Donington is a hamlet 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 shares a parish council with the neighbouring parish of Boscobel, due to the latter's small population.

Geography

The hamlet is situated on the northern outskirts of the large village of Albrighton. The parish is geographically large however and includes Cosford and DSAE Cosford, as well as encompassing a small part of the village of Albrighton (close to the railway station). The

M54 motorway The M54 is a 23-mile (37 km) east-west motorway in the counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire, England. It is also referred to as the Telford motorway, after the road's primary westbound destination, the town of Telford. It cost £65 ...

passes through the parish, as does the

Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

and

Albrighton railway station Albrighton railway station is a railway station which serves the village of Albrighton in Shropshire, England. The former up goods yard is now occupied by a small estate of low rise offices. History Opened by the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Rail ...

is on the border of the parishes of Donington and Albrighton, as is the Donington and Albrighton Nature Reserve. Wigmore Wood lies in the parish. Donington is located 9.9 miles away from

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

and 10.6 miles away from

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an est ...

To the east of the parish is

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 Cou ...

St. Cuthbert's Church

St. Cuthbert's Church in Donington is over 900 years old. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery. The old church tower had collapsed on 25 March 1879, and was rebuilt in 1880. Different parts of the church are from different eras. For example, the lower part of the tower is from the 12th Century and other areas being built in the 17th and 18th centuries. This Church is also a grade II listed building and has been since 26 September 1984. Many air force personnel from

RAF Cosford Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton, Bridgnorth, Albrighton. History Origins RA ...

are buried in the churchyard, 23 of them in

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 ...

Commonwealth service war graves marked and cared for by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

(CWGC). Also buried from the same war are four

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

airmen.
CWGC Cemetery Report, details obtained from casualty record. Note CWGC spell the village 'Donnington'. The dead include former British Olympic fencing, fencer Group Captain

Frederick Sherriff Frederick George Sherriff OBE MC (8 March 1889 – 31 January 1943) was a British fencer who was an officer in the British Army and later the Royal Air Force. He competed at two Olympic Games, in the men's team foil, at Paris in 1924 an ...

.
CWGC Casualty Record. The CWGC also register the graves of two

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officers of

World War I 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 ...

Population trends

In 1801, the recorded population for the parish of Donington was 289 people. The population has steadily increased over the years except for some decades such as the 1850s. After

the population for this parish has risen from a pre-war figure of 329 to over 3000 in the 1950s. According to census records from the 1800s into the 1930s the ratio of males and females living within Donington were roughly the same, until after

when the parish saw a large increase in the male population in the area. This is because of the location of

which is included within the Donington parish. The 2001 census also shows the number of people in different age groups. The census shows us that for the Donington area the most populated age group was 16–24. This could be because the RAF base at Cosford is included in these data statistics. In general though, the 2001 census shows that there are more people living in the parish under the age of 44, than there are over that age.

Employment

According to the 1881 census the main sources of employment within Donington was either in Agriculture or in Domestic services. The same census also states how that these jobs were mainly dominated by men and that for most women living in Donington at the time had no employment. In comparison, the 2001 census shows that the employment structure has changed compared to that of 1881. The 2001 census shows that now over 2600 people now work in the service sector, and around 100 people now work in agriculture and manufacturing. There could be many reasons as to why there has been such a dramatic switch in terms of employment over the last 120 years, but it does follow the national trend for local parishes in terms of employment.

Housing

Shackerley Hall is a small country house incorporating the remains of an 18th-century house; it is a listed building. The first UK census which included people's housing situation was in 1891. In the 1891 census questions were focused on the number of rooms in your house and the number of people who lived there as well, however from the 1951 census questions focused more on the facilities within a house. In 1891 there were 87 houses within the parish and Donington and that number in the 2001 census has risen to 587. In March 2012, according to Zoopla.com the average house price for the postcode WV7, which Donington and the rest of the parish fall under, was £215,074

References