Pitchford is a small village in the English 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 ...

. It is located between Cantlop and

Acton Burnell Acton Burnell () is a village and parish in the English county of Shropshire. Home to Concord College, it is also famous for an early meeting of Parliament where the Statute of Acton Burnell was passed in 1283. The population at the 2011 cen ...

and stands on an affluent of the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

. Pitchford takes its name from a bituminous spring/pitch in the village, located near The Row Brook. It is home to Pitchford Hall, one of the most notable Elizabethan houses in Britain. The Church of St Michael and All Angels stands near to the house which contains a carved oak 13th century effigy of Sir John de Pitchford. It is also the name for 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 ...

History

Population

Census data during the years 1881– 1961 shows that Pitchford's population decreased while the total population of England and Wales increased conversely. Housing information recorded through the years of 1831–1961 shows the number of houses in the area fluctuated between 35 and 43 houses during this time. Statistics from the 2001 census show that the number of households with residents was 44. In 2001, its total population was 110. The population's social class was examined 1831 census, with thee majority (over 55%) of the population described as "Labourers and Servants". The second largest social class was recorded as "muddling sorts".

Employment

In the Census of 1831 a detailed categorisation of employment was recorded, showing that Agricultural Labourers made up the largest sector (over 50%) of employment of Males aged 20 and over in 9 occupational categories. The second largest category consisted of those employed in the Retail and Handicrafts industry. Of the 76 Pitchford population aged between 16 and 74, 59 people were

economically Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

active/ employed whereas none were unemployed. The majority (39 people) of these were employed in Service Industries.

Pitchford Estate

Pitchford Hall is Grade I listed building, and the estate is first referred to in historical records 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 ...

of 1086 as follows: "Edric, and Leofric and Wulfric held it as three manors; they were free. 3 hides which pay tax. Land for 5 ploughs. In lordship 3; 3 slaves; 3 ploughmen; 1 village; 3 smallholders, a smith and rider with 2 ploughs. Woodland for fattening 100 pigs. Value before 1066, 8s later 16s; now 40s". Records suggest a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

manor house existed somewhere on the site from at least 1284 to 1431. The 40-room mansion as it exists today however is said to have been built between 1560 and 1570 for Adam Ottley, a wool merchant from Shrewsbury. The half-timbered mansion stands next to the Church of St Michael and All Angels, and is widely considered to be one of the finest Tudor houses in Britain. The Pitchford estate remained in the Ottley family until the death of Adam Ottley in 1807, when it passed to Hon. Charles C. C. Jenkinson, second son of the 1st Earl of Liverpool and later to his son-in-law John Cotes. Pitchford Hall 01997

Princess Victoria visited the hall in 1832, five years before acceding to the throne, and wrote in her diary that the hall was "A curious looking but very comfortable house. It is striped black and white, and in the shape of a cottage".

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...

( The Duke of York at the time) and

Duchess of York Duchess of York is the principal courtesy title held by the wife of the Duke of York. Three of the eleven Dukes of York either did not marry or had already assumed the throne prior to marriage, while two of the Dukes married twice; therefore, th ...

(The Queen Mother post-1952) also stayed in the hall during 1935. In 1940, 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 ...

, Pitchford Hall was one of the three houses selected for the King and Queen as a potential safe refuge away from London. The hall, unlike some similar properties in Britain has remained in private ownership for many generations. The hall was sold in 1993 however, ending a 500-year family link to the estate. The Pitchford Hall and estate were separately owned until 2016, when Rowena Colthurst and her husband James Nason purchased the Hall back into family ownership.

St Michael's Church

The Grade A listed Church of St Michael and All Angels was founded and built by Ralph de Pitchford in 1220 AD; the estate's website describes the church as

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

. The church was remodelled in the 13th century, the east wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

was rebuilt in 1719, the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

was added in 1819, and the church was restored in 1910. The church consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and chancel in one cell, and a northeast vestry. It is built in red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, the roof of the

is in stone-slate, and the chancel has a tile roof. At the west end is a weatherboarded

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

with a pyramidal stone cap and a

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

(a decorative ending). Its

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

and pews are in the early 17th-century Jacobean style. The grounds contain war memorial plaques, listing two men who died in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and three in

World War II 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 ...

, as well as nine men and six women of the parish who served in the latter war. The church's best known feature is a carved effigy and tomb chest of John De Pitchford (d. 1285),Fryer (1921), p. 14 whoes monument is positioned in the

of the church,Fryer (1921), p. 54 and is made from solid

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

.Tummers (1980), p. 30

References

Sources

* Fryer, Alfred Cooper. ''Wooden Monumental Effigies in England And Wales''. London: ''Archaeologia'' or ''Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity'', 1909, republished 1924 * * * Tummers, H.A.
Early Secular Effigies in England: The Thirteenth Century
'. Leiden: Brill Archive, 1980.

External links

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire