GROWTH OF SETTLEMENT.
Stirchley remained a very small agricultural community until
the 19th century. The parish contained 7 households in 1563 (fn. 29) and only 3 farms and 5 cottages in
1612. (fn. 30) In 1672 hearth tax was paid by 11
inhabitants (fn. 31) and the parish was said to containc.
10 houses a century later. (fn. 32) As industry spread
into the parish in the early 19th century, population rose from 143 in 1801 to a peak of 333 in
1871. The largest decennial increase, almost 100,
was in the 1820s when new collieries and ironworks were opened. In the late 19th and early
20th century, as the coal and iron industries
failed, the population declined steadily, dropping
to 166 in 1931, the last date for which census
figures for the ancient parish are available. (fn. 33) Stirchley was included within the designated area of
Dawley new town in 1963 and by 1979 the
population housed in the area of the ancient
parish had risen to c. 7,000. (fn. 34)
In the later 13th century the parish contained at
least two settlements: Stirchley, presumably near
the church, and 'Oulmeyre', probably near the
later Holmer Farm. (fn. 35) Grange Farm, a third
medieval settlement, originated as Buildwas
abbey's grange and was probably established after
the abbey acquired the manor in the mid 13th
century.
The Brands (later Upper Brands) was built c.
1660 (fn. 36) and from then until the 19th century the
parish contained only four principal farmsteads
(Stirchley Hall, near the church, and the outlying
farmsteads of Grange farm, Holmer, and Brands)
and a cluster of cottages and smallholdings around
the church.
The increase in population in the early 19th
century resulted in small but significant changes
to the settlement pattern. Two houses in Stirchley, leased by the Botfields, the Dawley ironmasters, were converted into 15 cottages for
industrial workers in 1803, (fn. 37) and at Mount
Pleasant 5 houses, inhabited by labouring families
in the mid 19th century, had been built before c.
1815. (fn. 38) Six houses were under construction in the
parish in 1821. (fn. 39) As industrial activity continued
during the mid 19th century more groups of
houses were built for workers in the collieries and
ironworks. Northwood Terrace, a row of 4 brick
houses, was built in the 1840s to house the
ironworks managers and was consequently known
as Clerks Row, (fn. 40) and nearer the ironworks the
Furnace Houses (later demolished) were built for
foundry workers c. 1858. (fn. 41) The population increase at the time coincided with the first appearance of a licensed alehouse, the Rose and Crown,
converted from an existing house in the 1840s. (fn. 42)
There was shop in the village by 1841. (fn. 43)
The mid 19th century also saw the division of
Brands farm into three smaller holdings, which
resulted in the construction of Holmer House c.
1835 (fn. 44) and Lower Brands in the 1860s. (fn. 45) Thereafter, apart from a group of council houses built
near Grange Farm c. 1950, (fn. 46) there was little
development until 1970.
After Dawley (later Telford) development corporation acquired almost all the parish, between
1964 and 1969, (fn. 47) the landscape changed dramatically. The farmsteads of Upper and Lower
Brands, Holmer House, and Holmer were demolished as new housing estates were built over
much of the south and east parts of the parish. In
the Brookside estate, straddling the boundary
between Stirchley and Madeley ancient parishes,
1,792 corporation houses were built between 1971
and 1975, (fn. 48) and 500 private houses were built
from 1972 on parts of the former Stirchley Hall
farm south and south-east of the old village. (fn. 49) In
Stirchley residential district schemes comprising
948 corporation dwellings were completed between 1975 and 1977 on the former Lower Brands
and Holmer House farms; the district was focused
on a centre, east of Mad brook, containing health,
sports, and social facilities, schools, and a new
church. At Randlay, in the north-east, schemes
comprising 507 corporation dwellings were completed between 1977 and 1978 and private houses
were under construction in 1979. By then most of
the surviving open land had been converted to
ancillary 'urban' uses. The derelict industrial land
in the north-west had been designated for recreational use as part of Telford's town park,
while the western side of the Mad brook valley
below Grange Farm was occupied by playing
fields. Mad brook was dammed in the south-east
corner of the parish in 1968-70 to create a balancing reservoir known as Holmer Lake. (fn. 50)