- Brewood
Infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Brewood
latitude= 52.67692
longitude= -2.17383
shire_district=South Staffordshire
region= West Midlands
shire_county =Staffordshire
constituency_westminster=
postcode_district = ST19
postcode_area= ST
dial_code= 01902
os_grid_reference= SJ883088Brewood (Audio|En-uk-Brewood.ogg|pronunciation; IPA|/'bruːd/) was once a town, but now a
village , inSouth Staffordshire ,England . Located at gbmapping|SJ883088, it lies near theRiver Penk , eightmile s north ofWolverhampton city centre and eleven miles south of the county town ofStafford . Some three miles to the west of Brewood is the border with the county ofShropshire . The village is pronounced "brood", despite the spelling.Brewood today
The current
parish of Brewood and Coven has a population of around 7,500 in four distinct villages (Brewood, Coven, Bishop's Wood and Coven Heath). TheShropshire Union Canal passes through the western edge of Brewood, theRiver Penk flows along the eastern edge andBelvide Reservoir , which feeds the canal, is nearby.Brewood has four schools:
*St. Mary & St. Chad'sChurch of England (VC)First School , with around 150 pupils
*BrewoodMiddle School , with about four hundred students. OriginallyBrewood Grammar School , founded mid 15th century
*St Mary'sCatholic Primary School , with some 90 children on the roll
*St Dominic's schoolThere is a Brewood
Civic Society and aRotary Club of Brewood. Brewood is also the home of the Brewood Singers. The village came second in the South Staffordshire Best Kept Village 2005 challenge and has won the competition numerous times.George Harrison once attended a wedding in Brewood, a popular destination for society Midlands weddings. It is something of a mecca for seventies music: Roy Wood of Wizzard educated his daughter Holly Wood at a nearby school and Jimmy Lea of Slade lives on the outskirts. More recently, excitement was caused when Jas Mann of Babylon Zoo was rumoured to have bought a house near the church.
Martin Gilks , drummer of the British pop bandThe Wonder Stuff , grew up in Brewood.Fact|date=October 2007Sian Reeves , British actress most famous for playing the character Sydney Henshall in the Manchester-based television drama "Cutting It ", grew up in Brewood [http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/women/020403features/tm_objectid=16594455&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=cutting-ties-name_page.html] .History
The old
Roman road ,Watling Street , runs one mile to the north of the village as the A5. A market charter was granted to Brewood by King Henry III, in 1221. There was an annual Brewood Wake.Richard Hurd, later a
Bishop of Worcester , was educated atBrewood Grammar School byWilliam Budworth .Near the village is
Boscobel House , said to have been one of the numerous places in England to have sheltered King Charles II.Churches
The
Anglican church is Saint Mary the Virgin andSaint Chad ; built of sandstone between 1150 and 1250, on the site of an earlier woodenMercia n church. "Thorough" restoration was carried out in the late 1870s. The noted tower andspire have a peal of eight bells.Two strong examples of 'Early English' church building are to be found here. Firstly, the
Roman Catholic church of 1840, built in Brewood under the direction of Pugin. Secondly, the fine church nearby atBishops Wood .Further reading
* M.W. Greenslade & Margaret Midgley. "A History of Brewood". 1981, Staffordshire County Library.
* David Horovitz. "Brewood". 1988. ISBN 1-85421-011-4
* Adrienne Whitehouse, "Brewood and Penkridge in Old Photographs". 1988. ISBN 0-86299-519-1External links
* [http://home.btconnect.com/brewoodparish/ Brewood & Coven Parish website]
* [http://www.brewoodsingers.co.uk/ The Brewood Singers website]
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