Myddle—also formerly known as Mydle, Middle, , M'dle, Meadley and Medle—is a small 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 Myddle, Broughton and Harmer Hill, in the

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council, known between 1980 and 2009 as Shropshire County Council and prior to 1980 as Salop County Council, is the Local government in England, local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Shropshire (district), Shropshire in t ...

district, in the ceremonial county 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, about 10 miles north of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

, the county town of Shropshire. In 1961 the parish had a population of 745. In a book written about Myddle in 1700, the author, Richard Gough, describes the parish community and its doings, and his work has been used as a study of human relations. The book has been called "the greatest insight" into the "middle sort" of people in Early Modern England.

History

The village of Myddle was occupied by 1066, with a manor house for

Siward, Earl of Northumbria Siward ( or more recently ; ) or Sigurd (, ) was an important earl of 11th-century northern England. The Old Norse nickname ''Digri'' and its Latin translation ''Grossus'' ("the stout") are given to him by near-contemporary texts. It is possibl ...

completed in the 1050s. By 1086, the year of 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 ...

under

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

, the manor house was occupied by Rainald the Sheriff. During the 12th century, the Fitz Alan family of

Clun Clun is a town in south west Shropshire, England, and the Shropshire Hills AONB, Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The 2011 United Kingdom census, census recorded 680 people living in the town.Combined populations for the t ...

occupied the manor house, with John Le Strange acquiring it around 1165. In 1234, Myddle was the location of the signing of a treaty between King Henry III and Welsh Prince Llewellyn. In September 2005 and September 2007 a detectorist uncovered a small number of hammered gold coins dating back to the 14th century. The Le Strange's dynasty ended in 1580 due to the lack of male heirs to the estate, and Myddle passed to the

Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, KG (1435 – 29 July 1504) was an English nobleman. He was the stepfather of King Henry VII of England. He was the eldest son of Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley and Joan Goushill. A landed magnate of im ...

after he married Joan Le Strange. Their son,

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, became the second Earl of Derby.

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

granted Thomas Barnston a licence to sell land in Myddle in 1596, and in 1600

Sir Thomas Egerton Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (c. 1540 – 15 March 1617), known as Lord Ellesmere or Lord Egert from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor ...

purchased the village. Egerton's son was created by

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) * James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) * James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu * James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334� ...

the first

Earl of Bridgewater Earl of Bridgewater was a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England, once for the Daubeny family (1538) and once for the Egerton family (1617). From 1720 to 1803, the Earls of Bridgewater also held the title of Duke of Bridgewa ...

in 1617. During the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

in 1642, Charles I recruited 20 men from Myddle, with 13 killed. Myddle suffered an earthquake in 1688, but continued to expand throughout the coming centuries, with butchers' shops, taverns, fishmongers and masons inhabiting the village by about 1850. In 1901 the village was graced by a visit of The All American Trumpeters who put on a free show to raise funds for a memorial to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

. The manor house was destroyed and sold to pay the death duties of the third Earl Brownlow in 1924. In 1942, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, an RAF Whitley bomber crashed in Myddle after taking off from nearby Sleap Airfield. On 1 April 1988 the parish was abolished to form "Myddle & Broughton", part also went to

Wem Rural Wem Rural is a large civil parish in Shropshire, England that encircles, but does not include, the market town of Wem. Its settlements include the villages of Aston and Barkers Green (east of Wem), Coton, Edstaston, Quina Brook and Pepperstre ...

Myddle Castle

A castle was constructed in Myddle between 1308 and 1310 by Lord John Le Strange as a stronghold against the Welsh after the family obtained a licence to convert the manor house into a castle. Sometime around 1449, Elizabeth Cobham received the castle as part of her dowry from Richard, 7th Lord Strange. After Lord Strange died, Cobham married Sir Roger Kynaston in 1450. Elizabeth died in 1453, and left the castle to Kynaston. Upon Roger's death in 1495, his son Humphrey Kynaston inherited the castle, but allowed it to fall into disrepair, and abandoned it some time later. The castle has stood empty since the 16th century, with one visitor to the village, John Leland, describing the castle as around 1540. The castle collapsed during the 1688 earthquake. The castle was repaired by John Hume Egerton in 1849, who inscribed his name into a block in the castle's wall. The castle is now a Grade II

Listed Building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and, since a portion collapsed in 1976, has been scheduled for repair.

Notable residents

* Humphrey Kynaston,

highwayman A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to foo ...

*Richard Gough, author of ''Antiquities and Memoirs of the Parish of Myddle'',Version on Google Books
/ref> was born in 1635 and died in 1723. He was educated in Myddle and Broughton and lived at Newton on the Hill. To celebrate the 300th anniversary of Gough's account of village life, a group of 18 local people created an illustrated pack of six walks around Myddle which have become known as the "Gough Walks". * William Gosling,

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played in gold medal-winning England team in

1900 Summer Olympics The 1900 Summer Olympics (), today officially known as the Games of the II Olympiad () and also known as Paris 1900, were an international multi-sport event that took place in Paris, France, from 14 May to 28 October 1900. No opening or closin ...

, owned and lived at Marton Hall near the village. * Jas Mann, lead singer of

Babylon Zoo Babylon Zoo were an English rock band formed in 1992 in Wolverhampton. Their song " Spaceman" gained considerable exposure through its use in a Levi's jeans television advert in the United Kingdom in late 1995. Released as the band's debut si ...

*Edward Stollins, co-founder of Our Price (chain of record shops, no longer in business)

References

Sources

* G. Grazebrook and J.P. Rylands, ''The Visitation of Shropshire taken in the year 1623'' (Harleian Visitations) Part 1 (London 1889). (Myddle family pedigrees) * R. Gough, ''The History of Myddle'' (Ed. with Introduction and Notes by

David Hey David G. Hey (18 July 1938 – 14 February 2016) was an English historian, and was an authority on surnames and the local history of Yorkshire. Hey was the president of the British Association for Local History, and was a published author of sev ...

). (Penguin, Harmondsworth 1981). * D. Hey, ''An English Rural Community: Myddle under the Tudors and Stuarts'' (Leicester University Press 1974).

External links