North Shropshire
North Shropshire was a local government district in Shropshire, England. The district council was based at Edinburgh House, in Wem. Other settlements included the towns of Ellesmere, Market Drayton, Wem and Whitchurch, as well as the large villages of Shawbury and Baschurch. The district bordered onto Wales, Cheshire and Staffordshire as well as the Shropshire districts of Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Atcham and the unitary Telford and Wrekin. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of Market Drayton Rural District and North Shropshire Rural District. In 2008, it was  entirely surrounded by boroughs (including the county borough of Wrexham). The district and its council were abolished on 1 April 2009, when the new Shropshire unitary authority was established, as part of the 2009 structural changes to local government in England. Settlements. The district council classified Wem, Market Drayton, Whitchurch and Ellesmere as the market towns of North Shropshire, while it gave the classification of "main service villages" to Baschurch, Cheswardine, Clive, Cockshutt, Dudleston Heath, Hadnall, Hinstock, Hodnet, Prees, Shawbury, Tilstock, Welshampton and Woore. There are many other smaller villages and hamlets. Infrastructure. The main roads in the district are  the A41, A49 and the A53. There are no motorways. There are four railway stations in the district (Yorton, Wem, Prees and Whitchurch), all on the Welsh Marches Line. The Shrewsbury to Chester Line runs through the district as well, but the station at Baschurch has closed. The Shropshire Union Canal goes through the district and passes Market Drayton at one point. The Ellesmere Canal/Llangollen Canal is the other canal in the district.