Blakeshall is a hamlet in
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...
, England. It is one of the ancient townships of the manor of
Wolverley
Wolverley is a village; with nearby Cookley (1 mi northeast), it forms a civil parish in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England. It is 2 miles north of Kidderminster and lies on the River Stour and the Staffordshire and ...
, whose extent was similar to that of the modern civil parish of Wolverley &
Cookley
Cookley is a village in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England, a few miles to the north of Kidderminster, and close to the villages of Kinver and Wolverley. It lies on the River Stour, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Ca ...
.
Early History
The
Sebright family held land in Blakeshall from the end of the 13th or early 14th century until at least the mid-17th century. In 1809 Blakeshall was the property of a John Smith, from whom it passed to the Hancocks family.
Blakeshall Hall
Blakeshall Hall is a
grade II Listed Building, possibly 18th century, remodelled and extended in the 19th century.
Hancocks Village
Blakeshall Hall and the surrounding Blakeshall Estate were owned by William Hancocks, a local ironmaster, from around 1844. Hancocks laid out a 'Swiss' style village on the Estate near the hamlet of
Drakelow
Drakelow is a civil parish in South Derbyshire, England. It is centred a small fraction over south of Burton on Trent and has a border with that town. The population of the civil parish including Caldwell, Derbyshire and Cauldwell, Derbyshir ...
. This village was home to around 50 families; Blakeshall Common School being built in 1855 to serve around 72 children from the village, the nearby rock houses and the local area. In the 1890s the school became a mission chapel for a non-denominational society. The mission left in 1898 but the building remained in used for occasional chapel and church purposes until the 1920s when the Hall and Estate were sold to the Grazebrook family. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the village site became part of the
Drakelow Tunnels shadow factory
A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two- dimensional silhouette, ...
, later developed during the
Cold War as a
fall-back government centre. The old school building, the last evidence of the village, was demolished in the early 1980s. the area remains in private ownership and is not accessible to the public.
Jennings Farm
Robert Plant of
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...
lived at Jennings Farm, Blakeshall in the 1970s. An early version of the Led Zeppelin song
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is a song recorded by English rock band Led Zeppelin for their third album, ''Led Zeppelin III'', released in 1970.
Background
The song is named after Bron-Yr-Aur, a house in Montgomeryshire, Wales, where the members of Led ...
was recorded as "Jennings Farm Blues".
Blakeshall Common
To the north of the old village, the former Blakeshall Common, although not within the ancient bounds of the manor of Kingsford, formed part of
Kingsford Forest Park which is now incorporated into
Kinver Edge
Kinver Edge is a high heath and woodland escarpment just west of Kinver, about four miles west of Stourbridge, and four miles north of Kidderminster, and is on the border between Worcestershire and Staffordshire, England. It is now owned by th ...
.
Gallery
Blakeshall Common School Drakelow 1978.jpg, Blakeshall Common school in 1978
References
Villages in Worcestershire
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