Church Stretton, Shropshire

Description
Church Stretton, a market-town, a parish, and the head of a poor law union in Shropshire. The town is on Watling Street, under the Longmynd Hills, 12 1/2 miles S of Shrewsbury, and 15 NW of Ludlow. It has a station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford joint (L. & N.W. and G.W.) railway, and is 175 miles by rail from London. It has a head post office (R.S.O.), a market hall, a hotel, a working men's club and reading room, and a workhouse. Markets are held on Thursdays, and fairs on second Thursday in Jan., third Thursday in March, 14 May, 3 July, 25 Sept., and the last Thursday in Nov. Woollens, yarns, and rugs are manufactured, and there are an aerated water company at the Longmynd spring, and a mineral water company at Springbank. The town is well supplied with water. The Sandford avenue of limes, a mile in length, was presented to the town by the Rev. Holland Sandford in 1884. The church, a cruciform building, is Early English, with some Norman remains; it has a square, central tower, restored in 1880. There are a Congregational chapel and a lunatic asylum. The parish includes the townships of All Stretton, Little Stretton, and Minton, and the manor of Stretton-en-le-Dale. Acreage, 10,286; population, 1707. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford; gross value, £460 with residence. There are Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels at Little Stretton, a Primitive Methodist chapel at Lower Woody and a lunatic asylum for ladies at All Stretton. There are numerous camps and earthworks in the neighbourhood.