Shrewsbury is one of England's most celebrated historic towns. It is renowned for its black and white timber-framed buildings, for the Old Market Hall, the Abbot's House on Butcher Row, and for its picturesque, winding, ancient streets. Its Georgian architecture - whether neoclassical brick or the world's first iron-framed mill - faithfully reflects the vibrancy of the town known to Charles Darwin's grandfather. But the paradox of Shrewsbury is that this extraordinarily rich townscape has until recently seen less archaeological investigation than others, more damaged and compromised, elsewhere. Many fundamental questions about its past have remained unanswered. This book is the first ever written to stand back and pose the question - how far has the archaeological investigation of the town progressed? What is now known? What is most significant? And, above all, what are the mysteries that remain and what direction should archaeological research take in the future? This book is the outcome of a major English Heritage project, and uses the results of archaeological and historical research from the late 18th century to the present day to trace what is known of the story of Shrewsbury from its post-Roman origins up to the 1920s.