Hughley () is a village and
civil parish in
Shropshire, England, about south-west of
Much Wenlock
Much Wenlock is a market town and parish in Shropshire, England, situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford. The civil parish includes the villag ...
.
It lies in the south
Shropshire Hills, an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The limestone escarpment
Wenlock Edge is about south-east, and the parish lies on
Wenlock Shale
The Buildwas Formation (''Bw'', ''BUI''), formerly called Wenlock Shale and Buildwas Beds, is a geologic formation in Shropshire, England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period. The formation is the defining formation of the She ...
. Hughley Brook, which runs north-east along the western edge of the village, is the parish border with
Church Preen (to the west of Hughley) and
Kenley (to the north).
[A P Baggs, G C Baugh, D C Cox, Jessie McFall and P A Stamper, 'Hughley', in ''A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 10, Munslow Hundred (Part), the Liberty and Borough of Wenlock'', ed. C R J Currie (London, 1998), pp. 337-347]
British History Online, accessed 18 March 2015.
History
The village was known in medieval times as ''Legh'', ''Leye'' or ''Lee'', and the
lords of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seigno ...
took its name. They are thought to be descendants of Aelfric, father of Eadric of Wenlock who was probably
Eadric the Wild, an important figure at the time of the
Norman Conquest. It is thought that the village acquired its distinguishing name by the end of the 13th century, after Hugh of Lee, who became lord of the manor in 1225 and died between 1271 and 1283.
[
In the late 18th century most houses in Hughley were still timber-framed; later, houses were built or rebuilt with locally made brick. The resulting appearance of the village was distinct from the stone-built houses of upland settlements in the area. It is thought the parish has never had a pub.][
]
Legend
On the parish boundary at Wenlock Edge is a rock outcrop, known as Ippikin's Rock, over a cave. There is a legend that Ippikin was a knight of the 13th century, leader of a band of robbers whose base was the cave, and were finally trapped there by falling rock.[
]
Church of St John the Baptist
The church, a Grade I listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
building,[ was originally a chapel in the parish of Holy Trinity, Much Wenlock, and in the late 16th century it became a parish church in its own right.][
It was built in the 13th century, of limestone rubble with sandstone ]ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
dressings. The nave and chancel are structurally undivided. Two lancet windows in the north of the nave are from this period. There was modification in the 14th century, when all the other windows were built. Inside, there is a late-medieval richly decorated rood screen
The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...
.[
There is a timber-framed belfry built about 1700. New pews were installed in 1842. The church was restored in the 1870s by Richard Norman Shaw; this included creating the trussed rafter roof and restoring the west window. There was restoration about 1900 which included reflooring the nave.]Housman
Alfred Edward Housman (; 26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936) was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by pub ...
's collection ''A Shropshire Lad
''A Shropshire Lad'' is a collection of sixty-three poems by the English poet Alfred Edward Housman, published in 1896. Selling slowly at first, it then rapidly grew in popularity, particularly among young readers. Composers began setting the ...
'' (1896) bears the title ''The Vane on Hughley Steeple'', however the poet admitted in a letter to his brother that the church does not have much of a steeple, the square bell-cote tower having a simple pyramidal roof, and that he had another village's church in mind when describing the steeple in the poem.
See also
* Listed buildings in Hughley, Shropshire
References
{{authority control
Villages in Shropshire