Westbury Shropshire Family History Guide
Westbury is an Ancient Parish in the county of Shropshire. The village of Westbury is situated nine miles from Shrewsbury, on the Montgomery road. It is in the diocese of Hereford, archdeaconry of Ludlow, rural deanery of Pontesbury, and hundred of Ford. The parish now contains the townships of Westbury, Lake, Cause, Wallop, Winsley, Westley, Hurst, Hem, Hawcocks, Vennington, Whitton, Marsh, and Upper and Lower Wigmore. These townships, with Minsterley, used to form the Rectory of ‘Westbury in Dextra Parte,’ whilst the townships of Yockleton, Stoney Stretton, and Newton, formed the Rectory of ‘Westbury in Sinistra Parte.’ The church at Minsterley was built in the early part of the 18th century, but baptisms and burials which took place there were registered at Westbury until 1847. The Rectory of Westbury in Sinistra Parte was separated from Westbury for ecclesiastical purposes in 1862 under the name of Yockleton, and a separate register has been kept at Yockleton since the year 1861, when the church was built there. The area of Westbury, including Yockleton, is 8,800 acres, that of Minsterley is 2,660 acres. The population of Westbury, Yockleton, and Minsterley amounted, in 1901, to 1,942
Other places in the parish include: Forest Lake, Wallop, Wigmore, Whitton, Westley, Winsley, Lake Hurst and the Hem, Westley, Cause, Forest, Yockleton, Marsh, Marsh and Wigmore, Newton, Stony Stratton, Vennington, and Winsley.
Parish church: St Mary
Parish registers begin: 1637
Nonconformists include: Particular Baptist and Primitive Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
Westbury
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
WESTBURY, a township and a parish in Atcham district, Salop. The township lies on the Shrewsbury and Welshpool railway, 11½ miles W by S of Shrewsbury; contains a village of its own name; and has a post-office under Shrewsbury, and a r. station. Real property, £6,174; of which £200 are in mines. Pop. in 1851, 1,497; in 1861, 1,655. Houses, 298. The property is not much divided. The parish includes Minsterley chapelry, and forms a sub-district. Acres, 11,274. Rated property in 1869, £16,158. Pop., 2,545. Houses, 476. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £766. Patron, R. Cholmondeley, Esq. The church is good. The p. curacy of Minsterley is a separate benefice. There are dissenting chapels, an endowed school with £30 a year, and charities £44.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851
Westbury, a parish in the hund. of Ford, union of Atcham, Salop; 8¼ miles west by south of Shrewsbury. It contains the chapelry of Minsterley, and the township of Westbury; the latter also containing the smaller townships of Westby and Yockleton. Living, a rectory divided into two portions, namely, Westbury in dextra parte, and Westbury in sinistra parte, in the archd. of Salop and dio. of Hereford. The former portion is rated at £13 9s. 4½d.; nett value £643: the latter at £11 12s. 8½d.; nett value £556. Both, in 1841, were in the patronage of Smythe Owen, Esq. Tithes commuted in 1839; aggregate amount £260 16s. 5d. There is an Independent church, formed in 1794. Here is also a school at which 24 boys and girls are instructed and apprenticed, on an endowment of £30 annual income, bequeathed in 1716 by the Rev. Mr. Earle. The petty-sessions for the division are held here during the winter. A fair for horses, horned cattle, and sheep, is held on August 5th. Acres 17,920. Houses 413. The total pop., in 1801, was 1,991; in 1831, 2,228. Houses of the township of Westbury 254. Pop., in 1831, 1,419. The remaining returns will be found under Minsterley. A.P. £7,687. Poor rates, in 1838, £855 17s
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.
Cause
Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Cause. A township in the parish of Westbury, and in the Ford division of the hundred of Ford. 10 miles south-west of Shrewsbury.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Cause Castle Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Cause Castle. This castle was supposed to have been built by Roger Corbett, who held, of Earl Roger de Montgomery, a tract of land in this quarter, consisting of thirty nine manors, or hamlets. It is conjectured that he gave the above name to this his capital seat, in allusion to a Castle in the Pays de Caux in Normandy. As he and his son probably took sides with Robert de Belesme in his rebellion; the castle is supposed to have been forfeited to Henry the first, who gave it to Paris Fitz John, from whom it was taken by the Welsh. It was afterwards restored to the original lords, and in the first year of King John, a weekly market was obtained for it, at the instance of Roger Corbett. Its proximity to the Welsh border, rendered its tenure uncertain, and we find that it was again seized by the Welsh, and restored by Henry the third. In the reign of Edward the third, the male line of the family becoming extinct, the Castle was transferred by a marriage of a daughter of the house, to the Staffords, Earls of Stafford, on the execution of the last of whom, Edward duke of Buckingham, it was forfeited to the Crown, but was restored to his son Edward. It was alienated in the reign of Elizabeth to Robert Harcourt, from whom it descended to Lord Viscount Weymouth.
The site of the Castle is perhaps one of the most lofty and commanding in the whole range of the Salopian frontier. It is an insulated ridge, rising abruptly from a deep ravine on one side, and sloping towards a vast valley, bounded by the Stiperstones, on the other. The Keep mount is singularly steep and towering; it must have been ascended by steps or by a winding path, though no traces of either now remain; part of a Well is still distinguishable; but the castle itself is a mere ruin. It has, apparently, been stripped of all its dressed stone, as the fragments of the edifice that are here and there left standing, consist of the rude materials used for filling up the interior of the thick walls. Parts of one of the entrance gate-ways, evidently of a more recent date than the original castle, are still to be discerned.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Forest of Hayes
Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Forest of Hayes. A township in the parish of Westbury, and in the Ford division of the hundred of Ford. 11 miles south-west of Shrewsbury.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Leake
Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Leake. A township in the parish of Westbury, and in the Ford division of the hundred of Ford.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Linches
Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Linches. A township in the parish of Westbury, and in the Ford division of the hundred of Ford. 5 ½ miles south-west of Shrewsbury.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Marsh
Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Marsh. A township in the parish of Westbury, and in the Ford division of the hundred of Ford. 10 miles south-west by west of Shrewsbury.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Westley
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851
Westley, a township in the parish of Westbury, hund. of Ford, union of Atcham, Salop; 10½ miles west-south-west of Shrewsbury. Tithes commuted in 1840; aggregate amount £186 10s. 10d. Returns with those of the parish.
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.
Parish Registers
Westbury Parish Registers 1637-1812
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Shropshire Historical Directories
Administration
- County: Shropshire
- Civil Registration District: Atcham
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Hereford
- Rural Deanery: Pontesbury
- Poor Law Union: Atcham
- Hundred: Ford
- Province: Canterbury