Mucklestone is a small village in
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. Population details taken at the
2011 census can be found under
Loggerheads. It is about nine miles (14 km) northwest of
Eccleshall
Eccleshall is a town and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is located seven miles northwest of Stafford, and six miles west-southwest of Stone. Eccleshall is twinned with Sancerre in France.
His ...
, and four and a half miles northeast of
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 "Dray ...
in
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 ...
.
![Mucklestone Anvil](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Mucklestone_Anvil.jpg)
It is notable for its associations with the
Battle of Blore Heath
The Battle of Blore Heath was a battle in the English Wars of the Roses. It was fought on 23 September 1459, at Blore Heath in Staffordshire. Blore Heath is a sparsely populated area of farmland, two miles east of the town of Market Drayton in ...
. According to legend, Queen
Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou (french: link=no, Marguerite; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England and nominally Queen of France by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Born in the Duchy of Lorrain ...
is said to have watched the defeat of her forces from the church tower, before fleeing on horse-back. It is said that Margaret employed the local blacksmith, William Skelhorn, to reverse the shoes on her horse to disguise her getaway. An anvil said to have belonged to Skelhorn stands in the churchyard to commemorate the event.
The ancient parish of Mucklestone was about six miles (10 km) in length, and from one to two miles (3 km) in breadth, extending along the borders of the counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire. Five of traditional townships, Aston, Knighton, Mucklestone,
Oakley and Winnington are in Staffordshire and the other four,
Bearstone
Bearstone is a hamlet in Shropshire, England. For population details as taken at the 2011 census see Woore
Woore is a village and civil parish in the north east of Shropshire, England, of about 3,950 acres (1,600 hectares). It had a populatio ...
, Dorrington, Gravenhunger and
Woore
Woore is a village and civil parish in the north east of Shropshire, England, of about 3,950 acres (1,600 hectares). It had a population of 1,004 in the 2001 Census, rising to 1,069 at the 2011 Census.
Etymology
The name means "boundary" in an ...
, are in Shropshire.
This parish originally comprised , of which were in Staffordshire. Mucklestone township contains about . Aston, a village and township, three and a half miles north-east of Mucklestone, and eight miles (13 km) south-west of
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...
, contains . Knighton is a small township, one mile (1.6 km) south-west of Aston, bounded on three sides by Shropshire. Oakley township at the south end of the parish, two miles (3 km) south-west of Mucklestone, contains Oakley Hall, in a beautiful park of , on the east bank of the River Tern, which locally divides Staffordshire from Shropshire. Winnington township, has a small village one mile (1.6 km) north of Mucklestone.
The church of Saint Mary at Mucklestone, which originally served the whole of the ancient parish, is in the decorated style. Except for the tower, it was rebuilt according to church records in 1789 and again in 1883 by
Lynam and Rickman in keeping with the surviving medieval tower. It contains
stained glass window
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
s, designed by
Charles Kempe
Charles Eamer Kempe (29 June 1837 – 29 April 1907) was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lich ...
in the 19th century including commemorations of the Battle of Blore Heath.
Other local structures of merit include a Georgian Folly; an important house of earlier date known as Willoughbridge Lodge; warm springs (discovered in the 17th century) and known, together with the ruined bath house c1682, as Willoughbridge wells; and also Oakley Hall built about 1710.
A
neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
monument sits along the western perimeter of the great park of Oakley Hall at Mucklestone. Possibly the remains of a burial-mound,
[Palliser, D. M.,''The Staffordshire Landscape'',Hodder and Stoughton,1976,] it comprises two big stones. One is round with a hole in the middle. The other is six feet tall and slender. Locally the stones are known as the "devil's ring and finger".
See also
*
Listed buildings in Loggerheads, Staffordshire
Loggerheads is a civil parish in the district of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. It contains 74 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, four are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the ...
References
External links
The Legend of Queen Margaret of Anjou at MucklestoneGENUKI parish records
The village school (linked to Church) in former orchard
* http://www.st-marys-mucklestone.staffs.sch.uk/
{{authority control
Villages in Staffordshire
Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme