Hawkstone Park |
North Shropshire Villages
Adderley
The village of Adderley has an interesting red sandstone church of St. Peter which was rebuilt from an older church and is in the style of St. Alkmunds in Whitchurch. There is an ancient Normon font, a 14th century brass of an abbot, and monuments of the two warring families of Corbet’s and Kilmorey’s who fought in the churchyard over pew rights.
Ash
Ash is a scattered village made up of two parts, Ash Magna and Ash Parva. The village has interesting half-timbered houses with Ash Hall standing as a fine example of early 18th century houses. The red brick, nineteenth century Christ Church has unusual buttressing on either side of the doorway and a fine tower.
Baschurch
Baschurch was an important settlement of the Welsh and Saxons called Bassa which declined by the 12th century in favour of Shrewsbury. It is a compact, attractive village, centred around the Church of All Saints which dates from the 13th and 14th centuries.
Calverhall
Calverhall village is located halfway between Whitchurch and Market Drayton, designed largely by W. Eden Nesfield in partnership with Norman Shaw in the 1870’s. The Church of 1872 also has a glass by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones of 1875.
Cheswardine
The village of Cheswardine is set on a hill with fine views of the surrounding flat country. The Church is of great interest bearing the royal arms of Charles II, several windows by C.E. Kempe, 1892, a competitor of Morris’s. There are two old brasses dated 1610 and 1632 in the floor of the nave.
Colemere-Lyneal
Consisting of two hamlets set close together joined almost completely by a half-mile avenue of chestnuts. The mere, opposite the mid-Victorian Gothic Church of St. John the Evangelist, is regularly used by the Colemere Sailing Club.
Clive
This picturesque village huddles around Clive Hall on the wooded slopes of Grinshill. The Hall is the birthplace of William Wycherley, the famous Restoration dramatist. The Church is unusual for Shropshire in having a tall tower and spire, it was rebuilt in 1885-94 from an earlier 12th century church.
Cockshutt
Situated on the main road to Ellesmere, this village has a church of 1777 in brick with an unusually slim tower. About 1.5 miles to the south west are two of the finest farmhouses of the area – Wycherely Hall, timber framed, and Shade Oak of similar style with an overmantal inside of 1659.
Edstaston
The village lies north of Wem on the road to Whitchurch. It’s Church, lying just off this road, is one of the most outstanding small Norman churches in the county. Of interest are the recently uncovered medieval wall-paintings.
Fauls
This little village boats a church by Benjamin Ferry, 1856, having a belfry and shingled spire.
Grindley Brook
Grindley Brook is located on the A41 out of Whitchurch on the Cheshire border. It is notable for the imposing seven-tier locks on the Shropshire Union Canal to negotiate the abrupt drop in level down to the Cheshire Plain.
Grinshill
Grinshill is a picturesque village nestling below wooded steep slopes. Ancient quarries on the reverse slope supplied stone for many notable buildings. Stone Grange in the village was built in 1617 as a retreat from the plague for pupils and staff of Shrewsbury School.
Hadnall
Hadnall is a small village a few miles north of Shrewsbury on the A49. It is here that General Rowland Hill lies who was second in command and a close friend of the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo.
Hawkstone
Hawkstone is a dramatic ridge topped by the tower of the Redcastle, connected with Arturian legend. It was developed by Sir Rowland Hill and sir Richard Hill in the late 18th century into an early scenic attraction with Hawk Lake, grottos, precipice walks and a hotel.
High Ercall
High Ercall is a small village, located 10 miles south-east of Wem. Apart from Ludlow in the south of the county, it was the last garrison in Royalist Shropshire to survive against the Roundheads during the Civil War. The village church of St Michael is a largely medieval structure, with the tower dating back to the 14th century. One curious artefact in the churchyard is the sundial which not only records the time in the village, but also in Rome, Jerusalem and Plymouth in Massachusetts.
Hodnet
Hodnet is the most attractive small village in North Shropshire, eight kilometres south-west of Market Drayton and it is filled with Shropshire’s typically beautiful black and white houses. The parish church of St. Luke’s is largely 14th century, although records indicate that a church has been sited at Hodnet, since at least 1086, and has a unique octagonal Church Tower. The Church was for fifteen years in the rectorship of Reginald Heber, the famous Victorian hymn-writer. The current church has a Nuremberg Bible, printed in 1479. Hodnet’s centrepiece, for which it most well-known, is its Hall and Gardens which were started in 1921 by Brigadier A.G.W. Heber-Percy, who spend 30 years transforming the landscape from a boggy marsh to splendid formal garden. Today the 19th century mansion stands in the grounds, which are open to the public. The Heber-Percy family still lives in the ancestral home. There is also evidence that at some time during the late eleventh or early twelfth century a mote and bailey castle was erected at Hodnet, of which some small earthworks survive.
Hordley
Looking west from the village is the majestic scenery of the Welsh Mountains. The Church is part Norman with a patterned slate roof. Tudor brick barns enclose a vast yard which was part of the old Hordley Hall; home to the Kynaston family.
Ightfield
The village lies in the centre of Hunting country in a fairy flat, pond-studded area. Tucked away in a corner is the perpendicular church which was almost totally restored in the nineteenth century. Inside, there are two good brasses, one of William Mainwaring and the other of his daughter Dame Margaret Calverely. Ightfield Hall, said to have a haunted room, is a timbered and moated sixteenth century farm. The avenue linking the church and hall was supposedly planted overnight by the devil as a result of a lost wager between himself and one of the Mainwarings.
Loppington
The village houses the only remaining bull-ring in north Shropshire, it is believed to have been used up to 1835 for bull baiting. Also to be seen is the Parish Church which has an interesting history behind it. Near to there is a Queen Anne brick house and beyond a half-timbered house with gigantic multiple chimney.
Moreton Say
The village lies in dairy country not far from Market Drayton. There are several tablets and tombs of the Clive family here. The Church, from the outside, appears to be eighteenth century red brick but inside is what remains of the stone church. Also to be seen is a staircase with Jacobean balusters leading to a fine west gallery.
Moreton Corbett
Standing up with great splendour is the grey stone ruins of Moreton Corbett Castle, in a good Elizabethan style. The fourteenth century church, beside the black and white rectory is where many of the Corbett’s are buried. Twenty-three acres on the eastern side of the summit of Grinshill make up corbet wood. The trail can be visited throughout the year and is a little over 1 mile in length. It starts and ends at the parking area on the cliff top.
Myddle & Harmer Hill
The village of Myddle was home to Richard Gough, the first British social historian (1635-1723) who used the family pews of the church to trace the social history of the village. The village church though appearing 15th century from its tower was built in 1634. The church tower features an unusual hexagonal clock face. Scant remains of Myddle Castle built around 1307 by Lord Lestrange of Knockin. The village has many red sandstone buildings, which was quarried locally.
Newtown
Newtown is a small village near Wem which is interesting for its church dedicated to King Charles the Martyr. It originated from a house converted into a church by Royalist sympathisers during the Civil War in the middle of a staunch Roundhead district. The present church was built in 1869 in lancet style.
Norton-in-Hales
Norton-in-Hales is a small village near Market Drayton, close to Staffordshire, preserving its ancient name, for Market drayton was originally Drayton-in-Hales. The church tower is of the Perpendicular period but the remainder is 1864-72 with an unusual addition of a small baptistery beside the tower which houses the magnificent Cotton monument in alabaster of Sir Rowland Cotton and his wife, who died in childbirth, and she is portrayed with her child in her arms. The Cottons of Combermere abbey granted Drayton-in-Hales its market thus re-naming it Market Drayton.
Peplow
A fine pair of wrought iron gates lead to Peplow Hall, once the home of the Victorian millionaire philanthropist Francis Stanier. The Chapel of Epiphany was designed by Norman Shaw in 1878 and is typical of his style, with low timber and brick walls and very tall steep roof topped by a happy open timber bellcote. Reached from Hodnet on the A442 to Telford.
Prees
Prees is a very ancient village with evidence of Roman use. The church of St. Chad is 14th century but the tower is 1758. A handsome monument to Sir John Hill of 1824, father of the famous Lord Hill, Wellington’s second in command at Waterloo, is housed within.
Preston Brockhurst
A good selection here of black and white cottages surrounding a village green, and overlooked by a fine grey stone mansion of the late 17th century. The village is a turn-off place for Corbett Wood which covers the eastern side of Grinshill rock escarpment giving outstanding views of Shropshire countryside.
Shawbury
A village that has grown much as a very important RAF station whose barracks are in neo-Georgian style of 1938, giving a modern, spaciousness to the village. The church is of Grinshill stone with late Norman nave and fine arcades.
Tilstock
A heathland village contained between Prees Heath and the damper lands of Fenns and Whixall mosses. It is also close to Brown Moss Nature Reserve – an important primeval woodland and pond area. The red-brick church of 1835, with a tall slim tower with a pyramid roof, is the main feature of the village. The church windows are an early example of cast-iron glazing bars which give the interior an unusual clarity and airiness.
Welshampton
The church of Saint Micheal was built in 1863 and was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott with unusual yellow stone and a diaper pattern slate roof, the whole giving a smooth rounded effect.
Weston-under-Redcastle
Weston-under-Redcastle is a very attractive village with a variety of architectural styles situated under the south west edge of the bold Hawkstone Ridge. The Church is of 1791 in the Gothic style but with a Georgian tower.
Whixall
A large and scattered parish in the very north of the county. Whixall Moss near by has layers of peat about 7-8 feet thick. The red brick church was built in 1867 bt G.E. Street. Another feature of Whixall is the Shropshire Union Canal which cuts along the edge of the Moss.
Woore
Woore is a fairly large village having a white church dating back to 1838. It lies in the corner of the county on the old London to Chester road where it meets Cheshire and Staffordshire.
