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 the county of
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 between the towns of
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 ...
Telford and Wrekin
Telford and Wrekin is a borough and unitary authority in Shropshire, England. In 1974, a non-metropolitan district of Shropshire was created called The Wrekin. In 1998, the district became a unitary authority and was renamed "Telford and Wrekin", ...
borough and the
Wrekin
The Wrekin is a hill in east Shropshire, England. It is located some five miles (8 km) west of Telford, on the border between the unitary authorities of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Rising above the Shropshire Plain to a height of 4 ...
constituency. There is one school in the centre of the village.
The village dates back to
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
times, the parish church being founded by
St Chad
Chad of Mercia (died 2 March 672) was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon Catholic monk who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonised ...
. It is 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 manusc ...
. The Norman parish church of St Michael and All Angels is a grade I listed building.
Local governance
A civil parish was formed on 1 April 2015 from Lilleshall, Donnington and Muxton, though a previous parish also called "Lilleshall" existed.
Layout
There is a monument, a cricket club, a tennis club, a church and a primary school clustered around a bracken-covered hill named Lilleshall Hill.
Lilleshall Abbey
Lilleshall Abbey
Lilleshall Abbey was an Augustinian abbey in Shropshire, England, today located north of Telford. It was founded between 1145 and 1148 and followed the austere customs and observance of the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France. It suffered f ...
, some distance to the east of the village, was an
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
house, founded in the twelfth century, the ruins of which are protected by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
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 ...
wool merchant James Leveson. His family held the site for four generations and, after two owners died without issue, it passed into the hands of the related
Leveson-Gower
Leveson-Gower ( ), also Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, is the name of a powerful British noble family. Over time, several members of the Leveson-Gower family were made knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the family include the duke ...
family in the late 17th century.
Industry
Lilleshall is surrounded by farmland. The village and surrounds were the site of considerable early industrial development from as early as the 16th century, when
Walter Leveson (1551-1602)
Sir Walter Leveson (155020 October 1602)bloomery
A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom ...
. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relatively shallow deposits of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
and
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
were mined, with resultant subsidence. The history of the mining of limestone is reflected in the naming of a road called 'Limekiln Lane' in Lilleshall. The former limestone mines are tucked away in treeland at the Newport end of the village, locally known as "the Slang", which is effectively several pits now filled with water, popular with local fishermen and unpopular with local parents of young children - the water is deep and the former minepits area quite dark, abandoned and dangerous.
At a similar time to the mining of limestone an early example of the English canal network was dug, the
Donnington Wood Canal
The Donnington Wood Canal was a private canal in East Shropshire, England, which ran from coal pits owned by Earl Gower at Donnington Wood to Pave Lane on the Wolverhampton to Newport Turnpike Road. It was completed in about 1767 and abandoned ...
and its Lilleshall branch which were connected by an
inclined plane
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
, reflected in the naming of a road named The Incline in Lilleshall.
Lilleshall Hall
The Leveson-Gower
Dukes of Sutherland
Duke of Sutherland is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which was created by William IV in 1833 for George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford. A series of marriages to heiresses by members of the Leveson-Gower family made th ...
became one of the richest families in the United Kingdom partly as a result of this industrial development and in the late nineteenth century built a new residence,
Lilleshall Hall
Lilleshall Hall is a large former country house and estate in the fields of Lilleshall, Shropshire, England.
It is run by Serco Leisure Operating Ltd on behalf of Sport England as one of three National Sports Centres, alongside Bisham Abbey a ...
which lies at the heart of the estate a mile from the village. The Sutherland estate was sold off between 1915 and 1917 and the hall eventually passed into state ownership as a sporting facility. It is now the Lilleshall Hall National Sports Centre, once the site of the
Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...
youth academy, and now the home of British gymnastics and archery. Lilleshall Hall Golf Club is also in the grounds of Lilleshall Hall.
Lilleshall Monument/Sutherland Monument
The
Lilleshall Monument
The Lilleshall Monument, also known as the Sutherland Monument, is a 21-metre (70-foot) stone obelisk erected in 1833 on Lilleshall Hill overlooking the village of Lilleshall in Shropshire.
Commemorating George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Suther ...
is a high
obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
, a local landmark which stands on top of Lilleshall Hill and was erected in honour of the 1st Duke of Sutherland.
Notable residents
*
John Mirk
John Mirk was an Augustinian Canon Regular, active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Shropshire. He is noted as the author of widely copied, and later printed, books intended to aid parish priests and other clergy in their work. The ...
(active c.1380–1420), English liturgical writer, was a Canon at Lilleshall Abbey.
*
Jimmy Poppitt
James Poppitt (26 February 1875–17 June 1930) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Lincoln City, Notts County and Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a ...
(1875–1930), footballer who played
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
Notts County
Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...
and
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
, was born in Lilleshall.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Lilleshall and Donnington
Lilleshall and Donnington is a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It contains 34 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, thr ...