Mucklestone is a village and former

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 ...

, now in the parish of Loggerheads, in the

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

district, in the county of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England. It is about northwest of Eccleshall, and four and a half miles northeast of

Market Drayton Market Drayton is a market town and civil parish on the banks of the River Tern in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is located between the towns of Whitchurch, Shropshire, Wh ...

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 ...

. In 1961 the parish had a population of 409. On 1 April 1984 the parish was abolished to form Loggerheads. Mucklestone Anvil

It is notable for its associations with the Battle of Blore Heath. According to legend, Queen

Margaret of Anjou Margaret of Anjou (; 23 March 1430 – 25 August 1482) was Queen of England by marriage to King Henry VI from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471. Through marriage, she was also nominally Queen of France from 1445 to 1453. Born in the ...

is said to have watched the defeat of her forces from the church tower, before fleeing on horse-back. It is said that Margaret employed the local blacksmith, William Skelhorn, to reverse the shoes on her horse to disguise her getaway. An anvil said to have belonged to Skelhorn stands in the churchyard to commemorate the event. The ancient parish of Mucklestone was about in length, and from one to in breadth, extending along the borders of the counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire. Five of traditional townships, Aston, Knighton, Mucklestone, Oakley and Winnington are in Staffordshire and the other four, Bearstone, Dorrington, Gravenhunger and Woore, are in Shropshire. This parish originally comprised , of which were in Staffordshire. Mucklestone township contains about . Aston, a village and township, three and a half miles north-east of Mucklestone, and south-west of

, contains . Knighton is a small township, south-west of Aston, bounded on three sides by Shropshire. Oakley township at the south end of the parish, south-west of Mucklestone, contains Oakley Hall, in a beautiful park of , on the east bank of the River Tern, which locally divides Staffordshire from Shropshire. Winnington township, has a small village north of Mucklestone. The church of Saint Mary at Mucklestone, which originally served the whole of the ancient parish, is in the decorated style. Except for the tower, it was rebuilt according to church records in 1789 and again in 1883 by Lynam and Rickman in keeping with the surviving medieval tower. It contains

stained glass window Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

s, designed by Charles Kempe in the 19th century including commemorations of the Battle of Blore Heath. Other local structures of merit include a Georgian Folly; an important house of earlier date known as Willoughbridge Lodge; warm springs (discovered in the 17th century) and known, together with the ruined bath house c1682, as Willoughbridge wells; and also Oakley Hall built about 1710. A

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

monument sits along the western perimeter of the great park of Oakley Hall at Mucklestone. Possibly the remains of a burial-mound,Palliser, D. M.,''The Staffordshire Landscape'',Hodder and Stoughton,1976, it comprises two big stones. One is round with a hole in the middle. The other is six feet tall and slender. Locally the stones are known as the "devil's ring and finger".

References

External links

The Legend of Queen Margaret of Anjou at MucklestoneGENUKI parish records
The village school (linked to Church) in former orchard * http://www.st-marys-mucklestone.staffs.sch.uk/ {{authority control Villages in Staffordshire Former civil parishes in Staffordshire Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme

See also

References

External links