Stoke St. Milborough is a parish located in the south 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, north-east of
Ludlow. The population of the civil parish at the
2011 census was 409.
History
Stoke and Stanton manors were settled by the compiling of 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 ...
in 1086. There was a church at Stoke c. 1200, which seems to have incorporated vestiges of an earlier one. There was a mill at Stoke by 1334. Wool and woollen cloth seem to have been important products of the parish in the 14th century. In 1340, the parish's crops were devastated by storms, flocks dwindled and 11 tenants abandoned their holdings. In 1581, the lord of Stoke reserved to himself any mines on the waste and in 1637 he had mines of ironstone and limestone, which he was alleged to let to poor people at expensive rates. Limestone was being quarried in Stoke manor in 1637.
In 1815 there were 11 cottages on Stoke Gorse and 24 on Brown Clee. The population grew rapidly and in 1821, there were 554 inhabitants. The population remained steady until c. 1871, when it began to decline. In 1971, there were only 215 inhabitants. However, by 1991, it had risen again to 30
St. Milburga and St. Milburga's Well
Mildburh, St. Milburga was a Benedictine abbess who received the veil from St. Theodore of Canterbury. Her father was the
King of Mercia
The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...
and she was a sister of Saints
Mildred of Thanet and
Mildgyth
Saint Mildgyth (or Mildgytha) ( ang, Mildgȳð) (died 676) was the youngest daughter of Merewalh, king of Mercia and Saint Eormenburh. She was the youngest sister of Saint Mildburh of Wenlock and Saint Mildrith. The three sisters have been li ...
a. She was the abbess of
Wenlock Abbey
Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century mo ...
in Shropshire. She is supposed to have had remarkable abilities, such as
levitation
Levitation (from Latin ''levitas'' "lightness") is the process by which an object is held aloft in a stable position, without mechanical support via any physical contact.
Levitation is accomplished by providing an upward force that counteracts ...
and power over birds. Her feast day is the 23rd of Februar
St. Milburga's (or St. Milburgha's) Well is a spring with an old stone basin, on the east side of Stoke village. It was first mentioned in 1321. It later became a clothes-washing place. Stories of its miraculous origin were recorded in the mid-19th century. The water was said to be good for sore eyes. It was covered and altered in 1873 and 1906 and by 1945 its water was piped to six house
Famous people
*
Mildburh, St. Milburga, Abbess of Wenlock
*
Sir Thomas Littleton, 3rd Baronet (1647-1709), speaker of the House of Commons 1698-1700
See also
*
Listed buildings in Stoke St. Milborough
References
External links
Stoke St. Milborough (British History Online)St. Milburga (Catholic Online)St. Milburga (www.Godchecker.com)St. Milburga's Well (The Megalithic Portal)
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Civil parishes in Shropshire
Villages in Shropshire