| Beckjay | |
|---|---|
 Cottages in the hamlet of Beckjay | |
  Beckjay Location within Shropshire | |
| OS grid reference | SO392775 |
| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | CRAVEN ARMS |
| Postcode district | SY7 |
| Dialling code | 01547 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Shropshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Beckjay is a hamlet in the south of the English county of Shropshire.
A hamlet is a small human settlement. In different jurisdictions and geographies, hamlets may be the size of a town, village or parish, be considered a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. The word and concept of a hamlet have roots in the Anglo-Norman settlement of England, where the old French hamlet came to apply to small human settlements. In British geography, a hamlet is considered smaller than a village and distinctly without a church or other place of worship.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
Shropshire is a county in England, bordering Wales to the west, Cheshire to the north, Staffordshire to the east, and Worcestershire and Herefordshire to the south. Shropshire Council was created in 2009, a unitary authority taking over from the previous county council and five district councils. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a separate unitary authority since 1998 but continues to be included in the ceremonial county.
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Its name, and that of the nearby hamlet of Jay (about 1 1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) south), is probably a reference to the family of Elias de Jay, who held the local manor of Bedston until 1349. [1] A relative of this family, Brian de Jay, was the last recorded master of the English Knights Templar.
Jay is a hamlet in north Herefordshire, England.
Bedstone is a small village and civil parish in south Shropshire, England, close to the border with Herefordshire.
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar or simply the Templars, were a Catholic military order founded in 1119 and recognised in 1139 by the papal bull Omne datum optimum. The order was active until 1312 when it was perpetually suppressed by Pope Clement V by the bull Vox in excelso.
Forming part of the civil parish of Clungunford, Beckjay is close to the border with Herefordshire on the west bank of the River Clun. It was a medieval township. [2] Nearby are the hamlets of Hopton Heath, which has a railway station on the Heart of Wales Line, and Broadward with its 18th-century hall.
Clungunford is a village and civil parish in south Shropshire, England, located near the border with Herefordshire.
Herefordshire is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It borders Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west.
The River Clun is a river mostly in Shropshire, England which runs through the small town of Clun, as well as through or near a number of other villages situated along its valley. It discharges into the River Teme at Leintwardine, Herefordshire. The Clun Valley is very rural and is part of the Shropshire Hills AONB.
There is a Royal Mail post box in the hamlet. [3] The settlement also features a house with a thatched-roof. A duck pond exists just to the south of the settlement, downhill from it.
The Royal Mail is a postal service and courier company in the United Kingdom, originally established in 1516. The company's subsidiary, Royal Mail Group Limited, operates the brands Royal Mail (letters) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). General Logistics Systems, an international logistics company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group. For a brief period in the early 2000s, the group used the name Consignia before reverting to its original name.
A post box, also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail intended for collection by the agents of a country's postal service. The term post box can also refer to a private letter box for incoming mail.
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed—trapping air—thatching also functions as insulation. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost local vegetation. By contrast, in some developed countries it is the choice of some affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home, would like a more ecologically friendly roof, or who have purchased an originally thatched abode.
The former Beckjay Mill (situated to the northeast of the hamlet, on the Clun) was the subject of several paintings by David Cox. [4]
David Cox was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.
