Minsterley 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 authorit ...

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. In the 2011 census, its population was 1,777. Minsterley lies one mile south-west of

Pontesbury Pontesbury is a village and civil parish in Shropshire and is approximately eight miles southwest of Shrewsbury. In the 2011 census, the village had a population of 1,873 and the parish had a population of 3,227. The village of Minsterley is ju ...

and 10 miles south-west of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. East from Minsterley along the A488, is the larger village of

and to its south the hill range, the

Stiperstones The Stiperstones ( cy, Carneddau Teon) is a distinctive hill in the county of Shropshire, England. The quartzite rock of the ridge formed some 480 million years ago. During the last Ice Age Stiperstones lay on the eastern margin of the Welsh i ...

. The

Rea Brook The name Rea Brook can refer to either of two brooks in Shropshire, England. One of the brooks, which eventually becomes the River Rea, is in southern Shropshire. It is to the east of Brown Clee Hill. The other, described here, is a minor r ...

flows nearby and the smaller

Minsterley Brook Minsterley Brook is a small stream in Shropshire, England. The source of this stream is at the northeast part of Stapeley Hill (the site of the stone circle, Mitchell's Fold). It is later on joined by other smaller streams flowing into it. ...

flows through the centre of the village. Little Minsterley is a hamlet on the northeastern edge of the village, which was founded in 1901. Between it and the main village is located one of the Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service's

retained In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS Firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time on call to respond to eme ...

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire ...

Governance

Until the 19th century, Minsterley was part of the parish of Westbury, hence its description under Westbury in John Marius Wilson's ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (1870–72) like this: : "WESTBURY,... parish includes Minsterley chapelry, and forms a sub-district. Acres, 11,274....The p rpetual curacy of Minsterley is a separate benefice. There are dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £30 a year, and charities £44." Minsterley civil parish is governed by a parish council separate from that of Westbury, is represented on the

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combi ...

and in parliament in the

Shrewsbury & Atcham Shrewsbury and Atcham was a local government district with borough status in Shropshire, England, between 1974 and 2009. Shrewsbury was the only town in the borough; Atcham, although itself only a village, was included in the name as a reflect ...

constituency.

Churches

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 Brit ...

parish church of Holy Trinity was built at the end of the 17th century, by the Thynne family of

Longleat Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquess of Bath, Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of War ...

and houses an internationally famous collection of

maiden's garland A maiden's garland, also known as a virgin's crown, crants or crantsey, is a crown-shaped garland used as a funeral memento for, usually female, virgins. They are generally made of paper flowers, rosettes and ribbons fixed to a wooden frame. Many ...

s. The exterior of the west end of the Church is notable for the stonework

memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'

. The village also has active Congregationalist and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

churches.

Industry

It is home to a large

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

which came under Müller ownership in January 2013 (previously it was owned by Uniq Foods) and a meat canning factory, Rea Valley Foods part of Zwanenberg Food Group UK.

Amenities and historic sites

Village amenities include: a primary school, a cemetery, a public house ('The Crown and Sceptre'- one of the oldest buildings in the village), a petrol station/supermarket (operated by Co-operative), post office, veterinary surgery, florist, and fish and chip shop. The Parish Hall is one of the largest village halls in Shropshire and is the venue for the annual Minsterley

Eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

which held its 50th anniversary in 2012. The area adjacent to the 'Crown and Sceptre' public house was where the annual

Hiring Fair Hiring fairs, also called statute or mop fairs, were regular events in pre-modern Great Britain and Ireland where labourers were hired for fixed terms. They date from the time of Edward III, and his attempt to regulate the labour market by the ...

was held in the late 19th century. Young people, of work age, would be hired by local landowners for the year in return for an agreed sum of money to be paid at the following year's fair. The parish war memorial, unveiled in 1920, stands in the centre of Minsterley beside the main road. It is in the form of a granite Celtic cross and said to be based on that of

St. Ives, Cornwall St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning " St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent ...

. The list of World I dead is headed by Viscount Weymouth, eldest son of the Marquess of Bath, whose family were lords of the manor and who was killed in France in 1916.

Minsterley Hall

Minsterley Hall, a

Grade II* 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 ...

listed house built in 1581, lies on the edge of the village. Formerly the Shropshire seat of the Marquess of Bath, the house was greatly extended in 1653 for Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, and restored and altered in 1872 by

John Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath (1 March 1831 – 20 April 1896), styled Viscount Weymouth between March and June 1837, was a British peer and a diplomat for almost sixty years. Background and education Born in St James's, he was the ...

. It is

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

with plaster

infill In urban planning, infill, or in-fill, is the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open-space, to new construction. Infill also applies, within an urban polity, to construction on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban ma ...

, some underbuilding in red brick with grey

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

dressings, and has tile roofs. There are two storeys and an attic, and the house consists of a two- bay range, a two-bay cross-wing to the northeast, and a two-bay cross-wing to the southwest. It has three

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s to the west and one gable and two dormers to the east. The upper floors are

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the avail ...

with moulded

bressumer A bressummer, breastsummer, summer beam (somier, sommier, sommer, somer, cross-somer, summer, summier, summer-tree, or dorman, dormant tree) is a load-bearing beam in a timber-framed building. The word ''summer'' derived from sumpter or French ...

s, and the gables have

bargeboard Bargeboard (probably from Medieval Latin ''bargus'', or ''barcus'', a scaffold, and not from the now obsolete synonym "vergeboard") or rake fascia is a board fastened to each projecting gable of a roof to give it strength and protection, and to ...

s and finials. The windows vary; some are

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed and transomed, some are casements, and others are cross-windows. The master bedroom features an ornate Italian marble fireplace commissioned for the house by the 4th Marquess during his

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

. The drawing room features a 15th Century screen thought to be taken from

Caus Castle Caus Castle is a ruin of a hill fort and medieval castle in the civil parish of Westbury in the English county of Shropshire. It is situated up on the eastern foothills of the Long Mountain guarding the route from Shrewsbury, Shropshire to Mo ...

. The house remains in private ownership. The house has the Shropping Hill Carnival each year, where the house is open to the public.

Transport

The Minsterley branch line which was built as a joint GWR/

LNWR The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the L ...

line, opened on 14 February 1862. This railway line ran nine and a half miles from

via

Cruckmeole Cruckmeole is a small hamlet in Shropshire, England. It is located on the A488, where a lane which connects Cruckmeole to the B4386 crossroads at Cruckton forms a three way junction near to Hanwood. It is within the civil parish of Pontesbury ...

Junction near

Hanwood Hanwood is a large village in Shropshire, England. It is located SW of Shrewsbury town centre, on the A488 road. The A5 is only a mile away. The Cambrian Line runs through the village but there is no longer a railway station here. It was clo ...

to the stations at Plealey Road,

and finally the terminus at Minsterley. The creation of the line enabled milk to be transported by rail from the large creamery at Minsterley and lead ore to be transported from the nearby mines at Snailbeach. At one time the terminus in Minsterley boasted a milk wharf, goods shed, cattle and horse docks and numerous sidings. The line closed in May 1967.

References

External links

Shropshire Star articleGallery of Minsterley pictures
{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire