Stokesay

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Stokesay is a small village in Shropshire, England just north of Ludlow on the A49 road, also fleetingly visible from the Shrewsbury to Hereford Welsh Marches railway line.

[edit] Attractions

The village is famous for Stokesay Castle [1], a fortified manor house [2] and one of the best preserved and oldest examples [3] of the type in the UK.

The village, which even today comprises just a church, St. John's church (a rare example of the Commonwealth style, having been rebuilt during the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell's rule), a working farm and a few houses, was previously known as just "Stoke". This widespread English placename means simply 'enclosure'.

The film Atonement was filmed in part near Stokesay.^[1]

[edit] Saxon & Norman History

In the mid 10th century the manor of Stoke was held by Wild Edric, a Saxon nobleman, notable for his strenuous resistance to the Normans immediately after the Norman Conquest of England. The Normans wrested the manor from his hands and granted it in their normal fashion to a notable Norman as a reward for his part in the Conquest, one Picot de Say, also known as William de Picot. It was this man who had a house and church built some time after 1068.

A mile to the north is the small town of Craven Arms and to the south east the larger, historical town of Ludlow. Stokesay was once a civil parish, which covered the land now taken up by Craven Arms. However it merged with Halford parish to form the modern day Craven Arms parish.

Nearby, at Craven Arms, is the Shropshire Hills Discovery centre, with its grass roof [4], easily seen from the A49.