PRESTON UPON THE WEALD MOORS
The manor and township of Preston upon the
Weald Moors lies 5 km. north-east of Wellington.
It was originally subject to Wellington church but
became a separate parish in the 13th century. (fn. 3)
Parts of the township's southern boundary are
marked by the road from Preston to Hurleybrook,
in existence by 1283, (fn. 4) and by Hurley brook.
Ditches across the Weald Moors mark its boundaries on the west, north, and east. The eastern
boundary partly coincides with the course of
Humber brook and may have done so wholly until
the 13th century. (fn. 5) As in Eyton and the other
Weald Moors parishes some boundaries impinging on the moor may have been formally
defined only at a relatively late date. (fn. 6) Disputes
over rights on the Weald Moors in the 16th and
17th centuries, however, did not directly concern
Preston, and maps drawn up for claimants c. 1580
showed the township's boundaries as well defined,
with the possible exception of those on the northwest. (fn. 7) Preston township also included a detached
part (probably the manor's original woodland) (fn. 8) to
the south-east; its boundaries required elucidation in 1238. (fn. 9) Preston was in the forest of Mount
Gilbert until 1301. (fn. 10)
The Hoo c. 1900
The area of the ancient township (the subject of
the present article) was 1,074 a. (424 ha.) including 84 a. in the south-eastern detachment. By
1842 fields amounting to 139 a., scattered mainly
across the north and east of the township and
mostly formerly owned by the Charltons of
Apley, (fn. 11) were counted as part of Wellington parish. By then the south-eastern detachment too was
fragmented by 11 a. of closes belonging to Wellington parish. (fn. 12) The complex parish boundaries
thus produced may have been no older than the
later 18th century. (fn. 13) They were rationalized 1883-
4 when the parts of Wellington parish in Preston
township were added to Preston civil parish and
Preston parish's fragments of the south-eastern
detachment were assigned to Wellington and
Wrockwardine Wood C.P.s. Preston thus became
a civil parish of 990 a. (401 ha.). (fn. 14)
Preston township lies on glacial deposits overlying Permian breccia and sandstone and Triassic
Bunter Pebble Beds on the northern edge of the
east Shropshire coalfield. Both Preston village, in
the centre of the township, and the Hoo hamlet to
the south-east and near the boundary, lie on red
marl and sand, with some sand and gravel to the
east and west. North and south is boulder clay,
giving way to peat and alluvium on the Weald
Moors. (fn. 15) Preston village is an agglomeration of
19th-century brick farms, with scattered 18th
century and later houses, grouped around a
square of streets, within which is the churchyard.
At the west end of the village are the Preston
Trust Homes (Preston hospital until 1946), almshouses founded in the early 18th century. (fn. 16) About
1953 a small group of council houses was built
south of the village. (fn. 17) Kinley farm, 1 km. west of
the village, may have been the focus of a small
medieval hamlet, 'houses' being noted there in
1650. (fn. 18) To the south-east lies Hoo Hall. Property
boundaries east of it suggest that there was
formerly a linear hamlet there, largely depopulated by 1842. Hoo Green lay between hall and
hamlet. (fn. 19)
Roads run from the village in three directions:
north-west through the Weald Moors to Kynnersley; south-west to Wappenshall; and south to join
a road from Lilleshall to Hurleybrook, from
which lanes lead off to the Hoo and Horton. The
last named road, in part coinciding with Preston's
boundary, existed by 1283. (fn. 20)
In 1833 a hoard of five middle Bronze Age
axeheads was found east of Kinley Farm, (fn. 21) and a
burnt hearth was noted on the Weald Moors in
1922. (fn. 22)
In 1086 there were 2 oxherds on the demesne
and 3 villeins; (fn. 23) 8 householders paid the 1327
subsidy, (fn. 24) and 25 paid hearth tax in 1672. (fn. 25) In
1799 Preston was described as a 'very small
village' of 170 persons. (fn. 26) By 1841 there were 247
inhabitants, (fn. 27) including 42 in the hospital. (fn. 28)
Although by 1851 there were 63 (fn. 29) hospital residents, the parish population had fallen slightly.
The 1883-4 boundary changes had little effect on
population, which remained at the mid 19thcentury level until after the First World War.
Thereafter, owing to agricultural mechanization, (fn. 30)
population gradually fell, although it rose again in
the 1960s, to 226 by 1981. (fn. 31)
The first part of the Shrewsbury Canal, opened
in 1794, (fn. 32) cut the south-west corner of the parish,
and the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal's Newport branch, built in 1835, bisected the
township from west to east, following the edge of
the Weald Moors. (fn. 33) The building of a bridge over
the latter canal probably provided the occasion for
the straightening and realignment of the road to
Kynnersley; (fn. 34) there were two other bridges, both
near Kinley. Immediately west of the village
bridge was a canal keeper's cottage, to the east a
winding pool and boathouse. (fn. 35) The canal was last
used in the 1940s and partly filled c. 1970. (fn. 36) In the
later 18th century one, or occasionally two,
alesellers were licensed. (fn. 37) No later licensed premises are known.