Blakeshall

Blakeshall

Blakeshall Farm
Blakeshall
Blakeshall shown within Worcestershire
OS grid reference SO832810
• London 111 miles (179 km)
Civil parish
  • Wolverley & Cookley
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town KIDDERMINSTER
Postcode district DY11
Dialling code 01562
Police West Mercia
Fire Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance West Midlands
EU Parliament West Midlands
UK Parliament

Blakeshall is a hamlet in Worcestershire, England. It is one of the ancient townships of the manor of Wolverley, whose extent was similar to that of the modern civil parish of Wolverley & Cookley.

Hancocks Village

Blakeshall Hall and the surrounding Blakeshall Estate were owned by William Hancocks, a local ironmaster, from around 1844. Hancocks laid out a 'Swiss' style village on the Estate near the hamlet of Drakelow. This village was home to around 50 families; Blakeshall Common School being built in 1855 to serve around 72 children from the village, the nearby rock houses and the local area. In the 1890s the school became a mission chapel for a non-denominational society. The mission left in 1898 but the building remained in used for occasional chapel and church purposes until the 1920s when the Hall and Estate were sold to the Grazebrook family. During the Second World War, the village site became part of the Drakelow Tunnels shadow factory, later developed during the Cold War as a fall-back government centre.[1] The old school building, the last evidence of the village, was demolished in the early 1980s.[2] As of 2018 the area remains in private ownership and is not accessible to the public.

Blakeshall Common

To the north of the old village, the former Blakeshall Common, although not within the ancient bounds of the manor of Kingsford, now forms part of Kingsford Forest Park.

References

  1. ↑ Stokes, Paul (1996). Drakelow Unearthed. BCS/Paul Stokes. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-904015-40-8.
  2. ↑ Stokes, Paul (1996). Drakelow Unearthed. BCS/Paul Stokes. p. 20. ISBN 0-904015-40-8.


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