Introduction to Chelmarsh

The earliest history of Chelmarsh is represented by archaeological finds. Perhaps the most dramatic discovery was that of a pre-historic dug-out canoe, uncovered when the water works were being built on the Quatt bank of the Severn in the 1960s. Possible Romano-British occupation is indicated by rectilinear crop marks around Sutton and Hampton Loade; these features are typically the ploughed-out remains of farms.

Chelmarsh is unusual in that it is one of the few Shropshire places that features in an Anglo-Saxon charter. In around 700 it was probably part of a large estate with Eardington and Deuxhill that was granted to Wenlock Abbey by Merchelm and Mildfrith, two princes of the Magonsaetan who ruled the area. The name “Chelmarsh” has been interpreted as “the marsh of the poles”; it has been suggested that a track across an area of bog was marked with wooden poles. At some point in the next 350 or so years it became detached from the Abbey and at the time of Norman Conquest it was owned by Earl Edwin, Earl of Mercia. It was a large estate. It was taxed on 5 hides, suggesting a nominal 300-600 acres of cultivated land. It was also reported to have yielded £6 a year in revenue to Edwin, putting it not far behind Stottesdon and Chelmarsh locally. However, it suffered badly in the years after the conquest. It was probably laid waste following an ill-advised rebellion by Edwin in 1069 and by 1086 it was still only worth £2.

By the early Twelfth Century, it seems that Chelmarsh was part of the possessions of the Mortimer family. Around 1150, Hugh de Mortimer founded a house of Augustinian Canons; he gave them the revenues from Chelmarsh Church and also promised to settle them in Chelmarsh itself. In the event he never carried out this promise and the Canons eventually were settled at Wigmore, but the event suggests that Hugh might have had plans to develop Chelmarsh, perhaps into a town. Throughout the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Chelmarsh was granted to one of the younger sons of the Mortimer who was Lord of Wigmore. However, around 1250 it became the permanent possession of a Hugh de Mortimer and it remained in the possession of his heirs until the early Fifteenth Century. By now the village had a mill and a weir on the Severn to catch fish. Wigmore Abbey continued to hold the church and also acquired additional land when they were given the manor of Nethercourt in Chelmarsh.

The Mortimer’s of Chelmarsh lived in the hall, next to the church. Significant parts of the building remain from around 1300 and the church itself was also substantially rebuilt around this time. However, there were other communities within the parish. Hampton had its own field system, suggesting it was a separate manor; it might have been Nethercourt. Place name evidence suggests that from Sutton to the north of Highley there was signficant woodland. Farms such as Brock Hall and Little Woodlands may represent medieval assarts; areas of woodland cleared by farmers to bring new land into cultivation. To the west of the parish was the common, probably created from a further area of woodland

By the late 15th Century Chelmarsh was one of a number of former Mortimer manors that were held by the Crown. In subsequent years it passed through various landowners, in the process being split into a number of different estates. The Jervoises and then the Whitmores and their descendants remained major landowners. The open fields of both Chelmarsh and Hampton Loade seemed to have been enclosed in the 17th Century. By the 19th Century there was a substantial area of parkland around the Uplands, the seat of the Whitmore Wylde-Browns whilst Astbury Hall was also a substantial residence. By contrast, the farms in the south of the parish were on a more modest scale. The common was not enclosed until the 1860s.

Whilst agriculture was always the most important economic activity in Chelmarsh, there was limited industry. In 1630, John Weld of Willey who owned large areas in the south of the parish, speculated in coal mines and quarries. Neither industry achieved anything like the scale seen in the neighbouring parish of Highley, although there were a number of small collieries at work in the late 19th Century. In the 19th Century, a significant number of Chelmarsh men found employment at the iron forges in Eardington and Quatt; the old-established ferry at Hampton Loade allowed the men to cross to the later. In the 20th Century, the coal mines at Highley and Alveley became the main employers.

Currently, the majority of Chelmarsh is agricultural land, although the 1960s reservoir is a prominent feature in the south of the parish and there is also a golf course. The village school closed in the early 21st Century, but the community remains vibrant.