Plowden is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in the parish of Lydbury North

Lydbury North

Lydbury North is a village and a geographically large parish in Shropshire, England. It is locally called Lydbury and there is no settlement of "Lydbury South"....

, 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...

, England

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...

. It is in the valley of the River Onny

River Onny

The River Onny is a river in Shropshire, England. It is a major tributary of the River Teme.The river has its sources in the Shropshire Hills at White Grit, located in Mid and South-west Shropshire. It has two branches, the East Onny and West Onny, which converge at Eaton, to the east of Lydham...

 and lies 3 miles east of Bishop's Castle

Bishop's Castle

Bishop's Castle is a small market town in Shropshire, England, and formerly its smallest borough. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,630. Bishop's Castle is east of the Wales-England border, about north-west of Ludlow and about south-west of Shrewsbury. To the south is Clun...

.

Plowden Hall is a grade II* listed building, being a timber framed building dating in part from about 1300. and is described in the novel John Inglesant

John Inglesant

John Inglesant is a celebrated historical novel by Joseph Henry Shorthouse, published in 1881, and set mainly in the middle years of the 17th century....

by Joseph Henry Shorthouse

Joseph Henry Shorthouse

-Biography:He was born at Birmingham, educated at Grove School , and became a chemical manufacturer. Originally a Quaker, he joined the Church of England. His first book, John Inglesant, appeared in 1881, and at once made him famous...

.

When Edwin Plowden was awarded a life peerage in 1959 he took the title of Baron Plowden of Plowden in the county of Salop.

There is a Roman Catholic church of St Walburga in Plowden.

Plowden was one of the stations on the Bishops Castle Railway

Bishops Castle Railway

The Bishops Castle Railway was begun in 1861, planned as a line from Craven Arms to Montgomery, thus linking the Shrewsbury to Hereford line to the Oswestry to Newtown, Powys line , linking Mid-Wales and Shrewsbury, with a branch line from Lydham to Bishop's Castle.From the start, the railway was...

, which closed in 1935.