The former 1935 parish hall

Wombridge (alternatively Wambridge[1]) is a former parish in the Wellington Division of the hundred of Bradford South in the Telford and Wrekin district of the county of Shropshire, England.[2][3][1] It is 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wellington, 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of Telford, [4] and 16 miles (26 km) from Shrewsbury,[5] covering 699 acres (283 ha).[5]

Wombridge civil parish ceased to exist in 1898, Shropshire County Council (via the Local Government Board) abolishing it and replacing it with Oakengates Urban District,[6][7] which in its turn was replaced by the town of Telford, that was built as a new town in the 1960s.[a][9]

It is now an area in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, with a parish church and an eponymous primary school.

History

It was the location of Wombridge Priory, Wombridge Colliery, and the Wombridge Iron Works.[citation needed]

It contained the junction of the Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and Marquess of Stafford canals and through it passed Watling Street and the Great Holyhead Road.[2][1] The Shrewsbury Canal had a double inclined plane there, with a steam engine for drawing boats upwards, extending 223 yards (204 m) for a vertical rise of 75 feet (23 m).[10]

It was 148 miles (238 km) by coach road from London, with letters delivered from there by 7:30 am in 1852.[11]

Wombridge civil parish ceased to exist in 1898[6] when, in response to a decision by Shropshire County Council and over the objections of Wombridge Parish Council, the Local Government Board[b] abolished Wombridge and Wrockwardine Wood parishes, and from them and also parts of Lilleshall and Shiffnall[c] parishes created Oakengates Urban District.[d][6][7]

Wombridge Parish Council had expressed their objection to the merger on the grounds that Wombridge people would be made to pay for the new sewage systems in the rest of the urban district,[14] the existing one at Oakengates being either ineffective or outright non-existent in parts of the parish[7] and the one at Lilleshall using open ditches that passed through older housing.[7] Because of this objection an inquiry had to be held,[15] at Oakengates on 19 January 1898,[14] wherefrom the Board concluded (in its report on several such inquiries) that "no sufficient grounds had been shown which would justify us in overruling the action of the County Councils".[15]

Schools and religious buildings

A church with tower among trees
Wombridge Parish Church, seen in 2006

It is served by schools in neighbouring Oakengates, Telford and Wellington.[5]

The parish church was the church of St Mary and St Leonard,[2][4] near to which were the remains of a Augustinian priory that had been founded during the reign of Henry I by William Fitz-Alan and later dissolved.[2][4] The parish curacy in 1837 amounted to a £800 royal bounty and a £1,200 parliamentary grant.[4] The Churchyard holds eight graves which are in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.[16]

Iron Works

The Wombridge Iron Works was established in 1818.[2] The Wombridge Iron Company mined iron and coal.[5] It produced puddled wire reels, screw and fencing rods, sheet iron for corrugating and galvanization, charcoal sheets, and tack sheets.[17] In 1865 at a meeting of the Mechanical Engineers' Society of Birmingham, Henry Bennett of the Iron Company presented a description of the construction and operation of his new mechanized puddling machine, recording a coal usage for puddled iron of 28 long hundredweight per long ton (1.4 Mg/Mg) in the single furnace and to 17 long hundredweight per long ton (0.85 Mg/Mg) in the double furnace, when employing the machine.[18][19][20]

The soil comprised sand and stiff clay.[5] Industrial water supply came from three reservoirs, the Wombridge Pool, the Middle Pool, and the Trench Pool.[21]

The iron works was connected by rail to the Stafford line via the Coalport Branch Line, originally via a Wombridge Branch from the sidings at Trench, but in the 1870s shortened to direct access from the Coalport Branch.[22] Also in the 1870s the iron works went from producing pig iron to making wrought iron, and gained a forge, ten puddling furnaces, and three rolling mills.[22] In 1912 a set of railway sidings for the Wombridge Ballast Tip, which the Wombridge Pool had been converted into by that time, was added; which moved around as the tip filled and eventually were removed sometime between 1937 and 1940, which local railway historian David Clarke believes is when the tip became full.[23]

Prior to the Iron Works, in the 17th century there had been water-powered iron smelting of iron ore from the colliery.[24][25]

Colliery

Records of coal mining in Wombridge go back at least as far as the 16th century, with a farm belonging to the coal mine that was run by the Wombridge Priory being recorded as paying an annual rent for 1536–1537 of £5 (equivalent to £3,697 in 2023).[26] William Reynolds is recorded as recommencing open cast mining for coal and iron-stone around 1793; and a "without a beam" variant of the Newcomen steam engine is recorded as being erected in 1794.[27]

The coal field, named Colebrook Dale Coal-Field, ranged from Wombridge to Coalport some 16 miles (26 km) south, and was 2 miles (3.2 km) wide at its broadest.[28][29] The coal seams worked were known in local miner's jargon as the "Chance", "Clunch", "Flint", "Little Flint", "Foot", "Fungus", "Randle", "Top", "Two-foot", and "Three-quarter" seams; several variously extending to Oakengates, Donnington, Dawley, Malin's Lee, Madeley, and Amies (near Broseley).[30]

In 1895 the colliery was registered under the Coal Mines Regulation Act as owned by Hopely Brothers of Wombridge, with pits at the Rose and Crown, the Round House, and the Water Engine.[31] A miner named William Knight died there from suffocation by natural gas in an old shaft that was in the process of being closed, on 1 July 1896.[32][33]

The Wombridge Canal, built in 1788 a portion of which fell into disuse around 1819 and the rest of which was amalgamated into the Shrewsbury Canal, connected the mines to the furnaces and canal at Donnington Wood.[34]

Demographics

Wombridge had a population of 1,855 in 1835,[2] 2,057 in 1841,[11] 2,365 in 1851,[11] and 2,601 in 1861.[5]

The 1831 census broke this down into 478 males 20-years-old or greater, 5 agricultural occupiers with employees, 9 agricultural occupiers without, 11 agricultural labourers, 92 employed in retail/trade/handicraft, 361 in non-agricultural labour, and 2 female servants.[35]

There were 360 houses in the parish as of 1851.[11]

Wombridge today

A suburban street with a boundary sign saying "Telford Wombridge"
A road sign identifying Wombridge, seen in 2015

Wombridge is an area in the Borough of Telford and Wrekin, north west of Telford town centre, near the A442 road, and between Hadley and Oakengates.[36] The Church of St Mary and St Leonard is an active church within the East Telford Benefice,[37] and the area is served by Wombridge Primary School, although the school's postal address is "Oakengates, Telford" rather than "Wombridge".[38]

Footnotes

  1. ^ The statutory instrument was The Dawley New Town (Designation) Amendment (Telford) Order 1968.[8]
  2. ^ established by the Local Government Act 1888[12]
  3. ^ the contemporary 19th century spelling used in official records[6]
  4. ^ The statutory instrument was The County of Salop (Oakengates Urban District) Conformation Order 1898, ordered on 1898-03-03.[6] An earlier order of had been issued on 1897-08-07.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wright 1837, p. 716, Wombridge.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis 1835, Wombridge.
  3. ^ Hulbert 1837, pp. 133, 142, Wellington Division.
  4. ^ a b c d Hulbert 1837, p. 157, Wombridge.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Cassey 1871, p. 401, Wombridge.
  6. ^ a b c d e LGB 1898, p. 283.
  7. ^ a b c d de Soissons 1991, p. 35.
  8. ^ LG 1968, p. 13433.
  9. ^ Newman, Pevsner & Watson 2006, p. 622.
  10. ^ LE 1829, p. 27.
  11. ^ a b c d Clarke 1852, p. 1009, Wombrige.
  12. ^ LGB 1898, p. xiii.
  13. ^ LGB 1898, p. 294.
  14. ^ a b TSR 1898, p. 77.
  15. ^ a b LGB 1898, p. xxxi.
  16. ^ "Wombridge (Ss. Mary and Leonard)". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
  17. ^ Wright 1870, p. 255.
  18. ^ Daddow & Bannan 1866, p. 628.
  19. ^ Salmon 1864a, p. 92.
  20. ^ Salmon 1864b, p. 350.
  21. ^ LGB 1910, p. 6.
  22. ^ a b Clarke 2016, pp. 165–166.
  23. ^ Clarke 2016, p. 166.
  24. ^ Trinder 1996, p. 122.
  25. ^ Stanford 1980, p. 252.
  26. ^ Galloway 1898, p. 117, The Sixteenth Century.
  27. ^ Galloway 1898, p. 229, The Eighteenth Century.
  28. ^ Conybeare & Phillips 2014, p. 421, Coal of Coalbrook Dale.
  29. ^ NE 1879, p. 679.
  30. ^ Jackson 1879, pp. 91–92, Coal-names.
  31. ^ MIO 1895, p. 260.
  32. ^ Atkinson 1897, p. 14.
  33. ^ Lyon 2013, p. 111.
  34. ^ Wood 2014.
  35. ^ CO 1831, p. 515.
  36. ^ Marked on Ordnance Survey mapping, seen on UK Streetmp
  37. ^ "Welcome to East Telford Benefice". East Telford Benefice. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
  38. ^ "Home". Wombridge Primary School. Retrieved 9 February 2025.

Bibliography

  • Lewis, Samuel (1835). "Wombridge". A Topographical Dictionary of England. Vol. 4 (3rd ed.). London: S. Lewis & Co.
  • Hulbert, Charles (1837). "The Hundred of Bradford South". The History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury. Vol. 2. London: H. Washbourne.
  • Edward Cassey and Co.'s History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire. Shrewsbury: Edward Cassey and Co. 1871.
  • Clarke, benjamin (1852). The British Gazetteer, Political, Commercial, Ecclesiastical, and Historical. Vol. 3. London: H. G. Collins.
  • Wright, George Newenham (1837). A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer. Vol. 4. London: Thomas Kelly.
  • Her Majesty's Inspectors of Mines (1895). List of Mines in Great Britain and the Isle of Man. London: H.M. Stationery Office.
  • Atkinson, J. N. (1897). Mines and Quarries, (Dist. 10) Reports for the North Staffordshire District. London: H.M. Stationery Office.
  • Galloway, Robert Lindsay (1898). Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade. Vol. 1. Colliery Guardian.
  • Jackson, Georgina Frederica (1879). Shropshire Word-book: A Glossary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Etc., Used in the County. Vol. 1. London: Trübner & Company.
  • Lyon, Samantha (2013). "July". A Grim Almanac of Shropshire. The History Press. ISBN 9780752489445.
  • Conybeare, W. D.; Phillips, William (2014). "Coal, and associated beds". Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales. Cambridge Library Collection – Earth Science. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108075107.
  • "Coal-fields". The national encyclopædia. Library edition. Vol. 4. London: William McKenzie. 1879.
  • Abstract of the Answers and Returns Made Pursuant to an Act Passed in the Eleventh Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George IV, Intituled, "An Act for Taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain, and of the Increase Or Diminution Thereof". House of Commons Reports and papers. Vol. 1. Great Britain Census Office. 1831-04-02.
  • "Inland navigation". The London Encyclopaedia. Vol. 12. London: Thomas Tegg. 1829.
  • Wright, George Taylor, ed. (1870). "Iron manufacturers and merchants". The 'Handbook' to the manufacturers & exporters of Great Britain. London: Albion Chambers.
  • Wood, Andy (2014). "Wombridge Canal". Abandoned & Vanished Canals of England. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 9781445639277.
  • Local Government Board (1910). Reports to the Local Government Board on Public Health and Medical Matters. London: H. M. Stationery Office.
  • Clarke, David (2016). "The Coalport Branch". Railways of Telford. Crowood. ISBN 9781785000959.
  • Trinder, Barrie Stuart (1996). The Industrial Archaeology of Shropshire. Phillimore. ISBN 9780850339895.
  • Stanford, S. C. (1980). The Archaeology of the Welsh Marches. Collins archaeology. Vol. 2. Collins. ISBN 9780002162517.
  • Daddow, Samuel Harries; Bannan, Benjamin (1866). "The elaboration of iron and steel". Coal, Iron, and Oil, Or, The Practical American Miner. Pottsville, Pennsylvania: Benjamin Bannan.
  • Salmon, Henry Curwen, ed. (February 1864). "Mechanical Puddling". The Mining and Smelting Magazine. Vol. 5. London: The Office.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  • Salmon, Henry Curwen, ed. (December 1864). "Miscellanea". The Mining and Smelting Magazine. Vol. 6. London: The Office.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  • Local Government Board (Great Britain) (1898). Annual Report of the Local Government Board. C. Vol. 27. H. M. Stationery Office.
  • de Soissons, Maurice (1991). Telford: The Making of Shropshire's New Town. Swan Hill. ISBN 9781853102530.
  • "Sewerage Schemes". The Sanitary Record and Journal of Sanitary and Municipal Engineering. Vol. 31. London: The Sanitary Publishing Company. 1898-01-21.
  • "Ministry of Housing and Local Government". The London Gazette. 12. 1968.
  • Newman, John; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Watson, Gavin (2006). Shropshire. Pevsner: Buildings of England. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300120837.

Further reading

  • Baggs, A. P.; Cox, D. C.; McFall, Jessie; Stamper, P. A.; Winchester, A. J. L. (1985). "Wombridge". In Baugh, G. C.; Elrington, C. R. (eds.). A History of the County of Shropshire. Vol. 11, Telford. London: Victoria County History. pp. 283–306.
  • Bagshaw, Samuel (1995). "South Bradford Hundred". History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire. Vol. 2 (reprinted ed.). Heritage Books. ISBN 9780788402722.
  • Smith, Thomas (1836). "The Wombridge Mines". The miner's guide, being a description and illustration of a chart of sections of the prinipal mines of coal and ironstone in the counties of Stafford, Salop, Warwick, and Durham. Birmingham: Radclyffe and Company. pp. 157 et seq. (The miner's guide at the Internet Archive)
  • Bennett, Henry (1863). "On puddling iron by machinery". Proceedings. Birmingham: Institution of Mechanical Engineers. pp. 298–309.
  • "Local Government Act, 1888 (Salop)". Hansard. 1898-07-22.

See also

52°42′05″N 2°27′32″W / 52.701413°N 2.458878°W / 52.701413; -2.458878

Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombridge
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