Wem

Wem
Wem High Street.
Wem  Wem shown within Shropshire
Population	5,142
OS grid reference	SJ514289
Unitary authority	Shropshire
Ceremonial county	Shropshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	SHREWSBURY
Postcode district	SY4
Dialling code	01939
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Shropshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
EU Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	North Shropshire
List of places UK England Shropshire

Wem is a small market town in Shropshire, England. It is the administrative centre for the northern area committee of Shropshire Council, which has its headquarters at Edinburgh House in the centre of Wem.^[1] Wem lies nine miles to the north of Shropshire's county town of Shrewsbury and sits on the rail line between that town and Crewe in Cheshire.

Wem's civil parish is named Wem Urban. A separate one in the surrounding countryside is named Wem Rural.

History

House in Wem where William Hazlitt and his father lived in the late eighteenth century

The name of the town is derived from the Saxon "Wamm", meaning a marsh, as marshy land exists in the area of the town. Over time, this was corrupted to form "Wem".^[2]

The area now known as Wem is believed to have been settled prior to the Roman Conquest of Britain, by the Cornovii, Celtic Iron Age settlers. The town is recorded in the Domesday Book as consisting of four manors. In 1202, Wem became a market town.^[2]

The town supported the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was subject to an attack by Lord Capel, in which the town held off the attackers. In 1677, a fire destroyed many of the wooden buildings in the town.^[2]

Within the town the sweet pea was first commercially cultivated, under the variety named Eckford Sweet Pea, after its inventor, nursery-man Henry Eckford. He first introduced a variety of the sweet pea in 1882, and set up in Wem in 1888, developing and producing many more varieties. There is a road to signify the Eckford name, called Eckford Park (within Wem). Each year, the Eckford Sweet Pea Society of Wem hold a sweet pea festival. In Victorian times, the town was known as "Wem, where the sweet peas grow".^{[citation needed]}

Brewing, initially a 'cottage industry', was carried out in Wem as early as 1700, when Richard Gough wrote of a contemporary in his History of Myddle a Latin aphorism he translated: Let slaves admire base things, but my friend still/My cup and can with Wem's stoute ale shall fill.^[3] By 1900^[4] a Shrewsbury and Wem Brewery Company traded on a widespread scale after acquiring the brewery in Noble Street previously run by Charles Henry Kynaston.<ref name=Kelly's2>Kelly's Directory of Shropshire. Kelly's. 1895. pp. 253, 312. </ref> The company was taken over in turn by Greenall Whitley & Co Ltd^[5] but the brewery was closed in 1988.^[6] From 1986 to 1989 the brewery served as the shirt sponsor for Shrewsbury Town. ^[7]

Geography

Since 1978, Wem has been twinned with Fismes^[8] in France, after which is named a road in Wem, Fismes Way.^[9]

The River Roden flows to the south of the town. The Shropshire Way long distance waymarked path passes through Wem.

Culture and community

Wem's main church is the Anglican Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

Within the town there are four main churches. The oldest of these is the Anglican Parish Church of St. Peter & St. Paul. The other three are Baptist, Methodist^[10] and Roman Catholic.^[11]

Thomas Adams School is a state-funded secondary school, established in 1650. It also has a Sixth Form College on site.

Each year Wem holds a traditional town carnival on the first Saturday of September, as well as the Sweet Pea Festival.

Hawkstone Park is nearby.

Notable people

Wem was the birthplace of actors Peter Vaughan^[12] and Peter Jones,^[13] and the childhood home of the essayist and critic, William Hazlitt, whose father was a Unitarian Minister in the town.^[14] Stand-up and comedy actor Greg Davies spent his childhood in the town and attended its Thomas Adams School, as did professional wrestler Neil Faith. John Astley, an 18th-century portrait painter, was from the town. Anna Essinger moved her boarding school to Trench Hall, near Wem when Bunce Court was given short notice to evacuate during World War II.^[15]

Wem was the fiefdom of Judge Jeffreys, known as the "hanging judge" for his willingness to impose capital punishment on supporters of the Duke of Monmouth. In 1683 he was made Baron Jeffreys of Wem.

References

• The Story of Wem by Iris Woodward (1952)
• The History of Wem by Samuel Garbet (1818)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wem.

• Official Wem Town Hall Web Site - history, events, information
• Wem Carnival photos
• The Haunting of Wem Town Hall