LESSER POSTON
At the time of its transfer to Hopton Cangeford
civil parish in 1884 Little Poston (343 a., 139
ha.) had long been a detached township of
Munslow parish, the main part of which lay c.
6 km. north-west. (fn. 79) Earlier, until 1442, it had
probably formed a detached township of
Thonglands parish and earlier still, it is presumed, was part of Diddlebury parish.
In the late Saxon period Little Poston and
Great Poston adjoining it to the north-east had
presumably formed a single estate in Diddlebury
parish; thus perhaps it was to Diddlebury church
that a Domesday tenant of the manor had to
render a bundle of box on Palm Sunday. (fn. 80) A 1¼-a.
close near Little Poston Farm remained in Diddlebury parish until the 19th century. (fn. 81) The
dean and chapter of Hereford cathedral, to
whom Diddlebury rectory was appropriated in
1237, owned a third of Little Poston's tithes. (fn. 82)
The other two thirds were evidently granted
away before 1237, probably to the rector of
Thonglands, for the lord of Little Poston seems
also to have been lord of Thonglands manor and
patron of that church. It was thus almost certainly the absorption of Thonglands by
Munslow parish in 1442 (fn. 83) that made Little Poston a detached part of Munslow parish. Little
Poston, with Great Poston, was transferred to
Hopton Cangeford ecclesiastical parish in
1858. (fn. 84)
The name Poston may have reference to a
thorn tree used as a boundary marker of the
combined estate. (fn. 85) Little Poston's own boundary
was marked in the south by the streams running
down Poston and Witchcot dingles. A small
tributary of Pye brook marked part of the township's northern boundary, but elsewhere the
boundary followed field edges. (fn. 86)
Little (now Lesser) Poston lies towards the
western edge of the Clee Hills plateau. The land
slopes up from c. 170 m. at the confluence of
Witchcot and Poston dingles, to 254 m. on
Sutton hill, south of Baldwin's coppice; to the
north-west it dips towards the Pye brook valley.
Lesser Poston Farm stands at c. 220 m. (fn. 87) The
soil is a silty loam, overlying the red marls of the
Old Red Sandstone. (fn. 88)
Crossing the highest land in the township is
the road north-east from Ludlow bound for
villages around the western side of the Clees
including Cold Weston, Clee St. Margaret, and
Stoke St. Milborough. Footpaths lead northwest and north from Little Poston to Sutton,
Diddlebury, and Peaton, and south to Hopton
Cangeford. (fn. 89)
There is nothing to suggest that before the
19th century Little Poston ever comprised more
than one or two farms, and the township was not
taxed separately in the Middle Ages. In the later
17th century there were two farmhouses there (fn. 90)
but by the early 19th century only one, (fn. 91) Little
Poston Farm; (fn. 92) that was last inhabited c. 1950. (fn. 93)
By 1843 there were cottages at Red Furlong in
the north-eastern part of the township and at
Sutton Hill in the north-west. (fn. 94) Eight houses,
Cedarwood Cottages, were built c. 1953 in the
north, next to the Ludlow road. (fn. 95)
MANOR.
Ketil (Chetel) held LITTLE POSTON in 1066. By 1086 Earl Roger had given it
to his chapel of St. Michael in Shrewsbury
castle. (fn. 96) In 1102 the Crown resumed the castle,
which was usually in the sheriff's custody thereafter. By 1255 John FitzAlan (II), heir of the
men who had enjoyed a virtually hereditary
shrievalty in the 12th century, was overlord of
Little Poston. (fn. 97) Little Poston was said to be held
of Hugh, Lord Burnell, in 1418-19 (fn. 98) and of the
duchy of York 1501-1606. (fn. 99)
Richard of Thonglands was terre tenant in
1255 (fn. 1) as were his successors as lords of
Thonglands, Sir Roger de Bradeleye in 1284 and
Roger de la Mare in 1316. (fn. 2) Before 1344 the
principal holding in Little Poston, occasionally
described as a manor, passed to the Beysin
family. (fn. 3) It descended with their share of Broseley until the division of the Harewell estate in
1534 when Little Poston fell to Agnes, wife of
John Smith. (fn. 4) From her (d. 1562) the estate,
usually described as two farms, seems to have
descended with Wootton Wawen (Warws.) (fn. 5) until 1673 when Francis Smith, Viscount
Carrington, sold Little Poston to Richard Coling. Coling sold it in 1693 to Thomas and
Elizabeth Lee (fn. 6) whose descendants sold it in 1802
to Valentine Vickers of Cranmere (in Worfield). (fn. 7)
Vickers died in 1814; (fn. 8) his son, the Ven. William
Vickers, owned all Little Poston in 1843 (fn. 9) but
evidently sold it shortly before his death in
1851 (fn. 10) to Richard Mason, owner c. 1850 of the
739-a. Poston estate, including all of Little Poston. (fn. 11) Mason or a namesake was evidently owner
in 1913, (fn. 12) but in that year Lower, formerly
Little, Poston farm (c. 263 a.) was bought,
probably from trustees, by James Mason, John K.
Mason, and Zachariah Mason, coal merchants of
Dudley. James was mentioned as owner until the
late 1920s when the estate evidently passed to P.
G. Holder of Corfton Hall. (fn. 13)
In 1942 Holder sold Lesser, formerly Little,
Poston farm (205 a.), as part of his Corfton
estate, to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 14)
The Church Commissioners sold it to Lord
Boyne in 1964, (fn. 15) and he sold it later. (fn. 16) The owner
in 1991 was T. R. Gough.
Lesser Poston Farm, a long stone building of
two storeys and an attic, semi-derelict in 1991,
includes elements of a substantial late medieval
timber framed building. (fn. 17) Those include a stud
partition at the north end of the principal firstfloor room and, in the roof, intermediate trusses,
probably not in situ; one of them is elaborately
stopped. About 1600, or perhaps a little later,
the house was altered to give it a principal
ground-floor room (26 × 19 ft.) served by a
chimney stack placed centrally in the rear wall;
much of the room's elaborately carved compartmented ceiling remains in situ. The room above
was the same size. What comprised the rest of
the house, probably that occupied with 3 yardlands by Thomas Baldwin (fl. 1661, d. 1708),
gentleman, and his son Edward (d. 1730), (fn. 18) is
unknown. The house was substantially altered
in the 18th and 19th centuries when it was
progressively clad in stone. The south, or parlour, end was rebuilt, the hall was foreshortened
at the north to form a new kitchen, and the
timber ceiling was cut down to fit the new,
smaller, hall place.
A third of the TITHES of Little Poston
belonged to the dean and chapter of Hereford
cathedral, presumably from 1237, when Diddlebury rectory was appropriated to them. (fn. 19) In 1844
the tithes were commuted to £6. (fn. 20) The cathedral's appropriated tithe of Barn close, that part
of the township in Diddlebury parish, had been
discharged of appropriated and vicarial tithe at
commutation in 1843. (fn. 21)
ECONOMIC HISTORY.
In 1086 there was 1
virgate of land sufficient for ½ ploughteam. (fn. 22)
Furlongs in the north-eastern part of the township (fn. 23) and ridge and furrow around Lesser
Poston Farm (fn. 24) may indicate medieval open-field
land. In the later 17th century the township's
farm land was reckoned at 3 yardlands. (fn. 25) Flax or
hemp may have been grown there. (fn. 26)
A large wood, probably called Brockhurst,
seems to have occupied the township's southern
end; (fn. 27) it was cleared before the 19th century. (fn. 28)
In the northern part of the township Baldwin's
and Cockshut coppices, both so called in the
early 19th century, survived. (fn. 29) A small common
on Sutton hill, mentioned in 1802, was inclosed
after 1843. (fn. 30)
There was a quarry north of Baldwin's coppice and another near Lower, formerly Little,
Poston Farm. A shaft north of the farm buildings
may represent old copper workings. (fn. 31)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
In 1462 Little Poston did suit to a Broseley court of recognition at
which William Harewell's tenants appeared. (fn. 32)
As part of Munslow parish Little Poston was
in Ludlow poor-law union from 1836, Ludlow
highway district from 1863, and Ludlow rural
sanitary district from 1872, and after its transfer
to Hopton Cangeford civil parish in 1884 remained with that C.P. in the same poor-law
union, highway district, rural (sanitary) district,
and district as Munslow. (fn. 33)