How do you describe the something that isn't there? It was easy enough in a tick-box sort of way when I was looking for milestones, when either I saw them or I didn't (and even then, subsequent research has shown that some I didn't see were actually there, nevertheless).
This is about something vaguer - the 'look' of the road. Birdwatchers call it 'jizz' - the way a bird hops, pecks, glides, etc., lets them recognise it, even when they haven't seen the distinctive wingtip flash or whatever that really identifies a species. I think of this when I'm weeding the garden: I have an idea from the shape of leaves which should go and which should stay, although I haven't got the technical vocabulary (which I know exists) that would enable me to describe the difference.
So the question was - does the Shrewsbury to Chirk road look like the Chirk to Holyhead road? I do think that the road all the way from Chirk to Holyhead has a certain look in common, although I would be hard pressed to demonstrate this with a few pictures, given all the changes in landscape along the way. I wanted to know if that look started at Shrewsbury. And, no, it doesn't, although again it's difficult to say exactly why.
So what was the same and what was different?
Gradients - a common approach to avoiding steep gradients by embankments over dips, cuttings through rises and platforms round the side of hills, obviously more pronounced in Wales because the topography calls for it.
Halts - a need to call at certain places for stopping-off points along the way. The road goes through Nesscliffe in Shropshire because it had the coaching inns, otherwise Telford would have gone the way of the present bypass. In Wales, the route through Corwen and Bangor was dictated in advance - but not at Llangollen or Capel Curig, while Anglesey called for a brand-new coaching inn. So was Telford, County Surveyor for Shropshire, more subject to local pressure there than in Wales?
Tollhouses - the two-storey tollhouse at Montford Bridge looks like an Anglesey tollhouse, and that at Burcot (actually the other side of Shrewsbury) is similar to those in mainland Wales. The 'Gatehouse' by Wolfshead looks nothing like a tollhouse - but may be an earlier turnpike building.
Milestones - a similar, but not identical design. West of Shrewsbry, these are definitely different to those on the London side and the stone itself is the same, suggesting some continuity between Shrewsbury-Chirk and Chirk-Holyhead. The cast iron plate doesn't have quite the same lettering and doesn't follow the policy of naming the next coaching stop either side.
Depots and walls - these roadside alcoves are a very distinct characteristic of the Telford road in North Wales, and I really couldn't find any in Shropshire except perhaps one or two just before Chirk. But that leads to the other big difference: you can't really have a depot without there being a roadside wall for the alcove to interrupt. In Wales, the topography leads to a need for a retaining wall one side or another, and sometimes both - but the Telford roadway is usually bounded by a wall everywhere. (of course walls get rebuilt by adjoining property owners or in highway improvements - but it's rare for a wall, once built, to be removed and replaced by a fence). This really was the big difference in Shropshire - the road in the countryside usually had just a fence or a hedge at the side. I couldn't spot the depots because there was no wall for them to be in.
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