Prees () 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 ...

in north

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 ...

, near the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

between England and Wales. Its name is Celtic and means "brushwood".

Prees civil parish

The civil parish includes many other villages and hamlets as well as the namesake Prees Village. Examples include the villages Prees Higher Heath and Prees Green and the hamlets of Prees Lower Heath and Prees Wood (which all share the name Prees). Sandford, Darliston, Fauls and Mickley to the east of the village are also included in the parish. Prees Heath, a nearby village, despite its name, is not part of the civil parish and is actually contained within the neighbouring Whitchurch civil parish. The population of the civil parish in 2001 was recorded at 2688, increasing to 2,895 Census.

Prees village

Prees is northeast of the small town of Wem. It is also west of Market Drayton and south of Whitchurch. The population in 2001 was recorded at 814, increasing to 939 Census.

History

The church in the village dates back to the 14th century (when the village was commonly spelt "Prys"), however, the tower is younger. Several ancient coins were found on farmland outside Prees in 2017. They included four 300-year-old coins that date to the reign of James I and Charles I. Also located in Prees in the Prees

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 Britai ...

Primary School and Nursery, a Victorian building that holds much history. There are a number of other churches in the village.

Transport

Roads

The A41 and A49 roads pass on either side of the village.

Railway

West of the village of Prees, but not in the village or the parish as the name would suggest, is the railway station of Prees. It lies on the Welsh Marches Line, between Whitchurch and Wem. There is a regular service with pre-determined stops. The station is not in the village itself because Captain Black, a wealthy resident in the village stated that the station had to be exactly one mile away from the centre of the village, which at the time was the mill, located (still today) on Mill Street. This was so that it could be easily reached as a route out with the goods produced.

Bus

The village is served by the 511 bus route, operated by

Arriva Midlands North Arriva Midlands is a bus operator providing services in the East Midlands and West Midlands areas of England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus. Arriva Midlands North Operations In September 1981 Midland Red North was formed with 230 bus ...

, which runs between Shrewsbury and Whitchurch via Wem. Some services terminate in Wem and do not continue to Whitchurch.

Canals

Prees was the intended destination of an arm of the Ellesmere Canal. However, the arm was only completed as far as Quina Brook. The arm is now known as the Prees Branch of the

Llangollen Canal The Llangollen Canal ( cy, Camlas Llangollen) is a navigable canal crossing the border between England and Wales. The waterway links Llangollen in Denbighshire, north Wales, with Hurleston in south Cheshire, via the town of Ellesmere, Shropshir ...

, and is navigable for about a mile to Whixall Marina; the following 3/4 mile is still followable on the towpath as it passes through Prees Branch Canal Nature Reserve.

Notable people

* James Fleetwood (c.1603-1683) an English clergyman, vicar of Prees and later Bishop of Worcester. * Thomas Gilbert (1613 in Prees – 1694) an English ejected minister of the seventeenth century. * Philip Henry (1631–1696) an English nonconformist clergyman. and diarist, ordained in Prees in 1657 *

Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill, (11 August 1772 – 10 December 1842) was a British Army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars as a brigade, division and corps commander. He became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1828. ...

(1772 in Prees Hall – 1842) as a British Army officer who served in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

, ultimately Commander in Chief. His doric column stands in Shrewsbury. *

Robert Chambre Hill Sir Robert Chambre Hill Order of the Bath, CB (25March 17785March 1860) was a British Army cavalry officer who fought in the Peninsular War and was wounded while in command of the Royal Horse Guards at the Battle of Waterloo on 18June 1815. Backg ...

(1778 in

Hawkstone Hall Hawkstone Hall is a early 18th-century country mansion near Hodnet, Shropshire, England which was more recently occupied as the pastoral centre of a religious organisation for many years. It is a Grade I listed building. It is currently a wedd ...

– 1860) a British Army cavalry officer, fought in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

. *

Clement Delves Hill Major-general Clement Delves Hill (6 December 178120 January 1845) was a British Army Officer who fought at the 1815 Battle of Waterloo and later saw service in India. Career The sixth son of Sir John Hill Bt. and Mary, co-heir and daughter of J ...

(1781 in Hawkstone Hall – 1845) a British Army officer who fought in the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

. *

Thomas Noel Hill Colonel Sir Thomas Noel Hill KCB KTS (24February, 17848January, 1832) was a British Army officer of the Napoleonic Wars who fought at the Battle of Waterloo on 18June, 1815. Life and career Born at Hawkstone Hall, near Hodnet, Shropshire, Hill ...

(1784 in Hawkstone Hall - 1832) a British Army officer who fought in the Battle of Waterloo. * Francis Sandford, 1st Baron Sandford KCB, PC (1824–1893) known as Sir Francis Sandford a British civil servant who implemented the Elementary Education Act of 1870, buried in Prees. * Henry Maddocks (1871 in Prees — 1931) an English lawyer and Conservative Party politician. * Thomas Oakley (1879 in Prees – 1936) a British electrician and politician, MP for

The Wrekin The Wrekin is a hill in east Shropshire, England. It is located some five miles (8 km) west of Telford, on the border between the unitary authorities of Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin. Rising above the Shropshire Plain to a height of 4 ...

1924-1929 * William Hutchings (1879 – 1948 in Prees) soldier and English amateur cricketer, played in 24 first-class matches for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and

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 ...

Governance

An electoral ward in the same name exists. This ward stretches northeast to Adderley with a total ward population taken at the 2011 census of 4,281.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire World War II prisoner of war camps in England