Longnor, Shropshire

Longnor

The ford at the Old Forge, Longnor
Longnor
Longnor shown within Shropshire
Population 289 (2011)[1]
OS grid reference SJ485005
Civil parish
  • Longnor
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town SHREWSBURY
Postcode district SY5
Dialling code 01743
Police West Mercia
Fire Shropshire
Ambulance West Midlands
EU Parliament West Midlands
UK Parliament

Longnor is a village and civil parish off the A49 road, south of Dorrington and north of Leebotwood in Shropshire, England, with a population of 289. The nearest railway station is 4.7 miles (7.6 km) away at Church Stretton. The Cound Brook flows just to the west of the village and its medieval deer park. The village contains Longnor Hall and the Grade I listed medieval St Mary's Church. Regional Cycle Route 32/33 passes through, as do bus routes between Church Stretton and Shrewsbury and Radbrook Green. The village is also noted for a Shropshire ghost, the White Lady of Longnor.

Facilities

Education

Longnor CE Primary School is the village primary school.[2] In January 2011 it had 112 pupils aged between five and eleven.[3] There is also a pre-school in Longnor called Little Seekers.[4] The nearest secondary school is in Church Stretton.

Church

Longnor Church from the rear left corner
Longnor Church from the west

St. Mary's Church is a Grade 1 Listed Building building in the medieval Early English style. It has been continually and carefully conserved down the centuries. Two new stained glass windows were installed in 2000, to mark the turn of the millennium.

Originally a chapel for Condover, it became a private chapel for the Corbett family of Longnor Hall, before taking on the function of a parish church.[5]

Longnor was the birthplace of Samuel Lee (1783–1853), a linguist, Cambridge academic and Anglican cleric, whose translations from the Bible and other religious works into Arabic and other languages helped to launch the missionary activities of the Evangelical movement in the first half of the 19th century.[6]

Food and drink

The nearest restaurant is 1.7 miles (2.7 km) away in Leebotwood south-east of Longnor. The restaurant is called The Pound and serves British cuisine.[7] The nearest pub to Longnor is the Fox Inn, which is 1.7 miles northwards in Little Ryton.

Local government

Leebotwood & Longnor PC

Longnor is part of a joint parish council with the village of Leebotwood. In 2008, the electorate in the parish was 343 members, who vote on matters such as improving the quality of life of the two communities and looking after the environment. It influences and works alongside the principal authority Shropshire Council, Police, Highways Agency, PCT.[8]

Longnor Hall

Longnor Hall features a park and formal gardens, the park originated in the 14th Century. In the 17th century it was turned from being a park to having formal gardens laid out. It is now left with having the 18th Century park and modern gardens still in survival.[9] The current hall was built by Sir Richard Corbett in 1670 as successor for Roger Sprencheaux's fortified manor house from 1235.[10] The hall had some alterations done between 1838 and 1842 by the architect and builder Edward Haycock Sr.[11][12]

Photograph of Longnor Hall from 1891.

Corbet family

The Corbet family were the builders and original inhabitants of Longnor Hall. Originally built for Sir Richard Corbett in 1670 and finished in 1693 for his son, Uvedale Corbett, in 1694.[11] The name of Corbet arrived in Shropshire in the times of the Norman Conquest, when Hugh Corbet settled in the area. The name developed from Corbet, to Corbett, and the branch of the Corbett family living in Longnor dates from the 1500s. The last in this line was Jane Corbett who married archdeacon Joseph Plymley. However, he took on the name Corbett and it has continued, although many Corbets or Corbetts had moved away from Shropshire by the 19th century.[13]

Farming

Longnor is home to numerous different farms, five of which are, Micklewood Farm, Shrubbery Farm, Upper House Farm, The Farm and Green Farm.[14] These farms are the main economic force in the area, the majority of industry in the area has been in agriculture throughout history.[15] One farm is specialised in the milk industry, Green Farm, which in 2010 acquired a modern milking facility to boost production and profits.[16] The farm however is not just focused on dairy farming; it also produces mixed crops.

View of Green Farm, from the Roman Road

Natural features

Cound Brook

Cound Brook is a 25-mile-long (40 km) tributary of the River Severn, it runs from the All Stretton area, through Longnor, Condover and exits into the Severn near Cound. Longnor is situated in the middle section of Cound Brook. Having rainwater runoff from the Stretton Hills join it, the brook rapidly widens to a significant flow, passing to the east of Leebotwood and west of Longnor and the Medieval deer park there. Continuing to the east of Dorrington village, at Stapleton the Cound changes direction and heads eastwards. The flow of the Cound Brook can vary from a slow, sluggish flow in a dry summer to a raging torrent in winter or spring.[17]

The Cound Brook from Longnor Bridge

Medieval deer park

A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside,[18] thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving. There is a medieval deer park in Longnor.

Climate and environment

The temperate climate in the area of Longnor is typical for England and especially the area. This means there is less than average variation in climate between summer and winter. However, Longnor can be hit by extremes of weather, for example in April 2012, when snow warnings were issued for Shropshire.[19] The transitional temperature differentials between those for northern and southern England are accompanied by transitional rainfall levels between those for Wales and for eastern England.[20]

View of the countryside in the area of Longnor

History

In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Longnor like this:

Longnor, a village and a parish in Church-Stretton district, Salop. The village stands on the Cound Brook, near Watling-street, 1½ mile NNE of Leebotwood r. station, and 5 NNE of Church-Stretton; and is supposed to occupy the site of a Roman station. The parish comprises 1,200 acres; and its Post town is Leebotwood, under Shrewsbury. Real property, £3,656; of which £88 are in mines. Pop., 244. Houses, 48. The property is divided among a few. Longnor Hall is a chief residence. Coal is found, but is worked less now than formerly. The living is a vicarage annexed to the vicarage of Leebotwood, in the diocese of Lichfield. The church is ancient but good; and belonged formerly to Haughmond abbey. There are a national school, and charities £44. The Rev. Samuel Lee, late professor of Arabic at Cambridge, was a native. [21]

Shropshire ghost

The White Lady of Longnor is one of Shropshire's most famous ghosts. She appears clothed in her long white wedding dress. Her haunt is on or near the road bridge near the village, where she is thought to have thrown herself from the old bridge into the water below, after being deserted at the altar.

She is rumoured to stand staring at the water as it flows beneath her feet. There are various accounts of what she appears to do, one being that she drifts eerily through the parapet of the bridge and falls slowly into the stream, then fades away. Another claim is that she attends village dances and parties.[22]

Transport

Road

A49 shield

A49
Route information
Length 140 mi (230 km)
Road network
A49 Near North Lodge, to the North of Longnor

The A49, is the main road that passes by Longnor just to the West of the village. It heads from South to North traversing the Welsh Marches region from Hereford to Wigan. The road provides the main routes from Longnor into the surrounding towns and villages, especially into Shrewsbury and Church Stretton, with Church Stretton being where the nearest shops are to Longnor as it is the nearest town. The A49 is also the road which has the bus links for the people of Longnor, having the number 435 bus stopping just to the North of the village on the road.[23]

Cycling

Route 32/33 links the village with the National Cycle Network, which runs between Little Ryton and All Stretton as part of National Cycle Route 44.[24]

Trains

The nearest railway station to Longnor is 4.7 miles (7.6 km) away in Church Stretton on the Welsh Marches Line. The station is on the 435 bus route between Longnor and Shrewsbury. The nearest mainline station is in Shrewsbury, 7.7 miles (12.4 km) to the north.[25]

Buses

Longnor is served by bus routes numbered 435 and 540. Both start from Church Stretton, being the largest town nearby. The 435 takes in a number of different villages, including Longnor, on its way to Shrewsbury. The 540 runs to Radbrook Green, a suburb of Shrewsbury.[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Civil Parish population 2011". Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  2. ↑ OFSTED
  3. ↑ http://www.shropshire.gov.uk/schools.nsf/open/8DE172506F95493780256E910041791A
  4. ↑ http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/company/little-seekers-17895919.html
  5. ↑ http://www.achurchnearyou.com/longnor-st-mary/
  6. ↑ Nile Green: Terrains of Exchange. Religious Economies of Global Islam (London: C. Hurst & Co., 2014), pp. 59–64.
  7. ↑ http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g315989-d1379298-Reviews-The_Pound_at_Leebotwood-Church_Stretton_Shropshire_England.html
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
  9. ↑ http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,site/id,6300/Itemid,292/%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  10. ↑ http://www.melocki.org.uk/salop/Longnor.html
  11. 1 2 http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-259606-longnor-hall-longnor
  12. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  13. ↑ http://www.selectsurnames.com/corbett.html
  14. ↑ http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=349673&y=299863&z=106&sv=349673,299863&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=s.srf&dn=747&ax=349500&ay=300500&lm=0 Archived 9 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_theme_page.jsp?u_id=10362702&c_id=10001043&data_theme=T_IND
  16. ↑ http://www.fullwood.com/customers/content/76
  17. ↑ Archived 2 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ↑ Rackham, Oliver (1976). Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. p. 150. ISBN 0 460 04183 5.
  19. ↑ http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2012/04/11/weather-more-snow-on-the-way-to-shropshire/
  20. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 2012-04-19.
  21. ↑ Southall, H. "Longnor History". Vision of Britain.
  22. ↑ http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2011/10/31/shropshire-%E2%80%93-a-haunted-haven/
  23. ↑ http://shropshire.gov.uk/bustimes/stop.jsc?stop=3500B143701
  24. ↑ http://www.servinghistory.com/topics/National_Cycle_Route_44::sub::Regional_Route_32_33
  25. 1 2 National Rail. "Longnor Buses". Archived from the original on 30 April 2011.
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