| Baschurch | |
|---|---|
 Baschurch parish church | |
  Baschurch Location withinShropshire | |
| Population | 2,503 (2011)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SJ4259321413 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Shrewsbury |
| Postcode district | SY4 |
| Dialling code | 01939 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Shropshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
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Baschurch is a village andcivil parish inShropshire, England. It lies in the north of Shropshire. The village had a population of 2,503 as of the 2011 census. Shrewsbury is to the south-east,Oswestry is to the north-west, andWem is to the north-east of Baschurch. The village is also close toRuyton-XI-Towns.
The earliest references to Baschurch are under itsWelsh nameEglwyssau Bassa (Churches of Bassa), in a seven-stanzaenglyn-poem of the same name found in the Welsh cycle of poems calledCanu Heledd,[2] generally thought to date to the ninth century:[3]
Eglwysseu bassa y orffowys heno. | Baschurch is his resting place tonight, |
The English nameBaschurch first appears in theDomesday Book of 1086 asBascherche, and both names may derive from an Anglo-Saxon personal nameBass(a). Thus the name inCanu Heledd is aBrittonic version of an English name.[4]
Local tradition holds that the Berth Pool and its ancient earthworks outside the village are the resting place of the legendaryKing Arthur.[citation needed]
In medieval times, several properties in the parish, including Adcote Mill, were owned byHaughmond Abbey near Shrewsbury.[5]
Baschurch had a township called Boreatton, or Bratton, standing on the banks of theRiver Perry, with a country house called Bratton House.[6]
The world's first orthopaedic hospital was established at Florence House in Baschurch by SirRobert Jones andDame Agnes Hunt in 1900 as a convalescent home for crippled children and later to treat wounded from theFirst World War.[7] The hospital moved to Oswestry in 1921.
In 2000 a large stone made of local sandstone was erected in the modern centre of the village to commemorate theMillennium. Similar smaller stones were erected in neighbouring communities.
A major feature of the village is All Saints' Church (Church of England)[8] which is one of the oldest standing structures in the village (perhapsthe oldest). A timber church which burnt down is believed to have stood on the same site previously. Leading engineer and builderThomas Telford made numerous major alterations to the modern sandstone church.
The village also had aMethodist chapel which was built in 1873 and closed in 2014 after the congregation had "dwindled to less than a dozen".[9] It was sold for conversion into a house in April 2015.[10]
Baschurch is twinned with the town ofGiat in theFrenchdépartement ofPuy-de-Dôme, in theAuvergne-Rhône-Alpesrégion.[citation needed]
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The village has two schools including Baschurch Church of England Primary School, andthe Corbet School formerly known as Baschurch Secondary Modern School. Just outside the village is Walford College, an agricultural and sports college which in 2002 merged with Oswestry-based North Shropshire College to formWalford and North Shropshire College.
Baschurch has a number of amenities including a post office, a retainedShropshire Fire and Rescue Service fire station and a village hall located on Eyton Lane next to the Corbet School.
TheShrewsbury to Chester Line passes through the village, though the Victorianrailway station was closed to passengers in 1960 and goods trains in 1965.[11]
On 13 February 1961 a passenger train travelling from Shrewsbury to Chester collided with a goods train which was partially shunted into a siding in Baschurch. Three people died in theaccident. Television footage of the wreckage is available from theBBC.
There have been repeated efforts to bring the railway station back into use, most recently in autumn 2008, with the support of Baschurch Parish Council and the Shrewsbury-Chester Rail Users' Association. In September 2009, a public meeting organised by theBaschurch Station Group, was attended by 250 local people and received extensive media coverage.[12][13]
Baschurch was one of just six places in the United Kingdom to succeed in a competition held byBT to get super-fastbroadband. The winners of the "Race to Infinity" competition were announced on 6 January 2011 and Baschurch came sixth. BT originally promised that only the top 5 places would go through with the upgrade (involvingoptic fibre-based infrastructure), but were impressed enough by the response in Baschurch.[23] As of March 2018 much of the village has yet to be connected to super-fast broadband.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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