Wistanstow is a village and

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

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. Wistanstow is located about south of

Church Stretton Church Stretton is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, south of Shrewsbury and north of Ludlow. The population in 2011 was 4,671.

and north of

Ludlow Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...

. It is about north of

Craven Arms Craven Arms is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is sited on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches Line, Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbur ...

. It is just off the main

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 ...

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

road, the A49. The large parish, of , includes a number of other small settlements: Woolston,

Upper Affcot Upper Affcot is a hamlet in Shropshire, England. It is located on the A49 north of Craven Arms and south of Church Stretton, between the hamlets of Strefford and Felhampton. There is a public house here, formerly called the Travellers Rest, ...

, Cwm Head, Bushmoor,

Strefford Strefford is a historic hamlet (place), hamlet in Shropshire, England. It lies in the civil parishes in England, civil parish of Wistanstow and is situated just off the A49 road north of the small town of Craven Arms. The nearest settlement i ...

, Whittingslow, Felhampton and

Cheney Longville Cheney Longville ( ) is a small village in Shropshire, England. It lies in the parish of Wistanstow, near the small market town of Craven Arms. It was simply called "Langfeld" in 1087, when it was owned by Shrewsbury Abbey. Roger de Cheney ga ...

, and a population of 724 was recorded in the 2001 census, increasing to 812 at the 2011 Census. The

River Onny The River Onny is a river in Shropshire, England. It is a major tributary of the River Teme. Etymology The river's name derives from Welsh and means the river on which ash trees (Welsh: ''onnau'') grew. Course The river has its sources in th ...

flows through the parish, southwest of the village, also Leamoor Common and Wettles are to the north of the village.

History and amenities

The main lane running through the village is a

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

, which ran between the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

settlements and forts at

Leintwardine Leintwardine ( ) is a small to mid-size village and civil parish in north Herefordshire, England, close to the border with Shropshire. History Roman A popular misconception is that the Romans called the village ''Branogenium''. Branogenium i ...

and

Wroxeter Wroxeter ( ) is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wroxeter and Uppington, in the Shropshire district, in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is beside the River Severn, south-east of Shrewsbury. In 1961 the ...

. The village takes its name from the

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 ...

saint

Wigstan Wigstan (, ; died c. 840 AD), also known as Saint Wystan, was the son of Wigmund of Mercia and Ælfflæd, daughter of King Ceolwulf I of Mercia. History Like many Mercians of the period very little is known about Wigstan. He was the son of W ...

who was the grandson of the King of

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

. He was martyred at this location by his greatuncle. His burial took place at his family crypt at the abbey of Rependon (now known as

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2 ...

) the Mercian capital, memorialized as ''St. Wystan'' upon his canonization (one of the oldest unaltered places of Christian worship in England). The

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

suffix ''stow'' means (enclosed) place. An uncle of W(ystan) H(ugh) Auden (named for the eponymous saint spelled ''Wystan'' by his father who was an alumnus of Repton school built on the remains of the Abbey) wrote the entry for Wistanstow in ''Little Guide to Shropshire'' The present

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

, Holy Trinity, was mainly built between 1180 and 1200. The

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 ...

roof of 1630 is one of the church's finest features and was re-gilded in the mid-1960s. The interior is also graced by a number of early 19th century

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

s and fine mid-20th-century wooden panelling behind the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

. It contains a war memorial plaque to local men who died serving in the World Wars and another to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Beddoes who was lost when ''S.S. Chiosa'' hit a wartime mine off

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

in January 1919. Wistanstow has a splendid

mock Tudor Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

village hall that was given to the village in 1925 by a local landowner. This enormous "blackandwhite" building included cottages for the district nurse and resident caretaker. The village has a small church primary school. At the other end of the village opposite Manor Farm is the Plough Inn. Just behind was a small independent

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for ale that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous ca ...

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

, "Wood's", founded in 1980, which closed under "adverse trading conditions" in 2022 following the

Covid pandemic Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fev ...

.Report by David Tooley. In 1984, both the Plough and the brewery were featured as the final destination on a Shropshire edition of Treasure Hunt, with

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a British television and radio presenter, journalist and painter. She began her broadcasting career with the BBC World Service and later moved to childr ...

pulling herself a pint of real ale to complete the game. “The Smithy” is the village’s community shop which was officially opened by the actor

Pete Postlethwaite Peter William Postlethwaite (7 February 1946 – 2 January 2011) was an English character actor. After various stage and minor television appearances, Postlethwaite's first major success arose through the film '' Distant Voices, Still Lives'' ...

OBE, a local parishioner in April 2000. Once the workplace of a local

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

and little more than the size of a shed, the shop stocks all the basics, with as much as possible sourced from local suppliers.

Notes

References

{{authority control Villages in Shropshire Civil parishes in Shropshire

History and amenities

See also

Notes

References