Madley 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 ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

. It is located six miles west of the city of

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a populatio ...

. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,200.

Other settlements

The

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 ...

includes the hamlets of Canon Bridge, Wormhill, Winmoor, Lulham, Upper & Lower Chilstone, Upper & Lower Shenmore, Cublington, Great & Little Brampton, Webton and Webton Court. Madley is the second largest parish in the county of Herefordshire.

Etymology

The name ''Madley'' most probably originated from

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen ...

''matle'', equivalent to modern

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

'' mad

lle The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is a scientific research facility which is part of the University of Rochester's south campus, located in Brighton, New York. The lab was established in 1970 and its operations since then have been fund ...

'', meaning “good place”; but this was later reinterpreted by English speakers through

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

as ''Mada-ley'', “meadow of Mada”, as the suffix '' -ley'' is common in English place names (e.g. Hadley, Shipley) as a shortened form of the word ''

leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Sta ...

'' (“meadow”).

History and amenities

Madley is most famous as the birthplace of Saint Dubricius, the 6th century evangelist of

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. He was born at Chilstone which is named after the 'Child Stone' that marked the spot. The parish has a fine

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

which replaced that founded by St Dubricius. The church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the best known local examples of

Norman architecture The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used fo ...

with

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry wall ...

s carved into the tower itself. It is a Grade I listed building. The

British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...

's Madley Communications Centre is on part of the disused

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 ...

airfield RAF Madley. It was built in 1940 by Welsh contractors and opened as a training centre for aircrew and ground wireless operators on 27 August 1941. In 1943 the grass airfield was reinforced with Sommerfeld Tracking and the centre's population rose to about 5,000. The site was visited in 1944 prior to D-Day by US General George S. Patton, and later by

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position un ...

(who had been held prisoner near Abergavenny) on his way to the

Nuremberg trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded ...

in 1946. Today only a few

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s remain.

The ''Red Lion'' in Madley is an old

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

dating back to the 16th century and is a grade II listed building. Here mail was delivered by mail coach from

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 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and distributed to recipients in the locality. The pub itself is built on a well which is situated under the hallway by the pub cellar. A stream also runs under the rear car park and flows under the land of the Red Lion Garage.

Former amenities

The Red Lion Garage was built in the 1940s by Johnathan Edwards and was run as a successful family business until 1986 when it was taken over by Tim and Martin Edwards (now deceased c.2006) and redeveloped in 2003. The old traditional

butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

s' shop in Madley was run by Herbie and Audrey Cresswell in the 1960s. It was later owned by Gordon Watkins and is now demolished with a garage on the site.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Herefordshire