Category: Shropshire

Last updated on July 28th, 2017

Ditton Priors is an Ancient Parish in the county of Shropshire.

Other places in the parish include: Middleton Priors and Ashfield with Ruthall.

Alternative Names: Priors Ditton

Church: St. John the Baptist

Parish registers begin: 1673

Nonconformists in Ditton Priors include: Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Historical Description

Priors Ditton, or Ditton Priors, is a township and extensive parish, in the Southern division of the county, partly in the franchise of Wenlock and the hundred of Munslow, Bridgnorth union, and diocese of Hereford, eight miles from Bridgnorth and 13 from Ludlow railway station. The church of St. John the Baptist is an old stone building, partly in the Norman and Saxon styles, repaired in 1861, and contains several ancient monuments. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £147, with a residence and 244 acres of glebe land, in the gift of Philip Henry Howard, Esq. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The charities are of £6 yearly value. Here are lime works. Fairs are held on the 10th of May and the 25th of October yearly, for cattle, sheep, and pigs. Philip Henry Howard, Esq., is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is various; the subsoil is clay. The area is 5,442 acres, and the population in 1861 was 613; gross estimated rental, £3,852; rateable value, £3,640.

Middleton Priors, with Netchwood Common, is a township in the parish of, and one mile north-east from, Priors Ditton, and in the franchise of Wenlock; there is a Catholic school, built by the present lord of the manor, who pays for the gratuitous education of the children. The school is capable of accommodating about sixty children. Middleton Hall is the seat of Philip Henry Howard, Esq., who is lord of the manor. There is a Catholic chapel attached; the Rev. Francis O’Neil, of Bridgnorth, is priest.

Ruthnall, with Ashfield, is a township, in the hundred of Munslow and parish of Priors Ditton, half a mile west from the latter place.
Source: Edward Cassey & Co’s, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire 1871

Parishes contiguous to Ditton Priors

• Cleobury North
• Diddlebury
• Holdgate
• Monkhopton
• Neenton
• Chetton
• Stanton Long
• Upton Cressett

Administration

• County: Shropshire
• Civil Registration District: Bridgnorth
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Hereford
• Rural Deanery: Stottesdon
• Poor Law Union: Bridgnorth
• Hundred: Munslow
• Province: Canterbury

Family History Links

FamilySearch

Birth, Marriage, & Death

Census

England and Wales Census, 1841

England and Wales Census, 1851

England and Wales Census, 1861

England and Wales Census, 1871

England and Wales Census, 1881

England and Wales Census, 1891

England and Wales Census, 1901

England and Wales Census, 1911

Military

United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920

Photo of St. John the Baptist, Ditton Priors. by Geoff Pick, some rights reserved.

See larger image Ditton Priors: A Settlement of the Brown Clee By (author): Di Bryan List Price: £9.95 New From: £9.95 GBP In Stock Used from: £9.93 GBP In Stock

See larger image Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light Railway (Locomotion Papers) Features: LP21 in Oakwood Locomotion Papers Series By (author): Martin R.C.I. Price Oakwood Press linson card covered book with square bound spine. LP21 in the Oakwood Locomotion papers series. The detailed history of this Shropshire light railway which had an eventful life finally closing in 1965. 88pp of text and many B&W photographs, route map, gradient profile and detail maps. 3rd revised and enlarged edition from 1995. Approximately A5 size List Price: £6.95 GBP New From: £6.95 GBP In Stock Used from: £3.84 GBP In Stock