Sheriff Hales

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Sheriff Hales
Staffordshire, Shropshire
Pool at Sheriffhales, and the Manor Lodge cottage - geograph.org.uk - 1640665.jpg
Pool at Sheriffhales, and lodge of Sherriffhales Manor
Location
Grid reference: SJ759123
Location: 52°42’29"N, 2°21’22"W
Data
Population: 722  (2011)
Post town: Shifnal
Postcode: TF11
Dialling code: 01952
Local Government
Council: Shropshire
Parliamentary
constituency:
The Wrekin
St Mary's Church

Sheriff Hales or Sheriffhales is a scattered village and parish on the border of Staffordshire and Shropshire. The village lies 4½ miles north-east of Telford, 2½ miles north of Shifnal and 4½ miles south of Newport. The parish church and most of the village lies in Staffordshire, with the manor house lying in Shropshire. The name derives from Halh (Anglican) and scīr-rēfa (Old English) which is a combination of Hales (a nook of land, small valley) and Sheriff (a king's executive). At the time of the Domesday Book, it was held by Roger de Balliol the Sheriff of Shropshire.[1]

Despite being a small village of around 100 people, there is a primary school,[2] a Church of England church (St Mary's)[3] and a local post office, as well as a playing field with football goals and a children's playground.[4] The church is a Grade-II listed building that dates back to the 12th century.[5] Its parish has a population of about 700 people, however it reached 1,019 people in 1850, when the Duke of Sutherland owned most of it.[6] The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 722.[7]

The 2007 Tour of Britain bike race passed through the village on the first of September as part of the Wolverhampton to Birmingham stage.

The main farm within the village, Meadow Farm, was a predominantly dairy farm, but has been subsequently converted into an arable farm. It is also the centre for a point-to-point yard.

Sheriffhales was the site of the World War II PoW Camp 71,[8] located along the drive to Lilleshall Hall. The camp was intended for Italian Prisoners of War and housed up to 2,000 until Italy surrendered in 1943; thereafter it was used to house German PoW's until 1948 when most were repatriated.[9]

Sheriffhales is mentioned (under the name "Hales") in the Ellis Peters novel The Confession of Brother Haluin.

Hope Vere Anderson is Lord of the Manor of Sheriffhales and descends from the senior branch of the Hope Vere's of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire. The Hope Vere's trace their ancestry to Roger De Vere who was Lord of the Manor of Hales and when he became Sheriff of Shropshire in the 16th century he changed the name of his Manor from that of Hales to Sheriffhales to reflect his importance in being appointed to this additional role.

References

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