New Invention is a hamlet 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 ...

, England on the A488 between

Clun Clun ( cy, Colunwy) is a town in south west Shropshire, England, and the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2011 census recorded 680 people living in the town.Combined populations for the two output areas covering the tow ...

and Knighton. It comprises little more than four houses around a cross-roads and a neighbouring farm called The Weir, known in history as the Wear or Ware. Of the four houses, one was a blacksmith's shop, one a pub called the Stag's Head, and one a Methodist chapel built in 1874. It served as one of many local locations for the film ''Gone to Earth'' (released 1950), directed by Michael Powell and

Emeric Pressburger Emeric Pressburger (born Imre József Pressburger; 5 December 19025 February 1988) was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaborat ...

. The

River Redlake The Redlake is a minor river in southwest Shropshire, England. Its headwaters are to the south of Newcastle, on the other side of Spoad Hill (alternatively Springhill).Ordnance Survey mapping It flows through Treverward, Purlogue, New Inve ...

passes through. The population as of the 2011 census is listed under

Name

There is a story that the hamlet's unusual name came from a local farrier who decided on the idea of fitting horseshoes backwards to confuse the enemy in times of war. A variation of this story is that the farrier reversed the shoes on the horse belonging to

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

to help him evade capture. A slightly more credible explanation is that the village was the first in the district where

spinning Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

was carried out using water power,Foxall, H D G. ''Shropshire field-names'', Shropshire Archaeological Society, 1980, p.66 but this theory can almost certainly be discredited by the fact that the earliest known reference to New Invention is in a document held at

Shropshire Archives Shropshire Archives is located in Shrewsbury, England, and is the archives and local studies service for the historic county of Shropshire, which includes the borough of Telford and Wrekin. It preserves and makes accessible documents, books, ma ...

dated 1677 (ref 2589/D/108), while machinery for carding and spinning wool was not invented until well into the 18th century. Fulling mills, which cleaned and thickened wool, were powered by water in medieval times and there are records of at least two in Clun, so this possibility can not be entirely discounted. The brief description on Shropshire Archives' website is as follows: ''1. Jonathan Page of Parllogue, p. Clunne, gent. 2. Daniel Bee of Cardington, Clerke. Of Capital messuage and tenement in Parllogue in p. CLUNNE, in tenure of (1); also of messuage and tenement called the New hall in t. Menuttin, p. CLUNNE, in tenure of Thomas Warburton of Menuttin, gent.; also of that new house called the New Invention, lately built upon of the land belonging to ... the New hall; also of water corne Grist mill, near and belonging to the said New Hall.

References

External links

{{Shropshire Hamlets in Shropshire Clun