page_title: Telford
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Telford / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Photo taken by Chris Bayley with Canon PowerShot A610 A view of the en:Wrekin, Shropshire near the M54 motorway.
context_page_description: Telford is a large town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about 13 miles east of Shrewsbury, and 30 miles north west of Birmingham. With an estimated population of 175,271 in 2017 and around 155,000 in Telford itself, Telford is the largest town in Shropshire, and one of the fastest-growing towns in the United Kingdom.
  It is named after civil engineer Thomas Telford, who engineered many road and rail projects in Shropshire. The town was put together in the 1960s and 1970s as a new town on previously industrial and agricultural land and smaller towns. Like other planned towns of the era, Telford was created from the merger of other, smaller settlements, most notably the towns of Wellington, Oakengates, Madeley and Dawley. Many of the New Town's newer inhabitants were originally from Birmingham or Wolverhampton.
  Telford Shopping Centre, a modern shopping mall, was constructed at the new town's geographical centre, along with an extensive Town Park. The M54 motorway was completed in 1983, improving the town's road links with the West Midlands conurbation.
context_section_description: Telford town centre lies about 21 kilometres (13 mi) east/south-east of Shrewsbury and  24 kilometres (15 mi) north-west of Wolverhampton. The town comprises 7,803 hectares (30.13 square miles) and its southern and eastern parts, between the Severn Gorge and Donnington Wood, include the East Shropshire coalfield. North and north-west Telford lie beyond the coalfield's boundary fault on sandstone beds which, along with other Triassic formations, prevail over much of the North Shropshire plain. The town centre stands on a watershed, with land to the south draining towards the River Severn, and to the north the land slopes gently down towards the Weald Moors. The town is dominated by the Wrekin, a large hill of 407 m (1335 ft), located south-west of Wellington, straddling the border with the unitary Shropshire Council (before the latter's creation in 2009 the borough of Shrewsbury and Atcham).
caption: The Wrekin overlooks the town
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