Blithbury

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Blithbury
The Bull and Spectacles, Blithbury.jpg
The Bull and Spectacles
Staffordshire UK location map.svg
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Blithbury
Blithbury shown within Staffordshire
OS grid reference SK083201
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town RUGELEY
Postcode district WS15
Dialling code 01889
Police Staffordshire
Fire Staffordshire
Ambulance West Midlands
EU Parliament West Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Staffordshire
52°46′40″N1°52′40″W / 52.777778°N 1.877778°W / 52.777778; -1.877778 Coordinates: 52°46′40″N1°52′40″W / 52.777778°N 1.877778°W / 52.777778; -1.877778

Blithbury is a small village in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. Part of the civil parish of Mavesyn Ridware, it lies near the River Blithe, about 3 miles (5 km) north of Handsacre, 3 miles north-east of Rugeley, and 3 miles south of Abbots Bromley.

Staffordshire County of England

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It borders with Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west.

Civil parish territorial designation and lowest tier of local government in England, UK

In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government, they are a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of ecclesiastical parishes which historically played a role in both civil and ecclesiastical administration; civil and religious parishes were formally split into two types in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. The unit was devised and rolled out across England in the 1860s.

Mavesyn Ridware village in the United Kingdom

Mavesyn Ridware is a small village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Hill Ridware, Rake End, Pipe Ridware and Blithbury, all of which lie between the River Trent and a small tributary, the River Blithe. Adjacent to the east is the parish of Hamstall Ridware; to the south is the much larger village of Armitage.

The public house bears the name The Bull and Spectacles. In the 19th century it had the more common name of Bull's Head. [1]

In the first half of the 12th century religious houses for monks and nuns were founded at Blithbury. Within a few decades only the nuns are mentioned. The order was associated with the nuns of Black Ladies Priory, Brewood, and was eventually absorbed by them, so that there is no mention of the nuns of Blithbury after the early 14th century. [1] [2]

Black Ladies Priory

Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.

Brewood village in United Kingdom

Brewood refers both to a settlement, which was once a town but is now a village, in South Staffordshire, England, and to the civil parish of which it is the centre. Located around grid reference SJ883088, Brewood village lies near the River Penk, eight miles north of Wolverhampton city centre and eleven miles south of the county town of Stafford. Some three miles to the west of Brewood is the border with the county of Shropshire.

According to Douglas Adams' 1983 humorous dictionary "The Meaning of Liff", a Blithbury is "A look someone gives you by which you become aware that they're much too drunk to have understood anything you've said to them in the last twenty minutes".

Douglas Adams British author and humorist

Douglas Noel Adams was an English author, scriptwriter, essayist, humorist, satirist and dramatist.

<i>The Meaning of Liff</i> humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology

The Meaning of Liff is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983 and the United States in 1984.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Blithbury". Ridware History Society. 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2009.
  2. "Houses of Benedictine nuns the priory of Blithbury". British History Online. 2009. Retrieved 29 September 2009.

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