Alrewas ( ) is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Lichfield District Lichfield () is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. It is administered by Lichfield District Council, based in Lichfield. The dignity and privileges of the City of Lichfield are vested in the parish council of the 14 km² ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

, England.

Geography

The village is beside the

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

and about northeast of

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

. It is located southwest of

Burton-on-Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. Th ...

. The parish is bounded by the Trent to the north and east, and by field boundaries to the south and west. The

A38 road The A38, parts of which are known as Devon Expressway, Bristol Road and Gloucester Road, is a major A-class trunk road in England. The road runs from Bodmin in Cornwall to Mansfield in Nottinghamshire. It is long, making it the longest two-d ...

passes the village, which is just inside the boundary of the National Forest. Until 2009 Alrewas was part of the

of Alrewas and Fradley. Fradley had begun as a hamlet in the

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

of Alrewas, and the civil parish was named to reflect Fradley's growth into a village. From 1 April 2009 Alrewas and Fradley have been two separate civil parishes. Near Alrewas are the villages of

Wychnor Wychnor (or Wichnor, ) is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, situated in the East Staffordshire local government district adjoining Alrewas and Barton-under-Needwood. It is situated on the A38, formerly the Roman road Rykni ...

Barton-under-Needwood Barton-under-Needwood is a large village in the East Staffordshire district of Staffordshire, England. Situated a mile from the A38, and located between Burton upon Trent and Lichfield. It had a population of 4,225 at the 2011 census. It is al ...

, Fradley and

Kings Bromley Kings Bromley is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England on the junction of the A515 and the A513 roads. The village lies in Lichfield District, and the council ward of Kings Bromley had a population of 1,651 at the time of the 2001 ...

. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 2,852.

Toponym

The

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

"Alrewas" is derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''Alor-wæsse'', meaning "alluvial land growing with alder trees".

Places of interest

Bagnall Lock at Alrewas, Staffordshire - geograph

The A38 dual carriageway follows the line of

Ryknild Street Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman roads in Britannia, Roman road in England, with a route roughly south-west to north-east. It runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire () to Templeborough in South Yorkshire ( ...

, a

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

that linked what are now

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

and

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

. Orgreave Hall is a brick-built

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

in Alrewas parish about northwest of the village. It was built in 1668 and extended in the early 18th century. The

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middle ...

was built between 1766 and 1777. It passes through Alrewas, where northeast of the village it has a junction with the River Trent. The South Staffordshire Line of the

South Staffordshire Railway The South Staffordshire Railway (SSR) was authorised in 1847 to build a line from Dudley in the West Midlands of England through Walsall and Lichfield to a junction with the Midland Railway on the way to Burton upon Trent, with authorised share ...

was built through the parish in the 1840s and

Alrewas railway station Alrewas railway station was a station on the South Staffordshire Railway, which served the village of Alrewas, Staffordshire. The station was located next to a level crossing, although the main road, now the A513, now crosses the railway line ...

was opened in 1849.

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways closed the station in 1965, but this part of the line remains open. East of Alrewas is the

National Memorial Arboretum The National Memorial Arboretum is a British site of national remembrance at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire. Its objective is to honour the fallen, recognise service and sacrifice, and foster pride in the British Armed Forces and civilian ...

, dedicated to remembering those lost due to warfare since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Churches

The

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

is All Saints in Church Lane. The oldest parts of the building are 12th-century. Some

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

work remains but much of the present building is

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

from the 13th, 14th and 16th centuries. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

is 15th-century. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is Jacobean, made in 1639. There is a monument by Thomas White to John Turton, who died in 1707. The church was restored in 1997. All Saints' is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related Christian denomination, denominations of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John W ...

is in Post Office Road opposite the Crown Inn. It is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

brick building completed in 1928. In 1989 due to rot the roof was renewed. At the same time a new floor was laid, involving the removal of

pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

s and organ.

School

All Saints Primary School is the local Church of England primary school. It is a small primary school which is only slightly more than single form entry.

Public houses

The village has three

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s: the Crown Inn, the George and Dragon and the William IV. The Crown is a pub and restaurant in Post Office Road. The George and Dragon is an 18th-century building in Main Street. The William IV was three cottages until the 1830s, when it was converted into a pub.

The National Memorial Arboretum

The

is at Alrewas. It "honours the fallen, recognises service and sacrifice, and fosters pride in our country". The Arboretum is a charity run by staff and volunteers, and part of The

Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as all others in ne ...

group of charities. An Act of Remembrance, including a silence, is observed daily in the Millennium Chapel. The Arboretum receives about 300,000 visitors a year.

Culture

The village holds the biennial Alrewas Arts Festival every other summer. The first festival was in 2006, and it has become a much loved attraction in the village's calendar. It is an eight-day free festival that includes workshops, performances, exhibitions and events in Alrewas village. It features local artistic and artisan talents. The workshops range from silk painting to film making. There is fund raising including auctions and sales in the intermediate 2-year period to meet the festival's costs. It culminates in a Sunday daytime to evening event of live music, comedy and interactive arts in Alrewas Park that attracts thousands of party-goers from surrounding villages and towns. Each year the village hosts the Alrewas Show, which is a registered charity. It includes a walking carnival procession (formerly driven floats), galloping acrobatics, a falconry display, miniature steam display, Punch and Judy show, livestock display, fairground rides and attractions, trade stands, historic cars, farm machinery and music.

Buildings

Gallery

File:All Saints, Alrewas.jpg, Lychgate and west tower of
All Saints' parish church. File:Alrewas Methodist Church, Staffordshire - geograph.org.uk - 1587845.jpg, Alrewas Methodist church (2009) File:The George and Dragon at Alrewas, Staffordshire - geograph.org.uk - 1587998.jpg, The George and Dragon (2009) File:Armed Forces Memorial - View towards the Lafarge quarry workings - geograph.org.uk - 846536.jpg, Part of the

(2008) File:Tudor House, Alrewas - geograph.org.uk - 321304.jpg, Alrewas has several

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

timber-framed houses. Shakespeare Cottage in Main Street was built in the 17th century and extended in the 19th. (1993)

Sport & Leisure

Cricket

Alrewas Cricket Club is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

amateur

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

club with a history of cricket in the village dating back to 1879. The club ground is based on Daisy Lane. Alrewas CC have 3 Saturday senior XI teams that compete in the

Derbyshire County Cricket League The Premier Division of the Derbyshire County Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Derbyshire, England, and is a designated ECB Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Assoc ...

, a Sunday XI team in the Lichfield & District Cricket League, a Women's team in the West Midlands Women’s Cricket League, a Woman's softball team and an established junior training section that play competitive cricket in the Burton & District Youth Cricket League.

Tennis

Alrewas Tennis was founded in 2013. The club has a LTA Tennismark accreditation and are registered by HMRC as a Community Amateur Sports Club. Coaching sessions for adults and juniors are provided and facilities include two floodlit, painted tarmac courts.

References

External links

Alrewas Parish CouncilAlrewas ArchivesAlrewas Arts Festival
* {{authority control Civil parishes in Staffordshire Villages in Staffordshire