Enville 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in rural

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England, on the A458 road between

Stourbridge Stourbridge () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour, the town lies around west of Birmingham, at the southwester ...

and

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the United Kingd ...

. Enville is in the

South Staffordshire South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Codsall. Other notable settlements include Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Coven, Essington, Featherstone, Four Ashes, Great Wyrley, Huntington, ...

district. The largest village nearby is

Kinver Kinver is a large village in the District of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire, England. It is in the far south-west of the county, at the end of the narrow finger of land surrounded by the counties of Shropshire, Worcestershire and the ...

, with the smaller villages of Bobbington and Six Ashes, "The Sheepwalks" — a popular walking area nearby, as is Kinver Edge. Enville

Golf Course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

is just outside the village. The hamlet of Six Ashes marks the old border of two counties — Staffordshire and Shropshire, and was the centre of the division of land as drawn up by the 1405 Tripartite Indenture between

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (28 May 135420 September 1415), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr (Glyn Dŵr, , anglicised as Owen Glendower) was a Welsh people, Welsh leader, soldier and military commander in the Wales in the late Middle Ages, late Middle ...

, Edmund Mortimer, and

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, titular King of Mann, KG, Lord Marshal (10 November 134120 February 1408) was the son of Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy, and a descendant of Henry III of England. His mother was M ...

. Enville is the nearest village to Highgate Common.

Etymology

The earliest recorded name of the village was Efnefeld, and under that name it is entered in ''

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'', the first part comes from the Welsh 'cefn' a Welsh word meaning "ridge" or "hillside". The nearby Kinver derives from the same word.

Amenities

The village includes ''The Cat Inn''

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, a

beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, and Day spa#Medical spa, medical spas. Beauty treatme ...

, and a tea rooms with gift shop.

Church

St Mary's Church stands to the west of the village. The present ornate tower was built in 1871, when the original tower was taken down. Evidence of an earlier church on the site is to be found in a small stone figure of

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

origin built into the arcading above the south aisle. The church has a Norman nave (about AD 1100) and a transitional

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

(built by Roger de Birmingham, AD 1272–1307) and despite extensive restorations in 1749 and 1871 the distinguishing features remain. The church also contains four, 15th-century

misericord A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a p ...

s, which are placed on either side of the choir stalls. Television presenter Nick Owen and his second wife married here in 2020.

Enville Hall

The Enville Hall estate is prominent in the village. The Earls of Stamford lived in Enville Hall which is still owned and lived in by the family though the title is extinct. The hall, which once boasted its own private racecourse (now a mere forestry track), remains a private house, but it hosts occasional events each year. The Great Fountain, Enville, was a fountain created in the mid-19th century by the Earl of Stamford in the middle of a lake in Enville Hall.

Sport

The grounds of Enville Hall are home to a recreational field, where Enville Cricket Club and Enville Athletic F.C. play. Enville Cricket Club was formed in honour of the

Coronation of George IV The coronation of the British monarch, coronation of George IV as king of the United Kingdom took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 19 July 1821. Originally scheduled for 1 August of the previous year, the ceremony had been postponed due t ...

in 1821. An article in ''The Illustrated London News'' reporting on a match played by the club on

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

in 1857 praised Enville's, recently created by the 7th Earl rather than Lord's as "the finest cricket ground in the world". Currently (2021) it plays three senior teams in the Worcestershire County Cricket League and a junior team.Report by Mark Andrews.

References

External links

Lichfield Diocese information for Church of St Mary the Virgin, Enville.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enville Villages in Staffordshire South Staffordshire District Civil parishes in Staffordshire