Calverhall

Calverhall [http://www.calverhall-village.co.uk] is a small village in North Shropshire, approximately 5 miles away from the town of Whitchurch, Shropshire. It lies within the civil parish of its neighbouring village of Ightfield which is one mile away.

Village life

Calverhall is the home of the renowned "Olde Jack Inn" public house/restaurant, named after a famed historical drinking vessel made of leather with a silver mounted enscripted band around the rim known as "the Jacorra" ("Corra" incidentally being an ancient name of the village). It was purported to be a challenge for any man to drink the full contents (just over a pint) of the Jacorra vessel in one go as quickly as possible but this wasn't as easy as it sounds due to the width of the vessels rim only allowing a thin trickle to pour from it. Unfortunately the wherabouts of the fabled Jacorra are no longer known, and is believed to have disappeared without trace some 120 years ago.

Calverhall has also recently won a countywide community award, naming it the best village in Shropshire. It won praise for its improvement in recent years, due largely to a number of schemes, especially the Millennium Pond which sits either side of the road as an entrance way into the village from the Prees Road. It also boasts active sports and social groups, including cricket, tennis, bowls and a snooker/pool/recreation club, a much used village hall which caters for everything from local W.I. meetings, youth club nights and even touring local theatre groups - in fact, all in all it has more than some much larger villages. It does not however have a shop/post office which was lost a number of years ago, and was until 2002 served by the facility in neighbouring Ightfield before it too closed down and was converted into a private house.

Housing

Housing in Calverhall falls into 3 main groups. There are (former) council houses, many of which are now privately owned. Secondly there are the "Corra Meadows" houses, these being these all being privately owned and are also the newest houses in the village, the development being built in the early 1990s. Also there are the oldest "Estate" houses, Calverhall falling within the boundaries of the Shavington and Cloverly estate, owned by the Heywood-Lonsdale family. The estate office is the village and was for many years run by Mr Timothy Heywood-Lonsdale before recently being passed onto his son, William. The estate employs a small number of local workers to maintain their land and property, although these workers are famously known for their incredibly slow work rate and record number of tea breaks taken in one day (current 49 by Tim and Roy!) and the signs that they put up to warn drivers whenever they are working on jobs bordering the highway "SLOW, MEN WORKING" are a always funny joke when read with the emphasis changed to leave out the comma.

Churches

Calverhall's church is the Church of England "Holy Trinity", which itself is part of a network of five local churches (Ash, Moreton Say, Ightfield, Calverhall, Adderley - abbr. AMICA) which are within a 6 mile diameter of each other and are served mainly by the Reverend Roger Anders who resides in the rectory of nearby Moreton Say. The Amica Centre is the central administrative hub and a community centre for the AMICA Benefice, and is located in Ightfield, next to the church. The website is located at [http://www.AmicaCentre.co.uk AmicaCentre.co.uk] .

A Christian conference centre lies to the east of the village at Cloverley Hall. [http://www.cloverleyhall.co.uk]

ee also

*Clem Wilson, cricketer (1875-1944), who died in the village

External links

The Calverhall website can be found at [http://www.calverhall-village.co.uk www.calverhall-village.co.uk]