West Felton 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 authority ...

near

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough 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. At the 2001 census the parish, which also includes the settlements of Rednal, Grimpo and Haughton, had a population of 1,380,West Felton CP
Office for National Statistics increasing to 1,475 at the 2011 Census.

History

The village originally grew around a Norman castle, whose

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

lies next to the church. It was recorded 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 ...

of 1086 as Feltone, and as "Felton by le Knokyn" in 1303.Gelling, M. ''The Place-names of Shropshire: Vol I, the Major Names of Shropshire'', English Place-Name Society, 1990, p.307 The name Felton probably represents a combination of

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 settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''feld'', "open land", and ''tun'', "settlement". The old ecclesiastical parish of West Felton contained the

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

of West Felton, Sutton, Rednal, Haughton, Tedsmore (the latter five originally part of the eleven townships forming the medieaval manor of neighbouring

Ruyton-XI-Towns Ruyton-XI-Towns ( "ry-tən eleven towns"), formally Ruyton of the Eleven Towns or simply Ruyton, is a village and civil parish next to the River Perry in Shropshire, England. It had a population of 1,379 at the 2011 Census. The preparatory schoo ...

Woolston Woolston may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Woolston, Cheshire, a village and civil parish in Warrington * Woolston, Devon, on the list of United Kingdom locations: Woof-Wy near Kingsbridge, Devon * Woolston, Southampton, a city suburb in Ham ...

(now in

Oswestry Rural Oswestry Rural is a geographically large civil parish located in Shropshire, England. It is situated south of Oswestry itself, and extends from the border with Wales in the west. It covers an area of and had a population of 4,504 in the 2011 ...

), Sandford and Twyford. The modern civil parish has similar, though not identical, boundaries. The parish church, which has a 12th-century nave,Pevsner and Newman, ''Shropshire'', Buildings of England Series, p.682 is dedicated to St Michael, and has a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

at Haughton.

Notable people

The

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and poet John Freeman Milward Dovaston was born in Twyford in 1782. Nonconformist historian and lawyer Sir

John Bickerton Williams Sir John Bickerton Williams (4 March 1792 – 21 October 1855) was an English, nonconformist author and lawyer. He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1837. Life Williams was born at Sandford Hall, at West Felton, Shropshire in the United Kingdo ...

was born at Sandford Hall in 1792.

Benjamin Hall Kennedy Benjamin Hall Kennedy (6 November 1804 – 6 April 1889) was an English scholar and schoolmaster, known for his work in the teaching of the Latin language. He was an active supporter of Newnham College and Girton College as Cambridge University ...

, previously Headmaster of

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

, was Rector of West Felton from 1866 to 1868.

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

recipient General Sir Walter Congreve had his home at West Felton Grange from 1903 to 1924. His son

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

was killed in the

First World War 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 ...

and (posthumously) received the Victoria Cross, too. Their military service in the latter war is recorded in one of the Rolls of Honour books at St Michael's Church. The former gave land to the

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 Britain ...

for the erection of a community facility called the Haslehurst Institute.

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

married at St Michael's Church to

Allegra Mostyn-Owen Allegra Mostyn-Owen is a British journalist and teacher. She is notable for being the first wife of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Mostyn-Owen was born in London to art historian and Christie's Education chairman, William Mostyn-O ...

on 5 September 1987, with their wedding reception held at her nearby family country home of Woodhouse. They divorced in 1993, whereafter Boris Johnson remarried. Allegra's father, William Mostyn-Owen, who owned the Woodhouse estate from inheriting it in 1947 until his death in 2011, was an art historian.

References

External links

Histories & Photographs of West Felton
Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire {{Shropshire-geo-stub

History

Notable people

See also

References

External links