West Felton

West Felton
St Michael's Church, West Felton
West Felton Location within Shropshire
Population	1,475 (2011)
OS grid reference	SJ345256
Civil parish	West Felton
Unitary authority	Shropshire
Ceremonial county	Shropshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	OSWESTRY
Postcode district	SY11
Dialling code	01691
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Shropshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
UK Parliament	North Shropshire
List of places UK England Shropshire 52°49′26″N2°58′16″W / 52.824°N 2.971°W / 52.824; -2.971

West Felton is a village and civil parish near Oswestry in Shropshire, England. At the 2001 census the parish, which also includes the settlements of Rednal, Grimpo and Haughton, had a population of 1,380, ^[1] increasing to 1,475 at the 2011 Census. ^[2]

History

The village originally grew around a Norman castle, whose motte lies next to the church. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Feltone, and as "Felton by le Knokyn" in 1303. ^[3] The name Felton probably represents a combination of Old English feld, "open land", and tun, "settlement". ^[3]

The old ecclesiastical parish of West Felton contained the townships of West Felton, Sutton, Rednal, Haughton, Tedsmore (the latter five originally part of the eleven townships forming the mediaeval manor of neighbouring Ruyton-XI-Towns), Woolston (now in Oswestry Rural), Sandford and Twyford. The modern civil parish has similar, though not identical, boundaries.

The parish church, which has a 12th-century nave, ^[4] is dedicated to St Michael, and has a chapel of ease at Haughton.

Notable people

• The ornithologist and poet John Freeman Milward Dovaston was born in Twyford in 1782. ^[5]

• Nonconformist historian and lawyer Sir John Bickerton Williams was born at Sandford Hall in 1792. ^[6]

• Benjamin Hall Kennedy, previously Headmaster of Shrewsbury School, was Rector of West Felton from 1866 to 1868. ^[7]

• Boer War Victoria Cross recipient General Sir Walter Congreve had his home at West Felton Grange from 1903 to 1924. His son William was killed in the First World War and (posthumously) received the Victoria Cross, too. Their military service in the latter war is recorded in one of the Rolls of Honour books at St Michael's Church. The former gave land to the Church of England for the erection of a community facility called the Haslehurst Institute. ^[8]

• Boris Johnson married at St Michael's Church to Allegra Mostyn-Owen on 5 September 1987, with their wedding reception held at her nearby family country home of Woodhouse. They divorced in 1993, whereafter Boris Johnson remarried. ^{[9] [10]} Allegra's father, William Mostyn-Owen, who owned the Woodhouse estate from inheriting it in 1947 until his death in 2011, was an art historian. ^[11]

See also

• Listed buildings in West Felton

References

1. West Felton CP, Office for National Statistics
2. "Civil Parish population 2011" . Retrieved 26 November 2015.
3. Gelling, M. The Place-names of Shropshire: Vol I, the Major Names of Shropshire, English Place-Name Society, 1990, p.307
4. Pevsner and Newman, Shropshire, Buildings of England Series, p.682
5. "Dovaston, John Freeman Milward (1782–1854), naturalist and poet". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7946.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
6.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Fletcher, W. G. D. (1900). "Williams, John Bickerton". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 61. pp. 431–432.
7. "Kennedy, Benjamin Hall (KNDY822BH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
8. Francis, Peter (2013). Shropshire War Memorials, Sites of Remembrance. YouCaxton Publications. pp. 166–168. ISBN   978-1-909644-11-3.
9. Gimson, Andrew (2012). Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson. Simon & Schuster. pp. 85–86.
10. Purnell, Sonia (2011). Just Boris: Boris Johnson - The Irresistible Rise of a Political Celebrity. Aurora Press, London. pp.  92–94. ISBN   978-1-84513-665-9.
11. Burton, Humphrey. "William Mostyn-Owen obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 September 2016.

External links

• Histories & Photographs of West Felton