Founded by Thomas Wood, a drapery salesman-turned-printer who had been a partner in the
Birmingham Chronicle newspaper, the
Shrewsbury Chronicle was first published on Monday 23 November 1772. It was then titled ''The Shrewsbury Chronicle, or Wood's British Commercial Pamphlet'' and eight pages long. In the 1830s the paper, under the editorship of John Watton, supported the
Whigs. The paper covered national, international and local news, with advertisements alone on its front page until February 1953 when major Shropshire-interest news stories began being carried on it. The paper came out as a daily paper for just under a fortnight during the
General Strike of 1926, its contents largely taken from
BBC bulletins. Over the centuries the paper has had many different offices and printing works around Shrewsbury, apart from a period between 1916 and 1927 when printing was done at
Newport because of structural defects pending a rebuild, and later, several times, printing had to be done in
Walsall when the works, then in Castle Foregate, was flooded. It is now based in Abbey Foregate. In 2004 circulation was over 19,000, the highest for 20 years. In 2008 the paper's circulation was 14,015. The paper was awarded Best Campaigning Newspaper in Great Britain 2005 by the Newspaper Society.[
better source needed] In 2009 the paper moved to a part-free, part-paid model, with some copies free and others for sale. ==Notable journalists and contributors==