Introduction to Kinlet

This page provides an introduction to the history of Kinlet. For further information, look at the related webpages menu

History of Kinlet

Kinlet is a large parish that encompasses most of the Shropshire portion of the Wyre Forest. To the east and south it is on the county boundary, formed by the River Severn and the Dowles Brook. Whilst today it is a single unit, for much of its history it was divided into Kinlet in the north and west and Earnwood in the south and east.

The earliest evidence for human activity in Kinlet is a scatter of flints in the approximate vicinity of Catsley, in the centre of the parish. Also around here is a circular cropmark of a form that is usually considered to represent a bronze age round barrow. Other crop marks seem to show iron age or Romano-British farmsteads; a scatter of Roman pottery close to one of these confirms that the area was being farmed at this time. As discussed in the Introduction to Stottesdon, at this time the country was prosperous and the population was growing. However, the subsequent Dark Ages saw a catastrophic decline in numbers until some sort of recovery began around the 7th Century, when this part of Shropshire was in the Kingdom of the Magonsaete. Whatever the fate of the British farmers near Catsley, modern Kinlet probably first took shape at this time as a Saxon settlement. The name is usually taken to mean “Royal Portion”. At the time of the Domesday Book, both Kinlet and Cleobury Mortimer were held by Queen Edith, widow of the late Saxon King Edward the Confessor. Almost certainly both were royal manors, granted to Edith for her life as a dower, to provide her with an income after the death of her husband. Kinlet was a relatively minor place at Domesday; its attraction to kings must have been the presence of the Wyre Forest and the excellent hunting that it would have provided. Woods provided all manner of resources in Medieval times, such as firewood, timber, and pasture for certain animals; Kinlet may marked that part of the Wyre Forest that was reserved exclusively for royal recreation.

After the conquest, Kinlet may have been given to William Fitz Osbern, Earl of Hereford. Following the rebellion of the latter, the Conqueror gave it to Ralph de Mortimer. The Mortimers were destined to become one of the great families of the Middle Ages. Ralph installed a tenant at Kinlet, Richard, who also held Brampton Brian in Herefordshire. By the time of Henry I at the start of the 12th Century the Mortimer tenant was Bernard fitz Unspec; his descendants became the de Brompton family. From the late 12th Century, the de Brompton’s began making significant gifts of land and revenues from Kinlet to Wigmore Abbey and other religious foundations. Whilst there is no reason to doubt the religious feeling that underlay these gifts, it is likely that the family were only in a position to make these gifts because they were encouraging woodland clearance at Kinlet, to bring more land into production. Nationally the population and the economy expanded throughout the 12th and 13th Centuries and the de Brompton gifts were probably reflections of this. Kinlet passed by marriage from the Bromptons to a branch of the Earls of Cornwall in the 14th Century and eventually decended to the Blount family at the end of the 15th Century. A number of parts of Kinlet such as Meaton became separate estates In medieval times they were usually held by junior members of the family at Kinlet itself, but by the 16th Century they seem to have been bought by others.

At the time of Domesday, Catsley was separate from Kinlet, owned by Eric, probably Eric Sylvaticus (see Stottesdon). Catsley became one of Ralph de Mortimers possessions and eventually became a simple satellite of Kinlet.

Whilst Kinlet was held at a distance by the Mortimers and Catsley was reabsorbed, the core woodland in the parish, forming the area of Earnwood, underwent a very different fate. The Mortimers were as passionate about hunting as their nominal royal overlords and Earnwood became a part of their private hunting ground. They established a park to breed dear in the north of the estate and then used these to stock the woodland in the south. They also allowed a small village to grow up outside of their hunting grounds. Earnwood was never let out to any tenants; the family retained it strictly for their own use. However, from time to time it was used as a dower estate, to provide an income for widow of the family. It also found itself in Royal hands on occasions, either confiscated as a result of misadventure on the part of a Mortimer, or taken in wardship because the rightful heir was too young to hold it in his own right. Earnwood eventually passed to King Edward IV by inheritance. His successors leased it out to a variety of tenants

By the start of Tudor times, Kinlet was held by the Blounts. They were of some significance. Elizabeth Blount, a daughter of the family was mistress to Henry VIII and bore him a son. Sir George Blount was an important figure in Shropshire politics for much of the 16th Century. In his early years he appears as a supporter of the Protestant reformation and the religious changes introduced by Henry VIII but latterly he had Roman Catholic sympathies. He left Kinlet to his nephew, Roland Lacon who shared his religious convictions. Roland purchased Earnwood to reunite the two parts of Kinlet. The combined estates passed through the Lacon family, coming to the Childes by marriage in the middle of the 17th Century. Throughout this period, and indeed well into the 18th Century, the owners of Kinlet had either Roman Catholic or at the very least, High Church leanings. They were also keen purchasers of land, both in Kinlet and the surrounding countryside, so that by the end of the 18th Century they owned land from the River Severn to the summit of the Clee Hill.

In 1729 William Lacon Childe rebuilt Kinlet Hall to a contemporary design. This had major implications for the village of Kinlet, which seems to have been swept away by surrounding parkland. It is not clear where the villagers went; they may have been moved to new cottages elsewhere in the parish. It is possible that a number of roads were also diverted as a result of Childe’s scheme; the main road from Bridgnorth to Cleobury Mortimer gives the hall a wide berth. Some of the parkland was turned back to farmland in the early 19th Century by Childe’s grandson, also William Childe who was a noted agricultural improver. At this period, the estate earned substantial revenues from sales of produce from the home farm, sales of wood and bark from the Wyre Forest and rents. Childe had substantial debts when he died but these may have come from other estates he owned, not Kinlet. The Kinlet estate remained intact until after the First World War.

Agriculture and forestry have been the mainstays of Kinlet’s economy for most of its history. However, in the late 19th Century, the Highley Mining Company developed a large colliery in Kinlet. Whilst the royalties from this doubtless provided a useful source of income to the Kinlet estate, the mine had relatively little impact on the parish as most miners lived in Highley. It closed in 1937.

In the Second World War, Kinlet Hall was used as a base by the American Army; they had another camp at Sturt Common in the Wyre Forest. The American troops soon became a common site in the surrounding villages. After the War, the hall became the home of Moffats School.