Lilleshall 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 the
Telford and Wrekin
Telford and Wrekin is a Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough and unitary authority in Shropshire, England. In 1974, a non-metropolitan district of Shropshire was created called the Wrekin, named after The Wrekin, a prominent hill to the ...
borough of
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 ...
, England.
It lies between the towns of
Telford
Telford () is a town in the Telford and Wrekin borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Shropshire, England. The wider borough covers the town, its suburbs and surrounding towns and villages. The town is close to the county's eastern b ...
and
Newport, on the
A518, in the
Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of the village.
The village dates back to
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 ...
times, the parish church being founded by
St Chad. It is mentioned 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 ...
. The Norman parish church of St Michael and All Angels is a grade I listed building.
Local governance
A civil parish was formed on 1 April 2015 from
Lilleshall, Donnington and Muxton, though a previous parish also called "Lilleshall" existed.
Layout
There is a monument, a cricket club, a tennis club, a church and a primary school clustered around a bracken-covered hill named Lilleshall Hill.
Lilleshall Abbey
Lilleshall Abbey, some distance to the east of the village, was an
Augustinian house, founded in the twelfth century, the ruins of which are protected by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
. After the
dissolution of the monasteries the estate was bought by the
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...
wool merchant James Leveson. His family held the site for four generations and, after two owners died without issue, it passed into the hands of the related
Leveson-Gower family in the late 17th century.
Industry
Lilleshall is surrounded by farmland. The village and surrounds were the site of considerable early industrial development from as early as the 16th century, when
Walter Leveson (1551-1602) established a
bloomery
A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its iron oxides, oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called ...
. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relatively shallow deposits of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
and
limestone
Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
were mined, with resultant subsidence. The history of the mining of limestone is reflected in the naming of a road called 'Limekiln Lane' in Lilleshall. The former limestone mines are tucked away in treeland at the Newport end of the village, locally known as "the Slang", which is effectively several pits now filled with water, popular with local fishermen and unpopular with local parents of young children - the water is deep and the former minepits area quite dark, abandoned and dangerous.
At a similar time to the mining of limestone an early example of the English canal network was dug, the
Donnington Wood Canal and its Lilleshall branch which were connected by an
inclined plane
An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
, reflected in the naming of a road named The Incline in Lilleshall.
Lilleshall Hall
The Leveson-Gower
Dukes of Sutherland became one of the richest families in the United Kingdom partly as a result of this industrial development and in the late nineteenth century built a new residence,
Lilleshall Hall
Lilleshall Hall is a large former country house and estate in the fields of Lilleshall, Shropshire, England.
It is run by Serco Leisure Operating Ltd on behalf of Sport England as one of three National Sports Centres, alongside Bisham Abbey ...
which lies at the heart of the estate a mile from the village. The Sutherland estate was sold off between 1915 and 1917 and the hall eventually passed into state ownership as a sporting facility. It is now the
Lilleshall Hall National Sports Centre,
once the site of the
Football Association
A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...
youth academy, and now the home of British gymnastics and archery. Lilleshall Hall Golf Club is also in the grounds of Lilleshall Hall.
Lilleshall Monument/Sutherland Monument

The
Lilleshall Monument is a high
obelisk
An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...
, a local landmark which stands on top of Lilleshall Hill and was erected in honour of the
1st Duke of Sutherland.
Notable residents
*
John Mirk (active c.1380–1420), English liturgical writer, was a Canon at Lilleshall Abbey.
*
Walter Leveson (1550–1602), politician, and his son
Vice-Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral.
Australia
In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...
Richard Leveson (c.1570-1605) lived in a lodge in grounds of the dissolved Lilleshall Abbey.
*
Jimmy Poppitt (1875–1930), footballer who played for
Lincoln City,
Notts County
Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...
and
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...
, was born in Lilleshall.
See also
*
Listed buildings in Lilleshall and Donnington
References
External links
Lilleshall Golf Club websiteLilleshall Residents Association WebsiteLilleshall Cricket Club Website
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Villages in Shropshire
Civil parishes in Shropshire
Telford and Wrekin