Much Wenlock is a market town and
parish in
Shropshire,
England; it is situated on the
A458 road between
Shrewsbury and
Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the north-east, is the
Ironbridge Gorge and
Telford. The civil parish includes the villages of
Homer (1 mile (1.6 km) north of the town),
Wyke (2 miles (3.2 km) north-east),
Atterley (2 miles (3.2 km) south-east),
Stretton Westwood (2 miles (3.2 km) south-west) and
Bourton (3 miles (4.8 km) south-west). The population of the civil parish, according to the
2001 Census, was 2,605, increasing to 2,877 by
2011.
Much Wenlock is historically the chief town of the ancient borough of Wenlock. "Much" was added to distinguish it from the nearby
Little Wenlock and to show it is the larger of the two settlements. The name Wenlock probably comes from the Celtic name Wininicas, meaning "white area" (in reference to the limestone of Wenlock Edge), plus the Old English loca, meaning "enclosed place".[3] The town was recorded in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as Wenloch.[3]
History
Early history
Richard Fletcher mentions Much Wenlock as one of the possible locations where a
Sub-Roman British Christian community may have survived the Anglo-Saxon occupation and eventually integrated with the conquerors and influenced their culture.[4]
The town of Wenlock is known to have grown up around an abbey or
monastery founded around 680[5] by
Merewalh, a son of King
Penda of
Mercia, with the small town within its parish boundaries. King Penda installed his daughter
Milburga as abbess in 687. Milburga of Wenlock was credited with many miraculous works.[6] The abbey flourished until around 874 when it is thought that a
DanishViking attack occurred.[7]
The Domesday Book records the manor as 'Wenloch' and forming part of the
hundred of
Patton. It was already at this time a fairly large settlement, with 73 households. The abbey is also recorded in the book, separately.[3][8] In the 11th century another religious house was built on the same site by
Leofric, Earl of Mercia and Countess
Godiva his wife. In the 12th century this was replaced by a
Cluniac priory, established by
Roger de Montgomery after the
Norman Conquest, the ruins of which can still be seen and which is now in the care of
English Heritage.[9]
Early in the 12th century the hundred of Patton was merged with
Culvestan to form the hundred of
Munslow, but in 1198 Much Wenlock, together with the other manors held by Wenlock Priory, was transferred to the hundredal jurisdiction of the
Liberty of Wenlock (also known as Wenlock Franchise).[9]
In 1468
Edward IV granted the men of Much Wenlock a charter forming the
Borough of Wenlock, at the request of
Sir John Wenlock, and "in consideration of the laudable services which the men of the town performed in assisting the king to gain possession of the crown." The charter was confirmed in 1547 by
Henry VIII after Wenlock Priory was suppressed in the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. The charter was again confirmed in 1631 by
Charles I.[10]
Over the years the borough asserted jurisdiction over the liberty of Wenlock. The lands of the liberty included rural areas and a number of
detached parts well outside the town, and this resulted in an unusual, geographically dispersed borough.[11] At its height, it was – by area – the largest borough in England[12] outside London and encompassed several of the towns that now constitute
Telford. The borough had unusual boundaries, covering Much Wenlock itself, but also
Little Wenlock,
Broseley and
Ironbridge, a total area of 71 square miles (180 km2). In 1836 the borough was reformed as a
municipal borough under the
Municipal Corporations Act 1835, and lost some of its rural areas and detached parts. The borough was further reduced in size in 1889, and was finally abolished in 1966.[9]
Later history
11-year-old
Alice Glaston from
Little Wenlock was hanged together with two men in Much Wenlock on 13 April 1546, for an unknown crime.[13][14][15] She is the youngest known girl legally executed in
Great Britain, though 8- or 9-year-old
John Dean was hanged for
arson in 1629.[16]
In the 19th century the town and much of the surrounding land came into the possession of
James Milnes Gaskell, from his wife's family the Williams-Wynns. James was MP for Wenlock for many years. His son
Charles Milnes Gaskell restored the Priory lodging as a home with his wife Lady Catherine, daughter of the Earl of Portsmouth. There they entertained many famous people of the day, writers, politicians, artists and explorers, among them
Thomas Hardy,
Henry Adams,
Henry James,
Thomas Woolner,
Henry Morton Stanley,
Isabella Bird and
Philip Webb.[18]
Much Wenlock has become known as the birthplace of
Wenlock Olympian Games set up by
William Penny Brookes and his Wenlock Olympian Society (WOS) in 1850.[19] In 1861 he was also instrumental in setting up the Shropshire Olympian Games and later in 1866, the National Olympian Games. Dr Brookes is credited as a founding father of the
Modern Olympic Games. In 1890 it was the turn of the Raven Hotel to be the venue for the annual post Wenlock Olympian Games' dinner, and Baron
Pierre de Coubertin was the guest of honour. Copies of some of the WOS's archive images are on display in the hotel, including letters from Coubertin to Brookes.[20]The Wenlock Olympian Games, a nine-day event staged on eight sites across Shropshire, are still held annually during July, and are still organised by WOS. Much Wenlock's secondary school is named
William Brookes School after Dr Brookes.[21]
The London 2012 Summer Olympics mascot was named Wenlock[22] to honour Brookes, WOS and Much Wenlock. On 30 May 2012, the Olympic flame of the 2012 Summer Olympics, was carried through Much Wenlock to acknowledge the founding footsteps of Brookes.[23]
In 1983, actress
Gabrielle Drake and her husband purchased Much Wenlock Manor and restored the Priory lodging.[9]
Much Wenlock was the location for the third broadcast episode (the first filmed) of the first series of the
archaeology television programme Time Team in 1994.[26]
In 2019, Much Wenlock was featured by The Sunday Times as one of the best places to live in the UK.[27]
In May 2023 a site near the town was the location for the discovery, by
metal detectorist Richard Brock from
Somerset, of "Hiro's Nugget", the largest
gold nugget ever found in England. It is estimated to be worth over £30,000.[28][29]
Churches
Holy Trinity Church, in Wilmore Street, is the
Anglican parish church. The first church on this site was built in
Anglo-Saxon times. The present church dates from 1150 and was built by the
Cluniac monks from Wenlock Priory. Features of interest include the
plain Norman tower which had a spire until early in the 20th century, and a memorial inside the church to W. P. Brookes as well as the refurbished family gravestones in the churchyard. The churchyard is a large, open, green space with some tall trees. The
Shit Brook ran along the road towards the church before it was culverted. There is also a
Methodist church in King Street.[30]
St. Milburga's Well was supposed to cure eye diseases and the town was a destination popular for medieval pilgrims, coming to worship at St Milburga's Shrine.
The
Victorian era romantic painter and sculptor
Robert Bateman (1842–1922) lived near Much Wenlock, at the 16th century
Benthall Hall. In 1907
Walter Crane described his painting as "a magic world of romance and pictured poetry ... a twilight world of dark mysterious woodlands, haunted streams, meads of deep green starred with burning flowers, veiled in a dim and mystic light."
Novelist
Mary Webb (then Mary Meredith), lived in childhood at The Grange just outside the town, on the Church Stretton road, from 1882 to 1896.[33]
Based on study of railway journeys and times,
Michael Cobb argued in 1977 that Much Wenlock could have been a location setting for the fictional Shropshire town of Market Blandings in the writings of
P.G. Wodehouse.[34]
The
2012 Summer Olympics mascot,
Wenlock, is named after the town in honour of WP Brookes and his Wenlock Olympian Society.[35]
Much Wenlock was host to an annual Poetry Festival, held the week-end after Easter. Its patron was Dame
Carol Ann Duffy.
The annual Live Arts Festival held during March is a section of
Wenlock Olympian Games. There are competitions in music, creative writing and dance for young people aged 18 years and under.
Isobel Cooper (born Much Wenlock 1975), operatic pop soprano singer,[44] known professionally as Izzy.
Films
In 1950 the town and its surrounding countryside were the locations of the film
Gone to Earth by
Powell and Pressburger.[45] In 1985 the film was fully restored by the
National Film Archive, and premiered to great acclaim. The New Statesman review claimed the restored film to be... "One of the great British regional films" ...(and)... "one of the most beautiful films ever to be shot of the English countryside". The film was based on the 1917 novel of the same name by the Shropshire writer Mary Webb,[46] which was partly inspired by the Diary of
Francis Kilvert.
The
Arriva service 436 connects Much Wenlock with Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth with hourly services. A less frequent service links the town to Telford.
A Shropshire Hills Shuttle service at weekends and on
Bank Holidays during the spring and summer started in 2012, but ceased in 2013. The route, called the "Wenlock Wanderer", connected the town with
Church Stretton and operated mostly along the B4371 which runs atop the
Wenlock Edge, before turning off to
Acton Scott and then to
Marshbrook and the market town of Church Stretton.[53]
Rail
Much Wenlock used to be served by trains between
Wellington and Craven Arms. The
station became a terminus when through running southwards to Craven Arms ceased in 1951. The branch closed in 1962, just before
Dr Beeching published his report.[54]
The nearest active network railway stations are Shrewsbury and Wellington although Bridgnorth has a
heritage railway to
Kidderminster.
^
abcHanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia; Mills, A. D.; Room, Adrian (2002). The Oxford Names Companion. Oxford: the University Press. p. 1238.
ISBN0198605617.
^Fletcher, Richard (1997). The Conversion of Europe. London: HarperCollins. p. 172.
ISBN0-00-255203-5.
^Finberg, Early Charters of the West Midlands, 209, dates the earliest charter in the Testament as 675 × 90.
^See
H. P. R. Finberg, Early Charters of the West Midlands (1961), 197–216; A. J. M. Edwards, 'An early 12th century account of St. Milburga of Much Wenlock', T.S.A.S. lvii. 134–42. The publication of this new material relating to St Milburga involves a revision of the older accounts of the early history of Wenlock in Eyton, iii. 225 and Jnl. Brit. Arch. Assoc. 3rd ser. iv. 117.
^Dickins, Gordon (1987). An Illustrated Literary Guide to Shropshire. Shropshire Libraries. pp. 74, 104.
ISBN0-903802-37-6.
^Wodehouse, Pelham Grenville; appendices by Richard Usborne; ill. by Ionicus (1977). Sunset at Blandings. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 195.
ISBN0701122374.
^Holland, Julian (2013). Dr Beeching's axe : 50 years on : illustrated memories of Britain's lost railways. Newton Abbott: David & Charles. p. 82.
ISBN9781446302675.