Ford 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 ...

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 ...

, England. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 890. Ford lies west of the county town of Shrewsbury, just off the A458 road and near to 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 ...

, at . The Royal Mail postcode is SY5.

History

Ford was mentioned in the

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 manus ...

and had a population of 50 villagers, 14 smallholders, 20 slaves, and 6 female slaves. It was part of the lands of earl

Roger de Montgomery Roger de Montgomery (died 1094), also known as Roger the Great, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury, and Earl of Arundel, in Sussex. His father was Roger de Montgomery, seigneur of Montgomery, a member of the House of Montgomerie, and was probably ...

of Shrewsbury.

Church

St Michael's Church, Ford is located in the older part of the village. A morning Holy Communion Service takes place at 9.30am on the second and fourth Sunday of the month. An Evensong Service takes place at 6.30pm on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month (this is moved to 4.30pm in Winter). A cricketer, William Wingfield, was vicar of Ford in 1860–63.

School

Ford has a primary school, Trinity CE Primary, which was formed through merging the schools of Ford, Yockleton and

Wattlesborough Wattlesborough Tower is a ruined fortified 13th-century manor house or Tower House in Shropshire. It is situated close to the boundary with Powys in Wales. Wattlesborough is a former township within the present parish of Alberbury. The castle i ...

Railway

The village was served by the Ford and Crossgates station on the

Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway The Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway was a railway running from Shrewsbury, England to Llanymynech, Wales, with a branch to Criggion. It was promoted by Holman Fred Stephens, better known as Colonel Stephens, proprietor of several ...

. The line was requisitioned in 1941 to serve the new Central Ammunition Depot Nesscliffe and one of the four sub-sites for ammunition storage was constructed next to Ford and Crossgates station; in 2010 ten storage buildings remained in use for civilian purposes.

Businesses

There is one pub in Ford, Smokestop BBQ, which is a barbecue-themed pub run on

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.

lines similar to an 'average pub' in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is in the west part of the village. It had been run for three years under its previous name ''The Cross Gates'', then in its present name for two, by former footballer Jake King, who sold it in 2016. The Pavement Gates (previously The Owen Glendower) is now an Indian restaurant called Saffron Cottage, and is next to the Shell garage. The garage now includes a Nisa shop, which is the only shop in the village.

References

External links

Villages in Shropshire Populated places on the River Severn {{Shropshire-geo-stub