Atcham is a village,

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

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 authority ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, England. It lies on the B4380 (once the A5), 5 miles south-east of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. The

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

flows round the village. To the south is the village of Cross Houses and to the north-west the hamlet of

Emstrey Emstrey is a dispersed hamlet on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, in the English county of Shropshire. The hamlet is located south-east of the town, on the B4380 road to Atcham. At the west end of the hamlet, on London Road, is the Emstrey Cremato ...

Local governance

Atcham once belonged and gave its name to Atcham Rural District, before the village merged into the Borough of Shrewsbury in 1974 and came under

Shrewsbury and Atcham Shrewsbury and Atcham was a local government district with borough status in Shropshire, England, between 1974 and 2009. Shrewsbury was the only town in the borough; Atcham, although itself only a village, was included in the name as a reflect ...

Borough Council. From 2009, Shrewsbury and Atcham joined the other districts of non-metropolitan Shropshire under

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire (district), Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers ...

. The

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

covering the borough remains as

. In population, Atcham is the smallest village to be named in a UK Parliamentary constituency.

History

The village has the only church in England dedicated to Saint Eata, Bishop of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...

.St. Eata's, Atcham, Shrewsbury
The reason for the dedication is unclear, as there is no written record of Eata coming so far south. However, there is a crop photograph from the 1970s of a field in

Attingham Park Attingham Park is an English country house and estate in Shropshire. Located near the village of Atcham, on the B4380 Shrewsbury to Wellington road. It is owned by the National Trust. It is a Grade I listed building. Attingham Park was b ...

showing the site of a Saxon palace identical to one excavated near Hexham. "Atcham" is a contraction of "Attingham", meaning "the home of Eata's people". The

church building A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...

dates from the 11th century. The local

airfield An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

RAF Atcham Royal Air Force Atcham or more simply RAF Atcham is a former Royal Air Force station located east of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, on the north eastern boundary of Attingham Park. Initially built for RAF Fighter Command, during the Secon ...

, now returned to agriculture and light industry, was held by an American training unit for much of

World War II 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 ...

. It used

P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

s and later

P-38 Lightning The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinctive tw ...

s for operational training of fighter pilots posted in from the United States. Almost 50 pilots were lost in accidents flying from there. The A5

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

–

Holyhead Holyhead (,; cy, Caergybi , "Cybi's fort") is the largest town and a community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales, with a population of 13,659 at the 2011 census. Holyhead is on Holy Island, bounded by the Irish Sea to the north, and is ...

road once crossed the village, but now runs to the north on a

dual-carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

Notable people

In order of birth: *

Ordericus Vitalis Orderic Vitalis ( la, Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – ) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Modern historia ...

(1075 – c. 1142), chronicler and

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

monk, was baptised in the village. *

Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick Noel Hill, 1st Baron Berwick (16 April 1745 – 6 January 1789), was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1768 to 1784 when he was raised to the peerage. Early life Hill was the youngest and only surviving ...

(1745–1789), politician and landowner, builder of Attingham Park, was buried at the village church. *

Anna Kingsford Anna Kingsford (; 16 September 1846 – 22 February 1888), was an English anti-vivisectionist, vegetarian and women's rights campaigner. She was one of the first English women to obtain a degree in medicine, after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, an ...

(1846–1888), first female English medical graduate and vegetarian, was buried at the village church. * Digby Tatham-Warter (1917–1993),

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 ...

British Army officer famed for carrying an umbrella * Dick Sale (1919–1987), first-class cricketer and school headmaster, was born in the village.

Features

Landmarks at Atcham include

, seat of the Berwick barons until the title became extinct in 1953. The hall at Attingham Park is now the regional headquarters of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

. Also on the estate is the Shropshire office of

Natural England Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

. Adjacent to Attingham Park is Home Farm, Attingham. Now separate from the hall that it traditionally supplied, it is a family-run organic farm and tearoom open to the public. The older of the two bridges at Atcham, built in 1769–1771 by John Gwynn, is commonly known as Atcham Bridge. The newer one, opened in 1929, carries the old A5 (B4380) road over the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

The village has a public house, the ''Mytton & Mermaid'', owned at one time by

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

as a staging post to his iconic Italianate village of

Portmeirion Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village, and is now owned by a charitable trust. The village is located in the co ...

. The school, post office and petrol station have all closed. A former garage remains as a small car sales and repair business. Atcham has a timber-framed village hall, the Malthouse, built in the 17th century as such, but after disuse converted in the 19th century into a carpenter's shop for the Attingham estate. It was opened after restoration in 1925 as the village hall and dedicated to the memory of the men of Atcham who had died in

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It has a

sprung floor A sprung floor is a floor that absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best kind for dance and indoor sports and physical education, and can enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries. Modern sprung floors are s ...

bought from a dance hall in Shrewsbury. Outside the parish to the east, is the village of

Wroxeter Wroxeter is a village in Shropshire, England, which forms part of the civil parish of Wroxeter and Uppington, beside the River Severn, south-east of Shrewsbury. ''Viroconium Cornoviorum'', the fourth largest city in Roman Britain, was sited ...

, formerly a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

town and currently the site of one of Shropshire's commercial

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s. Also there is the Atcham Business Park/Industrial Estate on the site of the old airfield. Despite its name, it lies in the neighbouring civil parish of

Wroxeter and Uppington Wroxeter and Uppington is a civil parish in the English county of Shropshire. The population of the Civil Parish at the 2011 census was 382. It lies mainly between the River Severn and the old A5 (now the B5061) and stretches from Atcham to T ...

, although after the

Diocese of Lichfield The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers of seve ...

made some boundary changes, it is now in the ecclesiastical parish of Atcham.

References

External links