Isombridge is a small hamlet in rural

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

. It lies on the border of the

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 ...

es of

Wrockwardine Wrockwardine ( ) is a village and civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies north of The Wrekin and the M54/ A5, and west of Wellington. In 2011 the parish had a population of 3838. ...

and Rodington, north of Wrockwardine village, near the

River Tern The River Tern (also historically known as the Tearne) is a river in Shropshire, England. It rises north-east of Market Drayton in the north of the county. The source of the Tern is considered to be the lake in the grounds of Maer Hall, Staff ...

. Population details are included under Rodington. Immediately to the north is another small hamlet, Marsh Green, which was formerly on the

Shrewsbury Canal The Shrewsbury Canal (or Shrewsbury and Newport Canal) was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 183 ...

until the latter's closure. It was recorded as a manor 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, where its name was written ''Asnebruge''. This was derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''esne'', "servant", and ''bryce'', "bridge": "the bridge of the servants", presumably referring to a bridge over the Tern.Gelling and Foxall, ''The Place-Names of Shropshire'' v. 1, English Place-Name Society, 1990, p.164 The manor, which had been held by a man named Ulf in Saxon times, was later held by

Ralph de Mortimer Ranulph or Ralph de Mortimer (before 1198 to 6 August 1246) was the second son of Roger de Mortimer and Isabel de Ferrers of Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire. He succeeded his elder brother before 23 November 1227 and built Cefnllys and Knuckl ...

: he subsequently forfeited it and it passed to the lords of

Bolas Bolas or bolases (: bola; from Spanish and Portuguese ''bola'', "ball", also known as a ''boleadora'' or ''boleadeira'') is a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, used to capture animals by entangling ...

.Anderson, John Corbet. ''Shropshire: its early history and antiquities'', 1864, p.156 The area later formed a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of the parish of

High Ercall High Ercall ( ), also known in the past as Ercall Magna (), is a village in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. The civil parish is still called Ercall Magna, and had a total population of 1,679 at the ...

: there was a small chapel here, now long since disappeared.

References

Hamlets in Shropshire Rodington {{shropshire-geo-stub