Hodnet is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of Parish (administrative division), administrative parish used for Local government in England, local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below district ...

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. The town of

Market Drayton Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "D ...

lies 5.7 miles (9.2 km) north-east of the village.

History

Evidence of a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

burial site was discovered during construction of the bypass in 2002. The Anglo-Saxon settlement, which had a chapel, was the centre of Odenet, a royal manor belonging to Edward the Confessor and held by

Roger de Montgomery Roger de Montgomery (died 1094), also known as Roger the Great, was the first Earl of Shrewsbury, and Earl of Arundel, in Sussex. His father was Roger de Montgomery, seigneur of Montgomery, a member of the House of Montgomerie, and was probably ...

who supported

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, ...

after 1066. Hodnet was recorded in the ''

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 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' as Odenet. Baldwin de Hodenet built a

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy t ...

castle in about 1082 possibly on a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

ed mound from earlier times. The timber castle was rebuilt in sandstone around 1196 but was burned down in 1264. Hodnet Castle was mentioned in a document of 1223. Odo de Hodnet was granted the right to hold a weekly fair and an annual market by Henry III in the mid-13th century and the village grew to the north and east of the castle by the 12th-century church. In 1752 the estate passed from the Vernons, who had lived there for 250 years to the Hebers whose descendants still own the property. Hodnet Old Hall was a

timber-frame 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 ...

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with ...

surrounded by the park which was recorded on

Christopher Saxton Christopher Saxton (c. 1540 – c. 1610) was an English cartographer who produced the first county maps of England and Wales. Life and family Saxton was probably born in Sowood, Ossett in the parish of Dewsbury, in the West Riding of Yorkshire i ...

's Map of Shropshire in the late-16th century. The old hall was demolished in 1870 when a new hall in the neo-

Elizabethan style Elizabethan architecture refers to buildings of a certain style constructed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland from 1558–1603. Historically, the era sits between the long era of the dominant architectural style o ...

was built. The gardens were developed in the 1920s. In the 20th century the hall was used as a convalescent hospital during the world wars and in

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

there was an airfield in the grounds for the storage and dispersal of aircraft from

Ternhill Tern Hill, also known as Ternhill, is a village in Shropshire, England, notable as the location of the former RAF Tern Hill station, which is now operated by the British Army as Clive Barracks. The settlement is named after the River Tern whi ...

and

RAF Shawbury Royal Air Force Shawbury, otherwise known as RAF Shawbury, is a Royal Air Force station near the village of Shawbury in Shropshire in the West Midlands of England. History The First World War The station at Shawbury was first used for militar ...

Governance

Hodnet was the meeting place of an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

which continued to function after the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

. Hodnet is recorded in the ''Domesday Book'' as Odenet, and the village's 17th-century Hundred House was named for this reason. Its hundred court was merged and moved, during the reign of King Henry I (1100–1135), into the Hundred of North Bradford, which was active until the late-19th century. Hodnet was the centre of a large

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

containing the hamlets of Little Bolas, Hawkstone, Hopton, Kenstone, Losford, Marchamley, Peplow, and Wollerton and the chapelries of Weston-under-Redcastle and Wixhill. Under the terms of the

Poor Law Amendment Act The ''Poor Law Amendment Act 1834'' (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the ''Poor Reli ...

1834, it was part of the Drayton Poor Law Union, electing two members to its Board of Guardians. Hodnet has had a parish council since 1895.

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 ...

, a

Unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

is responsible for local government services in Hodnet. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 4,429. The village is in the North Shropshire parliamentary constituency.

Geography

Hodnet is on the

A53 road The A53 is a primary route in the English Midlands, that runs from Buxton in Derbyshire to Shrewsbury in Shropshire. Route of Road The A53 begins in the centre of Buxton off the A6 road, before meeting the A515 road at a roundabout. Out of ...

from

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 'S ...

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of ...

and the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of c ...

. The ancient parish covered 10,700 acres of fertile arable land. The underlying geology consists of red

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town 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 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

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 ...

which is covered with

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

forming a rolling landscape while the flood plain of the

River Tern The Indian river tern or just river tern (''Sterna aurantia'') is a tern in the family Laridae. It is a resident breeder along inland rivers from Iran east into the Indian Subcontinent and further to Myanmar to Thailand, where it is uncommon. ...

is flat. Marl deposited by retreating

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

s was dug for fertilizer and the resultant marl pits are now wildlife habitats.

Transport

The four-mile Hodnet bypass, the A53 opened in 2003 at a cost £14 million, taking traffic on the old A53 and

A442 road The A442 is a main road which passes through the counties of Worcestershire and Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. __TOC__ Route From Droitwich in Worcestershire it runs towards Kidderminster where it meets the A449 from Wo ...

s away from the village's narrow streets. It was built by contractors

Alfred McAlpine Alfred McAlpine plc was a British construction firm headquartered in Hooton, Cheshire. It was a major road builder, and constructed over 10% of Britain's motorways, including the M6 Toll (as part of the CAMBBA consortium). It was listed on the L ...

. Hodnet Station was a stop on the

Wellington and Market Drayton Railway The Wellington and Drayton Railway was a standard gauge line in Central England which carried through freight and local passenger traffic until closure in the 1960s. It was part of the Great Western Railway's double track Wellington-Crewe line, ...

, which opened in 1867 and was operated by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 mill ...

. Lack of use forced the line to close to passenger traffic on 9 September 1963, and to freight four years later.

Bus Service

Hodnet is served by the 64 route, operated by Arriva Midlands North, which runs between

and

via

Shawbury Shawbury is a village and civil parish in the English county of Shropshire. The village is northeast of the town of Shrewsbury, northwest of Telford and northwest of London. The village straddles the A53 between Shrewsbury and Market Dr ...

. Once at

, some 64 bus services form a 164 service and continue on to Hanley in Staffordshire.

Landmarks

The motte and bailey castle is a

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

in the grounds of Hodnet Old Hall surrounded by Hodnet Park which incorporates elements of a medieval deer park. Hawkstone Hall in

Hawkstone Park Hawkstone Park is was a destination on the English Grand Tour and is a historic landscape park with pleasure grounds and gardens historically associated with Soulton Hall and Hawkstone Hall. It is located north east of the small village ...

adjoining the village was the home of

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. ...

Religion

St Luke's Church has an early foundation and retains much of its

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

nave. It was extended in the 14th century and its octagonal tower dates from this time. The church was restored in 1846. The church has some notable stained glass windows including one by David Evans depicting the evangelists and is connected with the story of the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (french: Saint Graal, br, Graal Santel, cy, Greal Sanctaidd, kw, Gral) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miracu ...

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Weste ...

Economy

The village also has two shops and the ''Bear at Hodnet'' public house. There is a florist and a crockery shop.

Education

Hodnet Primary School has 177 pupils, and is maintained by Shropshire County Council. There is no provision of secondary education in the village.

Notable people

Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southampton attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

Sir Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...

(c.1495–1561) the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London. He was a merchant, statesman and philanthropist. *

Elizabeth Wriothesley, Countess of Southampton Elizabeth Wriothesley (''née'' Vernon), Countess of Southampton (11 January 1572 – 23 November 1655) was one of the chief ladies-in-waiting to Elizabeth I of England in the later years of her reign. Family Elizabeth Vernon was the grandda ...

(1572–1655) lady-in-waiting of

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

Reginald Heber Reginald Heber (21 April 1783 – 3 April 1826) was an English Anglican bishop, man of letters and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of 42. The son of a rich land ...

(1783–1826) hymn writer, Rector of Hodnet 1807–1823 and Bishop of Calcutta * George Campbell Macaulay (1852–1915) a noted English Classical scholar *

William Herrick Macaulay William Herrick Macaulay (16 November 1853 – 28 November 1936) was a British mathematician, Fellow and Vice-Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and close friend of Karl Pearson He also corresponded with John Maynard Keynesbr> Family He was ...

(1853–1936) a British mathematician *

Reginald Macaulay Reginald Heber Macaulay (24 August 1858 – 15 December 1937) was an amateur English footballer who won the FA Cup with Old Etonians in 1882 and made one appearance for England in 1881 playing as a forward. Family Background Macaulay was born i ...

(1858–1937) a footballer with Old Etonians F.C. who played in three FA Cup Finals *

Mary Cholmondeley Mary Cholmondeley (usually pronounced /ˈtʃʌmli/, 8 June 1859 – 15 July 1925) was an English novelist. Her bestseller, '' Red Pottage'', satirised religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life. It was adapted as a silent film in 19 ...

(1859–1925) an English novelist, lived in Hodnet until about 1896. * Tom Bush (1914–1969) an English footballer who played 61 games for Liverpool. *

Tim Brookshaw Tim Brookshaw (25 March 1929 - 8 November 1981) was a National Hunt jockey who was champion jockey in 1958/1959. Stanley James Brookshaw, always known as Tim, was born into a Shropshire farming family and started his career as a jockey with Ches ...

(1929–1981) an English

National Hunt In horse racing in the United Kingdom, France and Republic of Ireland, National Hunt racing requires horses to jump fences and ditches. National Hunt racing in the UK is informally known as "jumps" and is divided into two major distinct branches: ...

champion jockey and horse trainer, who is buried in Hodnet churchyard. *

Lou Dalton Lou Dalton is an English menswear fashion designer based in London. She has launched her own brand and collaborated with other fashion lines. Early life Dalton was born in Shropshire and grew up on her grandmother's farm in the hills of Hodnet ...

(1971– ) Menswear designer and senior tutor at the Royal College of Art.

Sport

Hodnet has a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

club, Hodnet and Peplow CC. Its first eleven play in the Rollinson Smith Shropshire Cricket League Division 3. FC Hodnet, a football club formed for the 2007–08 season, played at the Hodnet Social Club. The club won the

Shropshire Alliance The Shropshire County Premier Football League was an English association football league based in the county of Shropshire. The league, usually known as the Shropshire County League, was founded in 1950 and in the final season had two divisions ...

football league on 10 May 2008 and then competed in the Shropshire County Premier Football League, which became the

Mercian Regional Football League The Shropshire Premier League was an English association football league based in the county of Shropshire. It was formed as the Mercian Regional Football League for the 2012–13 season, with all member clubs of the dissolved Shropshire Cou ...

since the 2008–09 season onwards. Starting in Division One, after two seasons the team were promoted to the Premier Division in 2010. The following year FC Hodnet won the Premier Division Cup, beating Haughmond in the final at Ellesmere.The FA
(Full-Time League Websites) Haughmond 1–2 FC Hodnet FC Hodnet folded at the end of the 2016–17 season. Hodnet Social Football Club, originating in the late 1990s, competed in the Telford Sunday League until 2012. Hodnet FC was re-formed in 2018 and currently competes in the new

Shropshire County League The Shropshire County Premier Football League was an English association football league based in the county of Shropshire. The league, usually known as the Shropshire County League, was founded in 1950 and in the final season had two divisions w ...

Premier Division, the 11th tier of the

English football league system The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the Isl ...

References

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire