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Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England. It lies between the towns of Telford and
Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...
, on the A518, in the Telford and Wrekin borough and the Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of the village. The village dates back to
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
times, the parish church being founded by
St Chad Chad of Mercia (died 2 March 672) was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon Catholic monk who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonised ...
. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The Norman parish church of St Michael and All Angels is a grade I listed building.


Local governance

A civil parish was formed on 1 April 2015 from Lilleshall, Donnington and Muxton, though a previous parish also called "Lilleshall" existed.


Layout

There is a monument, a cricket club, a tennis club, a church and a primary school clustered around a bracken-covered hill named Lilleshall Hill.


Lilleshall Abbey

Lilleshall Abbey Lilleshall Abbey was an Augustinian abbey in Shropshire, England, today located north of Telford. It was founded between 1145 and 1148 and followed the austere customs and observance of the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France. It suffered f ...
, some distance to the east of the village, was an
Augustinian Augustinian may refer to: *Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine *Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs *Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo * Canons Regular of Sain ...
house, founded in the twelfth century, the ruins of which are protected by English Heritage. After the dissolution of the monasteries the estate was bought by the Wolverhampton wool merchant James Leveson. His family held the site for four generations and, after two owners died without issue, it passed into the hands of the related Leveson-Gower family in the late 17th century.


Industry

Lilleshall is surrounded by farmland. The village and surrounds were the site of considerable early industrial development from as early as the 16th century, when
Walter Leveson (1551-1602) Sir Walter Leveson (155020 October 1602)bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom ...
. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relatively shallow deposits of coal and limestone were mined, with resultant subsidence. The history of the mining of limestone is reflected in the naming of a road called 'Limekiln Lane' in Lilleshall. The former limestone mines are tucked away in treeland at the Newport end of the village, locally known as "the Slang", which is effectively several pits now filled with water, popular with local fishermen and unpopular with local parents of young children - the water is deep and the former minepits area quite dark, abandoned and dangerous. At a similar time to the mining of limestone an early example of the English canal network was dug, the
Donnington Wood Canal The Donnington Wood Canal was a private canal in East Shropshire, England, which ran from coal pits owned by Earl Gower at Donnington Wood to Pave Lane on the Wolverhampton to Newport Turnpike Road. It was completed in about 1767 and abandoned ...
and its Lilleshall branch which were connected by an inclined plane, reflected in the naming of a road named The Incline in Lilleshall.


Lilleshall Hall

The Leveson-Gower Dukes of Sutherland became one of the richest families in the United Kingdom partly as a result of this industrial development and in the late nineteenth century built a new residence, Lilleshall Hall which lies at the heart of the estate a mile from the village. The Sutherland estate was sold off between 1915 and 1917 and the hall eventually passed into state ownership as a sporting facility. It is now the Lilleshall Hall National Sports Centre, once the site of the
Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...
youth academy, and now the home of British gymnastics and archery. Lilleshall Hall Golf Club is also in the grounds of Lilleshall Hall.


Lilleshall Monument/Sutherland Monument

The
Lilleshall Monument The Lilleshall Monument, also known as the Sutherland Monument, is a 21-metre (70-foot) stone obelisk erected in 1833 on Lilleshall Hill overlooking the village of Lilleshall in Shropshire. Commemorating George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Suther ...
is a high obelisk, a local landmark which stands on top of Lilleshall Hill and was erected in honour of the 1st Duke of Sutherland.


Notable residents

*
John Mirk John Mirk was an Augustinian Canon Regular, active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Shropshire. He is noted as the author of widely copied, and later printed, books intended to aid parish priests and other clergy in their work. The ...
(active c.1380–1420), English liturgical writer, was a Canon at Lilleshall Abbey. *
Walter Leveson Sir Walter Leveson (155020 October 1602)Vice-Admiral Richard Leveson (c.1570-1605) lived in a lodge in grounds of the dissolved Lilleshall Abbey. *
Jimmy Poppitt James Poppitt (26 February 1875–17 June 1930) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Lincoln City, Notts County and Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a ...
(1875–1930), footballer who played
Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
for Lincoln City, Notts County and Wolverhampton Wanderers, was born in Lilleshall.


See also

* Listed buildings in Lilleshall and Donnington


References


External links


Lilleshall Golf Club websiteLilleshall Residents Association WebsiteLilleshall Cricket Club Website
{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire Telford and Wrekin