Weald Moors

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Weald Moors
  • Wildmoors
The River Strine - geograph.org.uk - 999405.jpg
The River Strine, here south of Cherrington, drains part of the Weald Moors.
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Weald Moors
Location within Shropshire
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
EU Parliament West Midlands
List of places
UK
England
Shropshire
52°45′04″N2°28′01″W / 52.751°N 2.467°W / 52.751; -2.467 Coordinates: 52°45′04″N2°28′01″W / 52.751°N 2.467°W / 52.751; -2.467

The Weald Moors are located in the ceremonial county of Shropshire north of Telford, stretching from north and west of the town of Newport towards Wellington, with the village of Kynnersley lying roughly at their centre.

Shropshire County of England

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands of 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.

Telford town in England, United Kingdom

Telford is a large new town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about 13 miles (21 km) east of Shrewsbury, and 30 miles (48 km) north west of Birmingham. With an estimated population of 175,271 in 2017 and around 155,000 in Telford itself, Telford is the largest town in Shropshire, and one of the fastest-growing towns in the United Kingdom.

Newport, Shropshire market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England

Newport is a market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies some 6 miles north of Telford and some 12 mi (19 km) west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire/Staffordshire border. The 2001 census recorded 10,814 people living in the town's parish, making it the second-largest town in Telford and Wrekin and the fifth-largest in the ceremonial county of Shropshire. By the 2011 census, the population had risen to 11,387.

Contents

Etymology

Although the Weald Moors are now largely agricultural land, they were among the last parts of the area to come into cultivation. The word weald (which elsewhere means open uplands or waste) in this context means "wild" or uncultivated: the "wild moors". [1] A moor, in Shropshire usage, was a marsh. The spelling "Wildmore" or "Wyldemore" appears in documents from 1300 to 1586, [2] and "Wildmoor" until well into the 19th century.

Marsh A wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species

A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. They are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs. This form of vegetation is what differentiates marshes from other types of wetland such as swamps, which are dominated by trees, and mires, which are wetlands that have accumulated deposits of acidic peat.

History

The historic marsh or fenland character of the Weald Moors was formed after the last Ice Age, when the area was part of the glacial Lake Newport, connected to the larger Lake Lapworth. An underlying accumulation of peat led to the development of a large basin mire with waterlogged land: by the mediaeval period larger settlements had only developed on its edges, [3] although an Iron Age marsh fort at Wall Camp is evidence that the defensible nature of the marshland was exploited by early inhabitants.

Fen type of wetland

A fen is one of the main types of wetland, the others being grassy marshes, forested swamps, and peaty bogs. Along with bogs, fens are a kind of mire. Fens are minerotrophic peatlands, usually fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. They are characterised by their distinct water chemistry, which is pH neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients. They are usually dominated by grasses and sedges, and typically have brown mosses in general including Scorpidium or Drepanocladus. Fens frequently have a high diversity of other plant species including carnivorous plants such as Pinguicula. They may also occur along large lakes and rivers where seasonal changes in water level maintain wet soils with few woody plants. The distribution of individual species of fen plants is often closely connected to water regimes and nutrient concentrations.

Lake Lapworth existed in England in the Ice Age when ice from Wales and the north blocked the outlet of the River Severn near the site of Chester. The Severn backed up, forming Lake Lapworth, until it overflowed southwards and cut the Ironbridge Gorge, permanently diverting part of the Severn drainage into the Lower Severn. It was named by Leonard Johnston Wills for Charles Lapworth, who first suggested its existence in 1898. F.W. Harmer (1835-1923) also put forward a similar, independent, theory in 1907, based on observations of glacial lake sediments on the Shropshire Plain.

Peat accumulation of partially decayed vegetation

Peat, also known as turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet, because peatland plants capture CO2 naturally released from the peat, maintaining an equilibrium. In natural peatlands, the "annual rate of biomass production is greater than the rate of decomposition", but it takes "thousands of years for peatlands to develop the deposits of 1.5 to 2.3 m [4.9 to 7.5 ft], which is the average depth of the boreal [northern] peatlands". Sphagnum moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most common components in peat, although many other plants can contribute. The biological features of Sphagnum mosses act to create a habitat aiding peat formation, a phenomenon termed 'habitat manipulation'. Soils consisting primarily of peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding or stagnant water obstructs the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing the rate of decomposition.

Under the mediaeval manorial system most of the area became classified as uncultivated "waste". Part of the Weald Moor, together with the Wrekin, seems to have for a time formed a royal forest known as Vasta Regalis, with Sir Humphrey de Eyton recorded as forest Warden in 1390; the old name was still remembered in a tract of land called "The Gales" as late as the 19th century. [4]

Manorialism economic and judicial Institution

Manorialism was an essential element of feudal society. It was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the Roman villa system of the Late Roman Empire, and was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe as well as China. It was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian contract.

Royal forest area of land with different meanings in England, Wales and Scotland

A royal forest, occasionally "Kingswood", is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, and Scotland. The term forest in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the original medieval sense was closer to the modern idea of a "preserve" – i.e. land legally set aside for specific purposes such as royal hunting – with less emphasis on its composition. There are also differing and contextual interpretations in Continental Europe derived from the Carolingian and Merovingian legal systems.

A drainage ditch on Eyton Moor, draining into the Hurley Brook. A drain on Eyton Moor (geograph 5031767).jpg
A drainage ditch on Eyton Moor, draining into the Hurley Brook.

Between the mid 16th and mid 17th centuries, there were a series of lawsuits as attempts were made to drain and enclose sections of the moor, leading to disputes over parish and township boundaries. [5] For example, in 1583 Thomas Cherrington took a neighbouring landowner, Thurston Woodcock, to court alleging that Woodcock had employed "diverse desperate and lewd persons" to dig a drainage ditch across land claimed by Cherrington. Woodcock responded by arguing that the land was waste, and part of Meeson Moor. [6] A good deal of land on the western side of the area was drained and enclosed by Sir Walter Leveson of Lilleshall, proprietor of the manor of Wrockwardine, in the late 16th century, and by the 1650s around 2700 acres of wetland had already been drained and enclosed. [7] Peat digging was carried out on parts of the Moors, and the inhabitants of villages on the edge of the area, such as Wrockwardine, used some areas as summer pasture under historic rights of common. Wrockwardine's uniquely extensive common rights over the southern and western Weald Moors may have originated in its status as an 11th-century royal manor and administrative centre. [8] By the 17th century the village was linked to the moors by a road whose verges had been enclosed for squatter's cottages, forming a separate settlement known as Long Lane. [9]

Sir Walter Leveson was an Elizabethan Member of Parliament and a Shropshire and Staffordshire landowner who was ruined by involvement in piracy and mental illness.

Lilleshall village in United Kingdom

Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England.

Wrockwardine village in the United Kingdom

Wrockwardine is a village and civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies north of The Wrekin and the M54/A5, and west of Wellington.

A late 17th century parson of Kinnardsey (Kynnersley), the Rev. George Plaxton, wrote an account of the Weald Moors in 1673 in which he described much of it as still an impassable bog, and suggested that the entire area had until recently been a marsh other than those hamlets having the Anglo-Saxon word ey ("island") in their names. [10] Plaxton was informed by elderly residents of the parish that the Moors had formerly been so overgrown with willow, alder and other marshland trees that they had customarily hung bells around the necks of their cattle to prevent losing them. [11]

Kynnersley village in the United Kingdom

Kynnersley is a village in Shropshire, England.

Cowbell agricultural tool

A cow bell or cowbell is a bell worn by freely roaming animals made to scare off any predators. Although they are typically referred to as "cow bells" due to their extensive use with cattle, the bells are used on a wide variety of animals.

In 1801 an Enclosure act, the "Wildmoors Inclosure Act", was passed, enabling local landowners (principally the Leveson-Gower family) to begin further drainage works. At this time the remaining marshland covered around 1200 acres, with a further 600 acres of adjoining land left uncultivated: the majority was used as summer grazing by tenant farmers and in the winter was flooded and impassable. [12] The works involved widening, straightening and embanking the existing strines, or brooks, and reversing the course of the old Preston Strine to eliminate seasonal flooding. [13] Although as a result during the course of the early 19th century most of the area was reclaimed as farmland, some of the land remained suitable only as sheep pasture, being too boggy to bear cattle or grow other crops. Settlements remained small and scattered, and even now, the villages on the Moors are relatively small and isolated, although the northern suburbs of Telford are encroaching onto the area. The Weald Moors are still referenced in the names of the villages Eyton upon the Weald Moors and Preston upon the Weald Moors.

The Birch Moors, near the hamlet of Adeney. Track on the Birch Moors (geograph 3094761).jpg
The Birch Moors, near the hamlet of Adeney.

Some parts of the moors are known by local names, such as the Tibberton and Cherrington Moors near the villages of the same name. Others are the Birch Moors around Adeney, the Rough or Preston Moors north of Preston, the Dayhouse Moor near Rodway, the Longford Moor west of Edgmond, and the Sleap Moor east of Crudgington.

The Shrewsbury Canal (a branch of the Shropshire Union Canal) was constructed across the area, but is today derelict.

Wildlife

The farmland of the Weald Moors is a habitat for many birds which have now become rare elsewhere, such as the Barn Owl and Lapwing. In recent years there has been some reflooding and restoration of fenland habitat in the area of Kynnersley. [6]

Related Research Articles

The Fens Natural region in United Kingdom

The Fens, also known as the Fenlands, are a coastal plain in eastern England. This natural marshy region supported a rich ecology and numerous species, as well as absorbing storms. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes must be built higher to protect it from flooding.

Donnington, Telford village in Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, United Kingdom

Donnington is located in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. The population of Donnington Ward within the mentioned borough was 6,883 at the 2011 Census. Aside from the rest of urban Telford, which is to the southwest, Donnington is surrounded by fields and countryside.

River Perry, Shropshire river in Shropshire, United Kingdom

The River Perry is a river in Shropshire, England. It rises near Oswestry and flows south to meet the River Severn above Shrewsbury. Along its 24 miles (39 km) length, its level drops by some 320 feet (95 m). The channel has been heavily engineered, both to enable water mills to be powered by it, and to improve the drainage of the surrounding land. There were at least seven corn mills in the 1880s, and the last one remained operational until 1966. The middle section of the river crosses Baggy Moor, where major improvements were made in 1777 to drain the moor. The scheme was one of the largest to enclose and improve land in North Shropshire, and the quality of the reclaimed land justified the high cost. A section of the river bed was lowered in the 1980s, to continue the process.

Shrewsbury Canal

The Shrewsbury Canal was a canal in Shropshire, England. Authorised in 1793, the main line from Trench to Shrewsbury was fully open by 1797, but it remained isolated from the rest of the canal network until 1835, when the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal built the Newport Branch from Norbury Junction to a new junction with the Shrewsbury Canal at Wappenshall. After ownership passed to a series of railway companies, the canal was officially abandoned in 1944; many sections have disappeared, though some bridges and other structures can still be found. There is an active campaign to preserve the remnants of the canal and to restore the Norbury to Shrewsbury line to navigation.

Trench is a suburb of the new town of Telford in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, on the north side of the town, north of Oakengates.

Tibberton and Cherrington

Tibberton and Cherrington is a parish in the Telford and Wrekin borough of Shropshire, England.

Leighton and Eaton Constantine

Leighton and Eaton Constantine is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It consists of the village of Leighton, together with the smaller villages or hamlets of Eaton Constantine, Upper Longwood and Garmston.

Lower Marsh street in Waterloo, London, UK

Lower Marsh is a street in the Waterloo neighbourhood of London, England. It is adjacent to Waterloo railway station in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is the location of Lower Marsh Market.

Lilleshall Abbey human settlement in United Kingdom

Lilleshall Abbey was an Augustinian abbey in Shropshire, England, today located 6 miles north of Telford. It was founded between 1145 and 1148 and followed the austere customs and observance of the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France. It suffered from chronic financial difficulties and narrowly escaped the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries in 1536, before going into voluntary dissolution in 1538.

Preston upon the Weald Moors village in United Kingdom

Preston upon the Weald Moors is a small village on the northern edge of the town of Telford, part of the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire. According to the 2001 census the village had a population of 205 although this is likely to have risen due to various building conversions over the proceeding ten years. The population was measured at 224 in the 2011 census. It is one of a number of villages that exist on the Weald Moors of Shropshire.

St Peters Church, Edgmond Church in Shropshire, England

St. Peter's Church is in the village of Edgmond, Shropshire, England. The church is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Edgmond and Shifnal, the archdeaconry of Salop, and the diocese of Lichfield. Its benefice is united with those of St Chad, Kynnersley, and St Lawrence, Preston upon the Weald Moors. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.

Wombridge Priory was a small Augustinian monastery in Shropshire. Established in the early 12th century, it was supported by a network of minor nobility and was never a large community. Despite generally good financial management, it fell within the scope of the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 and was dissolved in the following year.

There are a number of listed buildings in Shropshire. The term "listed building", in the United Kingdom, refers to a building or structure designated as being of special architectural, historical, or cultural significance. Details of all the listed buildings are contained in the National Heritage List for England. They are categorised in three grades: Grade I consists of buildings of outstanding architectural or historical interest, Grade II* includes significant buildings of more than local interest and Grade II consists of buildings of special architectural or historical interest. Buildings in England are listed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on recommendations provided by English Heritage, which also determines the grading.

River Strine

The River Strine is a 3.4-mile-long (5.4 km) tributary of the River Tern flowing through the Telford and Wrekin district of Shropshire in England. The river drains the Weald Moors a fenland area north of Telford, and also takes runoff from Newport and Lilleshall. Tributaries of the Strine include the Pipe Strine, Red Strine, and Wall Brook.

References

  1. Cameron, K. English place names Taylor & Francis, pp.104-105
  2. Shropshire Notes and Queries, v.6-8 (1897), 59
  3. Darby and Terrett, The Domesday Geography of Midland England, Cambridge UP, 2009, pp.156-157
  4. Houghton, Rev. W. The Wealdmoors, 1875, 4
  5. Winchester, A. Discovering parish boundaries, Osprey, 2002, p.44
  6. 1 2 Along the Moors, Discovering Wellington Project, retrieved 07-07-16
  7. Rotherham, Cultural severance and the environment, 2013
  8. Page, A History of Shropshire, v11, 1985, p.314
  9. Trinder and Cox, Yeomen and Colliers in Telford, 1980, p.13
  10. R. I. Murchison, The Silurian system, Murray 1839, pp.559
  11. Memoirs of the Royal Society, Or a New Abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions from 1665 to 1740, v.5, 1745, p.57
  12. Loch, J. An account of the improvements on the estates of the marquess of Stafford in the counties of Stafford and Salop, and on the estate of Sutherland, 1820, p.221
  13. Loch, p. 224