Enville 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 authority ...

in rural

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 ...

, England, on the A458 road between

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

and

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

. Enville is in the

South Staffordshire South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. The district lies to the north and west of the West Midlands county, bordering Shropshire to the west and Worcestershire to the south. It contains notable settlements ...

district. The largest village nearby is

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the We ...

, with the smaller villages of Bobbington and Six Ashes, "The Sheepwalks" — a popular walking area nearby, as is

Kinver Edge Kinver Edge is a high heath and woodland escarpment just west of Kinver, about four miles west of Stourbridge, and four miles north of Kidderminster, and is on the border between Worcestershire and Staffordshire, England. It is now owned by th ...

. Enville

Golf Course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

is just outside the village. The hamlet of Six Ashes marks the old border of two counties — Staffordshire and Shropshire, and was the centre of the division of land as drawn up by the 1405

Tripartite Indenture The Tripartite Indenture was an agreement made in February 1405 among Owain Glyndŵr, Edmund Mortimer, and Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, agreeing to divide England and Wales up among them at the expense of Henry IV. Glyndŵr was to b ...

between

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

, Edmund Mortimer, and

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, titular King of Mann, KG, Lord Marshal (10 November 134120 February 1408) was the son of Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy, and a descendant of Henry III of England. His mother was Mary ...

. Enville is the nearest village to Highgate Common.

Etymology

The earliest recorded name of the village was Efnefeld, and under that name it is entered in ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'', the first part comes from the Welsh 'cefn' a Welsh word meaning "ridge" or "hillside". The nearby Kinver derives from the same word.

Amenities

The village includes ''The Cat Inn''

public house 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 ...

, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, a

beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, and medical spas. Beauty treatments Massage for the body is a b ...

, and an

antique shop An antique shop (or antiques shop) is a retail store specializing in the selling of antiques. Antiques shops can be located either locally or, with the advent of the Internet, found online. An antiques shop can also be located within an ant ...

Church

St Mary's Church stands to the west of the village. The present ornate tower was built in 1871, when the original tower was taken down. Evidence of an earlier church on the site is to be found in a small stone figure of

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

origin built into the arcading above the south aisle. The church has a

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 ...

nave (about AD 1100) and a transitional

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

(built by Roger de Birmingham, AD 1272–1307) and despite extensive restorations in 1749 and 1871 the distinguishing features remain. The church also contains four, 15th century

misericord A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a par ...

s, which are placed on either side of the choir stalls. Television presenter

Nick Owen Nicholas Corbishley Owen is an English television presenter and newsreader, best known for presenting the breakfast television programme ''TV-am'' and the BBC's local news show ''Midlands Today'' since 1997. He was also the chairman of Luton ...

and his second wife married here in 2020.

Enville Hall

The

Enville Hall Enville Hall is an English Tudor country house in the village of Enville, Staffordshire. It is a Grade II listed building. The house has a 16th and 17th-century U-shaped core formed by the hall range and two flanking wings enclosing a south facin ...

estate is prominent in the village. The

Earls of Stamford Earl of Stamford was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1628 for Henry Grey, 2nd Baron Grey of Groby. This Grey family descended through Lord John Grey, of Pirgo, Essex, younger son of Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset ...

lived in Enville Hall which is still owned and lived in by the family though the title is extinct. The hall, which once boasted its own private racecourse (now a mere forestry track), remains a private house, but it hosts occasional events each year. The

Great Fountain, Enville The Great Fountain, Enville, was a fountain created in the mid-19th century by the Earl of Stamford in the middle of a lake on his Enville Hall estate, in Enville, Staffordshire, England. The fountain was described by English artist, E. Adveno ...

, was a fountain created in the mid-19th century by the Earl of Stamford in the middle of a lake in Enville Hall.

Sport

The grounds of Enville Hall are home to a recreational field, where Enville Cricket Club and Enville Athletic F.C. play. Enville Cricket Club was formed in honour of the

Coronation of George IV The coronation of George IV as King of the United Kingdom took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 19 July 1821. Originally scheduled for 1 August of the previous year, the ceremony had been postponed due to the parliamentary proceedings of ...

in 1821. An article in ''The Illustrated London News'' reporting on a match played by the club on

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

in 1857 praised Enville's, recently created by the 7th Earl rather than Lord's as "the finest cricket ground in the world". Currently (2021) it plays three senior teams in the Worcestershire County Cricket League and a junior team.Report by Mark Andrews.

References

External links

Lichfield Diocese information for Church of St Mary the Virgin, Enville.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enville Villages in Staffordshire South Staffordshire District Civil parishes in Staffordshire