West Felton

West Felton is a village and civil parish 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]

West Felton

St Michael's Church, West Felton
West Felton
Location within Shropshire
Population1,475 (2011)
OS grid referenceSJ345256
Civil parish
  • West Felton
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townOSWESTRY
Postcode districtSY11
Dialling code01691
PoliceWest Mercia
FireShropshire
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament

The village originally grew around a Norman castle, whose motte lies next to the church. It was recorded in the Domesday Book 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, Rednall, Haughton, Tedsmore, 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.[5]

Benjamin Hall Kennedy was Rector of West Felton from 1866 to 1868.[6]

Boer War VC 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.[7]

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.[8][9]

See also

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. "Kennedy, Benjamin Hall (KNDY822BH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. Francis, Peter (2013). Shropshire War Memorials, Sites of Remembrance. YouCaxton Publications. pp. 166–168. ISBN 978-1-909644-11-3.
  8. Gimson, Andrew (2012). Boris: The Rise of Boris Johnson. Simon & Schuster. pp. 85–86.
  9. Purnell, Sonia (2011). Just Boris: Boris Johnson - The Irresistible Rise of a Political Celebrity. Aurora Press, London. pp. 92–94. ISBN 1-84513-665-9.



This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.