| Cleeton St Mary | |
|---|---|
 The village with the church and former schoolhouse, both Victorian | |
  Cleeton St Mary Location within Shropshire | |
| OS grid reference | SO610786 |
| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | KIDDERMINSTER |
| Postcode district | DY14 |
| Dialling code | 01584 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Shropshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Cleeton St Mary (or Cleeton) is a small village in south Shropshire, England.
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.
It lies on the northeast slope of Titterstone Clee Hill, at an elevation of 316 metres (1,037 ft) above sea level. Cleeton forms part of the civil parish of Bitterley, even though the parish largely exists on the other side of Titterstone Clee, and Cleeton is effectively detached (by road). Cleeton St Mary is a parish ward. Large areas of common land remain around the village; the countryside here is largely pasture (for grazing of sheep and horses), woodland and moorland. [1]
Titterstone Clee Hill, sometimes referred to as Titterstone Clee or, incorrectly, Clee Hill, is a prominent hill in the rural English county of Shropshire, rising at the summit to 533 metres (1,749 ft) above sea level.
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface . The term elevation is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an aircraft in flight or a spacecraft in orbit, and depth is used for points below the surface.
Bitterley is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 802, increasing to 902 at the 2011 Census. The village is about 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Ludlow on the western slopes of Titterstone Clee Hill. Bitterley is the location for Bitterley Court about 0.62 miles (1.00 km) east of the modern village. Nearby to the east, is the small hamlet of Bedlam.
The church of Saint Mary (Church of England) is situated here but is relatively new, being built in the second half of the 19th century (along with the schoolhouse). [2]
A church building or church house, often simply called a church, is a building used for Christian religious activities, particularly for Christian worship services. The term is often used by Christians to refer to the physical buildings where they worship, but it is sometimes used to refer to buildings of other religions. In traditional Christian architecture, a church interior is often structured in the shape of a Christian cross. When viewed from plan view the vertical beam of the cross is represented by the center aisle and seating while the horizontal beam and junction of the cross is formed by the bema and altar.
The Church of England is the established church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the most senior cleric, although the monarch is the supreme governor. The Church of England is also the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain by the third century, and to the 6th-century Gregorian mission to Kent led by Augustine of Canterbury.
Cleeton is mentioned in the Cadfael novel The Virgin in the Ice which is set in 1139.
The Cadfael Chronicles is a series of historical murder mysteries written by the linguist-scholar Edith Pargeter (1913–1995) under the name "Ellis Peters".
The Virgin in the Ice is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters, set in late 1139. It is the sixth novel in The Cadfael Chronicles, first published in 1982.
