Cheswardine is a rural 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 authorit ...

in north east

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 ...

, England. The village lies close to the border with Staffordshire and is about 8 miles north of Newport and 5 miles south east 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 "D ...

. At the 2001 Census, the parish (which also includes the villages of Chipnall and Soudley as well as several small hamlets such as Goldstone and Ellerton), had a population of 991 people, increasing to 1,076 at the 2011 Census.

History and architecture

The name ''Cheswardine'', recorded in 1086 as ''Ciseworde'', in 1189 as ''Chesewordin'' and about 1650 as ''Cheswardyne'', is probably derived from the

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 settlers in the mid-5th c ...

for "cheese-producing settlement".Gelling and Foxall, ''The place-names of Shropshire, Volume 1'', EPNS, 1990, p.78 Cheswardine was 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 manus ...

of 1086, when the manor was held by Robert of Stafford, but is probably a much older settlement, with the church likely being built on an ancient fortified site.Raven, M. ''A Guide to Shropshire'', 2005, p.46 Land north of the church was granted to Hamon le Strange in 1155 and a

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

surrounded by a moat built soon after. The manor were rebuilt as a small castle between 1250 and 1350. Ownership passed to the Earl of Arundel and Surrey in 1376. The moat, earthworks and some buried ruins remain and Cheswardine Castle was scheduled as a historical monument in 1976. The parish church, dedicated to St Swithun, overlooks Cheswardine from the hill at the top of the village. This is at least the third church on this site, and was rebuilt in 1887-1889 under the direction of the architect

John Loughborough Pearson John Loughborough Pearson (5 July 1817 – 11 December 1897) was a British Gothic Revival architect renowned for his work on churches and cathedrals. Pearson revived and practised largely the art of vaulting, and acquired in it a proficiency ...

, who died before the work was completed. The work was completed with the assistance of funding by the then squire of the Cheswardine Estate, Charles Donaldson-Hudson, who provided half of the estimated cost of £8,500. File:Church of St Swithun, Cheswardine - geograph.org.uk - 23144.jpg, Church of St. Swithun File:The Old School and School House, Cheswardine - geograph.org.uk - 628779.jpg, The Old School and School House File:The Red Lion, Cheswardine - geograph.org.uk - 628775.jpg, The Red Lion public house

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches north and south with a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 4,240.

Local amenities

Local amenities include a primary school, St Swithun's Church, as well as two village pubs, the Red Lion, and the Fox and Hounds, which serves food. There is also a Parish hall, bowling green and playing fields. However, the local post office was closed down in 2006 and turned into a residential building. A new community village shop (believed to be the smallest shop in Britain) opened in its place in 2010.

People and awards

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

MP and former minister

Sir Peter Bottomley Sir Peter James Bottomley (born 30 July 1944) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1975 when elected for Woolwich West, serving until it was abolished before the 1983 general election. ...

was baptised at St Swithun's Church, where his parents had married, his mother being a member of the Vardon family of Goldstone Hall. The ashes of his father ( Sir James Bottomley), mother, brother and grandparents are buried in the churchyard. Cheswardine was also home to the late MBE award winner, charity fund-raiser Winnie Goodwin. The village has been runner up in

Britain in Bloom Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

several times.

References

External links