Harley is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 and civil parish in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

.

Location

The village lies at the foot of Wenlock Edge

Wenlock Edge

Wenlock Edge is a limestone escarpment near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England. It is long and runs from South West to North East between Craven Arms and Much Wenlock. It is roughly 330 metres high...

 about 9.5 miles to the south-east of Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...

. The A458 road

A458 road

The A458 is a route on the UK highway network that runs from Mallwyd, near Machynlleth, in Wales, to Halesowen, near Stourbridge, in England. On the way it passes through Welshpool, Shrewsbury, Much Wenlock, Bridgnorth and Stourbridge.-Welshpool to Shrewsbury:...

 Shrewsbury to Bridgnorth

Bridgnorth

Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England, along the Severn Valley. It is split into Low Town and High Town, named on account of their elevations relative to the River Severn, which separates the upper town on the right bank from the lower on the left...

 road goes around the village on a bypass. The village is about 105 metres (344.5 ft) above sea level

Sea level

Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...

 on the southern slope of an extensive bed of sand and gravel, which creates an undulating landscape to the north-east of the parish. Harley Brook runs north-east across the centre of the village.

To the south east of the village is the market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 of Much Wenlock

Much Wenlock

Much Wenlock, earlier known as Wenlock, is a small town in central Shropshire, England. It is situated on the A458 road between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth. Nearby, to the northeast, is the Ironbridge Gorge, and the new town of Telford...

. Nearby villages include Kenley

Kenley, Shropshire

Kenley is a small village and parish in the English county of Shropshire. It is located in remote countryside, atop a ridge at around above sea level, with the larger villages of Acton Burnell and Harley being a few miles away....

, Cressage

Cressage

Cressage is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England. It lies on the junction of the A458 and B4380 roads and the River Severn flows around its northern boundary. The Royal Mail postcode begins SY5...

 and Homer

Homer, Shropshire

Homer is a small village in Shropshire, England, north of the town of Much Wenlock.The name first appears in the 14th century as "Honemor". Originally common land called Homer Wood, the settlement developed from squatters' cottages encroaching on the common during the 17th century...

.

History

There is evidence of prehistoric human activity around Harley, as stone implements and a settlement have been found in the area, and the site of a Roman villa

Roman villa

A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...

 has also been found nearby. Harley is recorded in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 in 1086 as a manor

Manorialism

Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

 with enough wood for 100 swine, and before 1066 the parish consisted of 4 manors: Harley, Domas, Rowley and Blakeway.

St Mary’s parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

 is first recorded in 1291, the medieval church consisting of a chancel

Chancel

In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...

, nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

, north aisle and western tower. The small 13th Century tower was rebuilt in the early 16th Century in Perpendicular style. This is the only part of the pre-Reformation

English Reformation

The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

 church remaining, as it was mostly rebuilt in 1845-6 by a local architect Samuel Pountney Smith.

Until the 18th Century the houses in the village were along the roads to Wigwig and Domas and between the church and the Mill on Harley Brook on the west side of the Wenlock road. The Old Rectory, to the west of the church, may be oldest surviving house, although it has been altered and enlarged over time. The oldest of the existing farmhouses appears to be Harley Forge Farm, to the west of the Domas road. It is a brick-cased timber-framed

Timber framing

Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

 house, probably built in the early 17th Century. The timber-framed house opposite the church is one of several timber-framed houses on the Wenlock road, but is unlikely to have been built before the 17th Century.

In the 18th Century the houses became more widely spaced and several were then rebuilt in stone, for example the Mill, the cottages on the church lands and Harley House. The farms became larger and less numerous. A crenellated brick tower built by John Corfield in 1791 gave its name to Castle Hill House, built in 1840 near Forge Farm on the Domas road. A stone bridge over the brook was built by Thomas Carline in 1843. The parish of Harley was amalgamated with neighbouring Kenley in 1939.

Thankful Village

Harley is one of the Thankful Villages

Thankful Villages

Thankful Villages are settlements in both England and Wales from which all their then members of the armed forces survived World War I. The term Thankful Village was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s...

- those few villages which saw no men lost in the First World War.

External links

• Photos of Harley and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk