it originally meant ‘archery place’, which is a place where people used bows and arrows.

​

Helpful story hints: Does this street name mean that there was a special area in Shrewsbury for archery? Who were the archers? Why were they shooting arrows there? Was it practice, a competition, a battle or something else? What sort of bows and arrows did they use?