Great Ness

Great Ness
Adcote School for Girls.
Great Ness  Great Ness shown within Shropshire
OS grid reference	SJ 3782519243
Unitary authority	Shropshire
Ceremonial county	Shropshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Shropshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
EU Parliament	West Midlands
List of places UK England Shropshire

Great Ness and Little Ness are civil parishes in Shropshire, England. The two parishes share a parish council. The Great Ness and Little Ness Parish council meet on the first Tuesday of every mouth, except for January and August, at Nesscliffe Village Hall or Little Ness Hillage Hall.^[3] The parishes cover the area surrounding the village of Nesscliffe, Hopton, Kinton, Willcot, Felton-Bulter and Alderton

Little Ness is probably best known for being the location of the independent girls' day and boarding school Adcote. The school was founded in 1907 and came to Little Ness in 1927 where it has grown significantly converting out houses and stables into classrooms. When Adcote first came to Little Ness it was filled to capacity of 72 boarders, it currently has 180 pupils, 80 of them being boarders. Adcote celebrated its centenary in 2007.^[4]

The Hamlet

Great Ness is compact and consists of various styles of dwellings, many of which have become Listed Buildings. In total there are 25 Listed Buildings in the parish of Great Ness with a Grade II listing or higher.^[5] The Church of Saint Andrew, the parish church, in Great Ness is protected by Grade I listing. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as the "Manor of Nessham" due to it being one of the seven churches Roger de Montgomery, the first Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, retained in his own hands.^[6] In 2011 Great Ness became a conservation area.^[7]

History

Throughout time Great Ness has had a few changes in registration districts. In 1935 the Ellesmere district lost Great Ness to the Oswestry district and just over 30 years later, in 1967, Shrewsbury gained Great Ness and became its registration district.^[8] Coincidently the only major boundary change that took place was in 1967 when it was reduced to aid the enlargement of another parish, Kinnerley.^[9]

Population

Population change in Great Ness from 1801 – 2001^[2]

Between 1881 and 2001 Shropshire has experienced a rapid population increase of 10.5% which is over twice as fast as the growth of England which is 4.8%. However the increase has not been due to natural growth but the migration of people into the area. Migration to the Shropshire area in 2001 were high with 13613 migrants moving into the Shropshire area, North Shropshire showed the highest overall level of net inward migration. This most likely to be explained by the inward migration of 933 people into communal establishments in the area, the RAF Shawbury, the Tern Hill Barracks or HM Youth Custody Centre.^[10] The population of Great Ness has generally followed trend and risen in population since the early 1800s, but did experience a few decades of decline from 1881 to 1931 where the population fell by 200 in the space of 50 years. However in contrast to this Great Ness experienced rapid growth from 1931 to 1951 reaching an all-time high of 1536. The most recent count of Great Ness's population is from the 2001 census showing Great Ness to have a population of 807.^[11]

In general the early census reports were very simplified creating confusion with things such as the classifications of occupation, leading to issues like social status and what the individual workers did being mixed up. In the census report of 1881 more organised classifications were implicated covering over 414 categories.^[12] The graph below is made from the 1881 census report showing agriculture to be the most dominant occupation, accounting for over 50% of all males. Whereas the majority of women were found to be working in domestic services or offices. Due to Great Ness lying to the north of the River Severn it receives fertile deposits which is how it resulted in settlement and agriculture. The river valleys crops indicate agricultural activity as far back as the Bronze Age.^[13] The majority of the area remains largely rural in character and sparsely populated.

Population Structure of Great Ness 1881^[1]

Attractions

Humphrey Kynaston commonly known as 'Wild Humphrey Kynaston', son of Sir Roger Kynaston a former High Sheriff of Shropshire, got his name from his lifestyle and frequently getting into trouble with the law. Consequently his legendary deeds have become the basis for many attractions in the local area including Nesscliffe Country Park and Nesscliffe Rock Cave.

Nesscliffe Country Park

Nescliffe Country park lies just of the A5 between Oswestry and Shrewsbury. The Old Three Pigeons Inn, dated back to the 1400s, is located at the entrance to the Park and was said to be the watering hole of Humphrey Kynaston. Inside, the seat from Kynaston's cave is now part of the Inn's fireplace. The park itself is divided into three areas Nesscliffe Hill, Hopton Hill and The Cliffe. Shruggs Common, believed to be the smallest common in Shropshire of approximately 1/4 acre, is found on Nesscliffe Hill.^[14]

Nesscliffe Rock Cave

The Nesscliffe Rock Cave is part of the Nesscliffe Country Park. It is a small sandstone cave and is better known as Kynaston's Cave as it is the place he and his trusty steed Beelzebub sought refuge. The entrance to the cave is six metres high and stairs were cut into the soft rock, however over time the stairs have eroded so a wooden staircase was built to enable access to the cave.^[15] Inside the cave you can see two chambers approximately four square metres big and the date 1564 carved in to one of the walls, followed by the initials of H.K., Humphrey Kynaston.^[16]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Ness.

• SABC page
• Official parish council website
• Adcote School Website