LRA Website text
Welcome to the website of the Lilleshall Residents Association. On this website you will
find information on both the work of the Residents Association and on the village of
Lilleshall, past and present.
Pages
The Lilleshall Residents Association
(sub pages - The work of the Residents Association, Minutes of Meetings, The Constitution,
Past Projects ?)
Lilleshall Today
Lilleshall Monument
Local Clubs and Societies
Current Events
History of the Village
Limestone Mining in Lilleshall
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Contact us Form
Date/Time ?
Weather link ?
Website Disclaimer
The information on this website is given in good faith, but details cannot be guaranteed and cannot
be relied upon for any particular purpose. This especially applies to events where details should be
checked with the event organiser. Lilleshall Residents Association can accept no liability for financial
loss. The fact that the name of business sponsors may appear on this website does not operate as
any endorsement of their products or services. All photographs appearing on this website are
copyright of the photographer.
Lilleshall Residents Association
The Lilleshall Residents Association consists of a group of local residents who have a
common interest in maintaining and improving the village environment for the benefit of all.
The Association is a non-political organisation. On matters of local politics the village is part
of the parish of Lilleshall and Donnington, affiliated to the Borough of Telford & Wrekin and
represented by three local councillors. For more information and for councillor contact
details visit http://www.ldpc.org/
The Association meet approximately once every two months and is always keen to welcome
new members. The Residents’ Association works to maintain and improve the quality of life
in the village for the benefit of residents and visitors alike
Recent projects include:Litter picking
Support for Memorial Hall Committee fundraising dinner/dance
Cleaning of inscription on Lilleshall Monument
Donation to First Responders
Bulb Planting
Village Signs
Cleaning of Monument inscription
Lilleshall Today
The village is dominated by Lilleshall Hill. Although not particularly high, the relatively level
expanse of the North Shropshire Plain lying to the north of the village provides extensive
views from the bare top.
The top of the Hill comprises bare rock rising some 190 feet (60 metres) or so above the
surrounding fields. The view from the top of Lilleshall Hill is one of the most extensive in
Shropshire relative to the walking effort required, and is well worth a visit.
Indeed the bare top of the Hill is one of its most important features. Although trees cover
the lower slopes, the walker is fortunate that the bare top of the Hill provides unimpeded
views to Grinshill, Hawkstone Ridge and further to the north the Welsh hills around
Wrexham. To the west the Wrekin, Telford, Haughmond Hill (Shrewsbury) and the Welsh
mountains, with the Berwens and the Oswestry range to the north west.
To the north east views extend towards Mow Cop and Stoke on Trent and to the south east
Cannock Chase and beyond.
To the south can be seen Lilleshall Hall and beyond that the
slightly higher ridge of Heath Hill obscures views of Wolverhampton some 18 miles distant.
To the south west can just be seen the Clee Hills and Stiperstones.
On top of the Hill there is a Monument some 60 feet tall erected in memory of George
Granville Leveson Gower, the first Duke of Sutherland in 1839.
Lilleshall Hill, Lilleshall Hall,
Lilleshall Abbey ruins and most of the tenanted farms and houses in the village of Lilleshall
were sold by the Duke of Sutherland at an Auction Sale in 1917.
Lilleshall is a rural village with a population of 967 (December 2002) situated in the east of
the county of Shropshire, just off the A518 Newport-Telford road. The western edge of the
village is about half a mile from the boundary of Telford and the eastern edge about two
miles from Newport. Today the village population mostly consists of commuters and the
retired. The largest employment area is nearby Telford, but some travel to Shrewsbury,
Stafford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and beyond.
Lilleshall is unusual locally in that it is a “ribbon” type of development, not concentrated
around a village centre, but rather extending up, over and along the side of Lilleshall Hill.
Central to the village is the parish church dedicated to St Michael, the village hall, the youth
centre, the cricket club and the village school. The school is an important feature of the
village; about half of the children come from the village and the other half travel the short
distance from Muxton, the residential area of Telford nearest to the village. The numbers
from Muxton help to keep the school up to full occupancy for single class intake.
There is an extensive number of active Clubs and Societies particularly when considering the
relatively small population of the village.
For more details see the page relating to Clubs
and Societies.
The rural nature of the village, it’s close proximity of the market town of Newport and the
larger centre of Telford, easy access to the M54 to the south, a respected village school, the
location within the primary catchment area for the girls High School and boys Grammar
Schools in Newport all contribute to making Lilleshall a very popular residential area. A
relatively large portion of village residents have lived in the village for many years.
Lilleshall Church
There is a thriving Church of England church. (For more details of the church building and
the history of the church, please see the history section of this site). For more details of the
church and services see
http://lilleshall.2day.ws/lilleshall/section/ServicesatStMichaelAllAngels/
.
Lilleshall Monument
Central to the village and dominating the skyline of the Hill is Lilleshall monument. This
structure was erected by the tenants of the village in memory of their landlord George
Leveson Gower, First Duke of Sutherland and completed in 1833. At that time most of the
houses and farms in the village were tenanted and remained so until a major sale in 1917
when most properties were bought by their tenants.
The inscription on the Monument reads
TO THE MEMORY OF
GEORGE GRANVILLE LEVESON GOWER K.G.
FIRST DUKE OF SUTHERLAND
THE MOST JUST AND GENEROUS OF LANDLORDS
THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED
THE OCCUPIERS OF HIS GRACES SHROPSHIRE FARMS
AS A PUBLIC TESTIMONY THAT HE WENT DOWN TO HIS GRAVE
WITH THE BLESSINGS OF HIS TENANTS ON HIS HEAD
AND LEFT BEHIND HIM UPON HIS ESTATES
THE BEST INHERITANCE WHICH A GENTLEMAN OF ENGLAND
CAN BEQUEATH TO HIS SON
MEN READY TO STAND BY HIS HOUSE HEART AND HAND
1833
Local Clubs and Societies and Businesses
There are a number of clubs and societies thriving in the village. To promote your club or
society please return the Contact Us form [Link] or speak to a member of the Association
Contact details for Clubs, Societies and Village Organisations
Badminton
Brownies & Guides meet at the Youth Centre Monday evenings
Cake Decorating
Cubs & Scouts Meet at the youth Centre
Cricket Club (Junior coaching Monday evenings and games on Wednesdays in Summer
term)
Karate Newport Little Dragons Children and Adults meet at the Memorial hall
Line Dancing
Pantomime Group
Tennis Club The two tennis courts in the village next to the cricket field are available for
use of residents on a first come first served basis apart from the pre-booked Tennis Club
sessions on Sunday Mornings and Thursday evenings when the courts are reserved for the
use of club members.
Pathfinders Meet at Church on Thursday evenings in term time
Nearby Lilleshall Sports Centre for a wide range of sporting activities
Church A variety of services and group meetings see the Church website
http://lilleshall.2day.ws/lilleshall/section/ServicesatStMichaelAllAngels/
Lilleshall Hall Golf Club
Pre School
Lilleshall Primary School
Red House Inn for food drink and a popular Thursday evening quiz night
Youth Centre Hire contact
Memorial Hall Hire contact
History of the Village
1.
Early History
The protruding volcanic mass of Lilleshall Hill along with The Wrekin and the
Stiperstones are of pre-Cambrian original and some of the oldest rocks in Europe.
Thousand of years later the area was covered by shallow seas resulting in limestone
and sandstone deposits and evidence on the surface of the land by way of rounded
pebbles in the fields. The lower carboniferous limestone outcrops on the eastern
half of the village was the subject of much mining in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
For further details of which, see the section on Limestone Mining.
It is highly likely in the past that the area to the south of the village was (as with
much of England) covered extensively by woodland the remnants of which remain in
Abbey Wood (in private ownership) a mile or so to the south of the village.
The village of Lilleshall dates back from the Saxon times and it is believed that its
name originates from the name of the Hill, “Lillers Hill”.
Liller was a servant of the
King of Northumbria, Edwin, and the village may well have been bestowed upon
Liller for services rendered to the King.
Lilleshall is registered in the Doomsday Book, having a population then of about 150
people. The village continued to grow in size.
It is difficult to establish the figures
for population growth because historically the village has been included in the
Parishes of nearby Muxton and Donnington.
2.
The Abbey
Lilleshall Abbey is situated about a mile to the south of the village on the edge of the
Abbey Woods. Examination of public records reveals that the Charter of the King
Stephen in 1148 mentions endowment of Richard Debelmis II the Arch Deacon of
Middlesex to build an Abbey at Lilleshall so it is believed the foundation of the Abbey
took place in around 1150.
The Abbey grew in prosperity over the years and was an important part of the
community providing support for the impoverished and hospitality for travellers.
Following dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII when desperately short of
money Henry VIII pushed through Parliament in 1536 an Act providing for the
closures of all Monastic Houses with an income of less than £200 per year.
Lilleshall was much wealthier but did not escape for long and during the next three
years all remaining Monasteries surrendered to the Crown.
The Crown sold the
Abbey and adjoining land to the Leveson family whose wealth was based on the
wool trade in Wolverhampton.
The Leveson family began dismantling the Abbey
sending the 16 pew stalls to St Peter’s Church in Wolverhampton.
Abbey was dismantled and the stone used in local building projects.
Much of the
Some tiles
being used at nearby Lilleshall Hall.
Part of the Abbey was converted to a house and garrison to preserve it against the
Parliamentarians but in the Civil War of 1645 it fell under siege to the
Parliamentarians who surrounded the garrison of the Crown.
The Abbey was
attacked by cannon fire from the slightly raised ridge to the north and the garrison
eventually surrendered.
The Leveson family and the Sutherland family held on to the Lilleshall Abbey ruins
until the general sale in 1917 when the Duke of Sutherland sold Lilleshall Hall, its
grounds, Lilleshall Hill and its surrounding tenanted farms and houses at a Public
Auction.
The Abbey is now in the care of English Heritage and can be visited for a small fee.
The main tower still remains although not at its previous full height. The Abbey is a
peaceful place and best described as a quiet ruin.
3.
Lilleshall Hall
Two miles to the south of the village lies Lilleshall Hall, now the home of the National
Sports Council for England. The Hall was originally built in 1831 as a Hunting Lodge
for the Duke of Sutherland, set in secluded surroundings. In Victorian times it was
quite a tourist attraction and the Shropshire residence of the Duke, one of the
wealthiest men in England. See the Lilleshall Monument section of this site for more
information on the structure dominating the village skyline. [Link]
The Hall fell into some disrepair and was eventually purchased by the Sports Council
to establish a National Sports Centre.
One claim to fame is that the Centre was the
training base of the England Football team in the run up to the 1966 Wold Cup Win.
Located in the Centre is a Sports Injury Rehabilitation Clinic where many famous
athletes have spent time recuperating from injuries. The Centre is also the base of
the British Archery Association and the British Gymnastics Association. Many other
sports can be experienced at the Centre by visitors from near and far. A mile to the
south west of the Sports Centre lies Lilleshall Golf Club, an 18 hole course, for the
first nine in a parkland setting and the contrasting back nine played through
woodland.
4.
Lilleshall Church
Lilleshall Church lies in the centre of the village and is dedicated to St Michael and All
Angels.
The Church is located on the site of a much older Church that would have served
the population for a few hundred years. The present Church was built on the same site in
the early 13th Century. In the 1300s the Church was enlarged to create the north aisle.
Around 1450 to 1500 the Church tower was added replacing the original Belfry Turret. In
around 1600 the Chancel was extended to its present length and around 1675 the Church
was finished bearing some resemblance to the building we see today. The Church fell into
disrepair around 150 years ago and was considerably restored in the summer of 1856.
The restored Church was opened for a special service on 31st October 1856 led by the
Bishop of Lichfield.
The Church of the size it is today was completed in 1897 when to commemorate the 60
years of the reign of Queen Victoria the Vestry was built. By the 1950s and about 100 years
after the 1856 restoration the Church again began to fall into disrepair, creeping ivy growing
under the roof and the roof timbers affected by beetle infestation.
The restoration
programme spread over the next 15 years to be completed by 1965.
Ongoing maintenance has continued throughout the 1970s 1980s and 1990s. In 1985 the
floor of the north aisle of the Church and the accompanying pews were found to be riddled
with woodworm and removed and replaced.
The Font.
Arch.
The entrance to the Church is through a porch under an impressive Norman
Straight ahead is an old sandstone Font which appears to pre-date the original
Church construction in 1200.
existed on the site.
The Font is likely to be part of the original Church that
Limestone Mining in Lilleshall
Lilleshall developed as a rural village serving the agricultural community, but Lilleshall in the
early 18th Century would have been a very different place to the village we see today.
It is
not clear when Limestone was first mined in Lilleshall, but it is apparent that limestone was
used in the construction of Lilleshall Abbey in the 12th Century.
In the 17th Century with
demand for lime for use as an agricultural fertiliser, for use in cement and in the smelting of
iron, lime began to be mined commercially in the Lilleshall area.
The deeper mined
limestone was found to make a good hydraulic cement being able to set under water and
large quantities were used in the building of Liverpool Docks.
Initially workings were probably confined to opencast pits or quarries, but eventually owing
to the cost of removal of the overlying rock and soil, shafts were sunk to mine the
limestone. Mines were generally worked on what is known as a “pillar and stall” basis with
around 25% of the limestone left behind as pillars to support the roof of the excavated
cavern.
Some of the limestone was burned in lime kilns and converted into quick-lime.
There
remains evidence today of lime kilns in a number of locations around the village generally
linked by the appropriately named “Limekiln Lane”.
Whilst Lilleshall is a peaceful rural
village today, in the 17th and 18th Centuries there would have been not only the extensive
commercial limestone mining but also the smoke and fumes from the lime kilns themselves.
The mines extend from Wilmoor Lane to the south of the village along Limekiln Lane to
Church Aston, lying to the east. The mines were extensively worked by the Leveson Gower
family who leased all the minerals in the Lilleshall Estate and eventually built Lilleshall Hall.
In 1764 Lord Gower founded the Lilleshall Partnership with the Gilbert family.
The Donnington Wood canal was extended to the village and used not only for the removal
of the lime and limestone but also for the transport of coal to fire the lime kilns.
It is clear
that large quantities of coal were needed to fire these kilns.
Large quantities of coal would
have been needed to fire the lime kilns and this would have been transported from the coal
mines at Donnington Wood and limestone to be used as a flux in the iron furnaces at Lord
Gower’s Donnington Wood foundries would have returned along the canal.
The canal was completed in the Autumn of 1767 and ran from the coal face at Donnington
Wood past Lilleshall Abbey to the Wharf at Pave Lane, two miles south of Newport. Some
years later a branch canal was built to connect the mines at Blackberry Bank on the eastern
side of the village.
Unfortunately the Lilleshall branches were 13 metres below the level of the main canal and it
was necessary to link the two, firstly by a shaft at Hughes Bridge near the road known as
“The Incline” and later an incline plane was built in the same location to enable boats laden
with limestone to be hauled up to the higher canal system.
By the end of the 18th Century the Lilleshall mines were becoming exhausted and the main
focus of mining moved to the Blackberry Bank (Pitchcroft) mines on the edge of the village
near Church Aston.
There were thought to be substantial qualities of limestone remaining in the Pitchcroft Mine
but the mine flooded with water in 1860 and abandoned with many miners losing their jobs
and livelihood.
The focus of mining then moved to the Wilmoor area which then became
the main mining area from 1860 until its closure in 1882 and the end of limestone mining in
Lilleshall.
The canals and lime kilns have gradually reverted back to agriculture and their natural state
and there is little immediate evidence of this once important industrial area today. Part of
part of the main course of the canal to Donnington was filled in during the construction of
the Lilleshall Hall drive in 1896
Memories of the limestone mining appeared to fade away until mines were explored by
members of the Shropshire Mining Club in the 1960s.
In 1970s there were concerns about the stability of the workings under the Limekiln Lane
area of the village which led to an extensive survey by Ovarup and Partners.
There were
serious concerns about the state of the workings and danger of collapse under residential
housing this led to the filling operation under the whole inhabited area of the village mines
in 1995 and 1996.
There was no filling of the mines under the agricultural land.
The
mines were filled with pulverised fuel ash and cement at a cost of £4,000,000.
A
commemorative plaque is situated by the Bus Shelter half way up Limekiln Lane.
Local historian David Adams runs annual tours of the Lilleshall mine workings. There are
three different tours and the dates are advertised locally.
David Adams has written a detailed guide to the mining history of the village “The History of
Limestone Mining in Church Aston and Lilleshall” published by Shropshire Mining and Caving
club ISBN 978-0-9553019-1-9 available from Mr M J Moore 53 Vineyard Drive Newport
Shropshire TF10 7DF 01952 405105 mike@moorebooks.co.uk
David Adams has kindly agreed to information on this page being extracted from his book
and anyone with an interest in this aspect of the village is encouraged to purchase a copy.
For more information photographs see:http://www.corvedale.previewurl.com/history/lilleshall_mines.htm
http://www.corvedale.previewurl.com/history/donnington_wood_to_lilleshall_ca.htm
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Contact Us
Viewers are encouraged to use this form to contact the Residents Association to comment
on any matter, to raise suggestions for future projects, to publicise their event, to enquire
about advertising and so on.