Place:Worthen, Shropshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Worthen is a village in Shropshire, England approximately 13 miles west of Shrewsbury. The village forms part of the modern "Worthen with Shelve" civil parish, which includes the hamlet of Little Worthen immediately to the northeast and the villages of Brockton and Pennerley, in addition to several smaller settlements. It sits in the Rea Brook valley.

According to the 2011 UK census the population was 2,078.

Worthen's population was predominantly characterised by labourers as recorded in the 1831 census, which showed a more organised classification of occupation, during this year there were 393 recorded labourers and servants employed in agricultural and non agricultural sectors. A more detailed census was taken in 1881, which showed a greater working population of 437 male workers in mineral substances and 240 male workers in agriculture. Mining was a major employment sector and well known mines included Snailbeach, a lead-ore mine, Perkins’ Beach lead mine and additionally grit and gravel mines.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of --- from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WORTHEN, a village and a township in Salop [Shropshire], and a parish partly also in Montgomeryshire, but all in Montgomery [registration] district. The village stands 3¼ miles WSW of Minsterley [railway] station, and 12½ SW by W of Shrewsbury; was once a market-town; and has a post-office under Shrewsbury. The township includes several hamlets. Population in 1851: 2,887; in 1861: 3,150. Houses: 629.

"The parish contains three other townships, and comprises 18,130 acres. Real property: £14,100. Pop. in 1851: 3,325; in 1861: 3,723. Houses: 738. The property is much subdivided. There are lead mines, supposed to have been part of the ancient boundary between England and Wales, a circular mound, called the Beacon Ring, and several barrows. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value: £1,088. Patron: New College, Oxford. The church was partially restored in 1849. The rectory of Hope, the vicarage of Trelystan, and the [perpetual] curacy of Leighton are separate benefices. There are dissenting chapels, national schools, and charities £33."

The area of Worthen parish was almost ten times that given in the same gazetteer for the adjacent Shelve parish.

Research Tips

• The historical short form for Shropshire was "Salop". This is quite often found in archive material.
• Shropshire Archives, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury SY1 2AQ
• Shropshire Family History Society.
• The GENUKI main page for Shropshire provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and there is also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then.
• GENUKI also provides transcriptions of parish registers for numerous parishes throughout Shropshire. These will be noted at the bottom of this list as time permits for the parishes involved. Each register is preceded by historical notes from the editor-transciber and other details than simply births, marriages and deaths that have been found in the individual books from the parishes. These registers probably only go up to 1812 when the proscribed style for registers across the country was altered.
• GENUKI lists under each parish further references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. (URLs for these other websites may not be up to date.)
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence in 1851 with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Shropshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are similar pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions that existed pre-1974. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
• The two maps below indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.

• Map of Shropshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. (Unfortunately the online copy of this map has pencil codings in each parish which make it difficult to see the orignal.)
• Map of Shropshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were a number of changes to urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.

• A map of the ancient divisions named "hundreds" is to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time. Some of the hundreds were broken into separate sections with other hundreds in between.
• The website British History Online provides four volumes of the Victoria County History Series on Shropshire. Volume 2 covers the religious houses of the county; Volume 4 provides a history of agriculture across the county, and Volumes 10 and 11 deal with Munslow Hundred, the Borough of Wenlock and the Telford area (i.e., the northeastern part of the county). The rest of the county is not presently covered. References to individual parishes will be furnished as time permits.
• A transcription of the Worthen parish registers is online and is provided through the auspices of GENUKI.