Hinstock 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. It appeared 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 ...

survey as "Stoche" (from

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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''stoc'', "dependent settlement"); the present version of its name was created in the mediaeval period by prefixing

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...

''hine'' ("domestic servants").Gelling and Foxall, ''The Place-names of Shropshire, Part 5'' English Place-Name Society, 2006, p.137 Hinstock is approximately halfway between the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

s of Newport and

Market Drayton Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "D ...

. The

A41 road The A41 is a trunk road between London and Birkenhead, England. Now in parts replaced by motorways, it passes through or near Watford, Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Bicester, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, ...

, which until the 1980s ran through its centre, now bypasses the village. Hinstock is at the junction of the A529 road joining to

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...

to the A41. A Roman road still exists in part as a road and as a footpath through Hinstock. The settlement of High Heath is to the north of the village alongside the A41 and to the west of Hinstock (at ) and forming part of the civil parish is the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Pixley. Hinstock's facilities include a primary school; a village shop and post office; St Oswald's

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

parish church; a pub named the ''Falcon Inn''; a village hall; a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

chapel; two tennis courts; a football pitch; a five a side court; a cricket pitch; a small snooker hall and a running club. Victorian hymn-writer and hymnologist

John Ellerton The Rev. John Ellerton (16 December 1826 – 15 June 1893) was a hymnodist and hymnologist. Life He was born in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England, to George Ellerton, the head of an evangelical family. He was educated at King William's College ...

was parish Rector of Hinstock from 1872 to 1876. The village hall was built as a memorial after

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 ...

, as was a wheel cross monument which stands at a junction in the village. Near the village is a very small nature reserve, Quarry Wood, which is managed by the

Shropshire Wildlife Trust The Shropshire Wildlife Trust is a wildlife trust covering the geographic county of Shropshire, England. Nature reserves The trust cares for, or is associated with, 42 nature reserves (plus its headquarters in Shrewsbury – see next section) ...

. From 1941 to 1947 there was a co-located

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

training station called '' RNAS Hinstock (HMS Godwit)'', which specialised in instrument and blind landing technologies. A Royal Navy officer and seaman from the base are buried in Hinstock Church's burial ground.
CWGC Cemetery report, details from casualty record. In 1983, David Williams, spotted the recently completed Pixley Lane Bridge over the new and not yet opened Hinstock bypass. Living locally he walked down and measured up and reckoned his Saab 91D Safir (Sapphire), a single-engined, light aircraft built in Holland would fit under the bridge. His dad stood on the bridge with a camera to capture his stunt on the day before it opened to traffic. His Dad was too quick with the shutter but a friend did get an ’80’s quality pic, to prove it happened.

References

External links

Hinstock Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire

See also

References

External links