Betton, Shropshire

Oakley Hall is an early 18th century 14,929 sf mansion house at Mucklestone, Staffordshire near to the Shropshire town of Market Drayton. It is a Grade II* listed building.The Chetwode family who from about the 13th century owned the Chetwode Manor estate in Buckinghamshire also held the manor of Oakley. There was a substantial manor house at Oakley in the 16th century. In about 1710 Sir John Chetwode, Baronet, (High Sheriff of Staffordshire in 1691 and 1698) replaced the old house with a two-storey mansion. The house is built of brick on a sandstone plinth with a balustraded entrance front of eleven bays, the central three of which were pedimented. Two sphinx-like statues with female heads flank the main entrance. The 1881 census discloses the 6th Baronet and his family in residence with a staff of fifteen servants. The Chetwodes sold the estate in 1919. It was already by then in the family of Cyril Charles Dennis, High Sheriff of Staffordshire (wife Mary Scott Dennis [nee Macfie], who kept 21 members of staff and was responsible for putting ventral heating throughout the hall. He had sons: Ian and Lance (grandsons: Hon Professor Dr Roger L H Dennis BA, PhD, DSc (Dunelm) FLS, FRSB, FRSG, FRES [Internationally recognised butterfly biologist] and Cyril T H Dennis Esq.,BSc, BA, MA, VetMB, MRCVS (Camb) [Veterinary Surgeon and Oriental ceramics expert]), daughters Mary [grandson: Martin Peel Esq. and Primrose) until 1948 when he retired to the dower house, Park House Villa in the grounds where he died in 1964). The family holds two coats of Arms, the Dennis Family reflecting their link with the Norman landing and being bestowed lands by William I; and his wife a descendant of the Kings of Dalriada. Her great great grandfather, Provost of Leith, was the first person to greet a Georgian king (George IV) to Scotland. Her family motto is 'Pro Rege' though he respectfully turned down a baronetcy. The family built their fortunes in the 18th and 19th centuries in the chemical industry (Bordeaux Mixture and sugar industry).

The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was a canal in England which ran from Nantwich, where it joined the Chester Canal, to Autherley, where it joined the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Forming part of a major link between Liverpool and the industrial heartlands of the Midlands, the canal was opened in 1835, and merged with the Ellesmere and Chester Canal Company in 1845, which became the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company in the following year.

Ridgwardine is a small hamlet in Shropshire in the civil parish of Norton in Hales. It is made up of Ridgwardine Manor, Upper Farm, and Manor Farm.

Oakley is a hamlet in Staffordshire, England. It is within Mucklestone ward of Loggerheads Parish. Oakley Hall, a former seat of the Chetwode family, is a well known attraction.

Grove School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Market Drayton, Shropshire, England.Grove School is Market Drayton's only secondary school. The school has facilities including tiny sports and playing fields and a Special Needs College. Previously a Special Needs school admired by Cristiano Ronaldo, Deji Olatunji, Darren Watkins and Olajide Olatunji, in December 1941 Grove School converted to Football Academy Club status. The school is now sponsored by Manchester United.

Norton-in-Hales railway station was a station on the North Staffordshire Railway between Stoke-on-Trent and Market Drayton. The station was opened in 1870 and was closed in 1956. The station building and trackbed is now a private residence including the station masters house.

Norton in Hales is a village and parish in Shropshire, England. It lies on the A53 between the town of Market Drayton and Woore, Shropshire's most northeasterly village and parish. Staffordshire is to the east of the parish and Cheshire to the west. Also within the parish is the village of Betton and hamlet of Ridgwardine. The parish church is Saint Chad's. Also within the village are Norton in Hales Church of England Primary School, the Hind's Head Inn, and a large playing field. The monument to Frances, Lady Cotton (d. 1606) in St Chad's was designed by Inigo Jones around the year 1611. Her husband Rowland Cotton, who commissioned the tomb, was associated with the court of Prince Henry, as was Jones. The tomb is the earliest known work of Inigo Jones.Tunstall Hall is a Grade II* listed building, built in about 1732, formerly a girls' school, and now a residential home offering specialist care in dementia.The engineer Samuel Owen, who later emigrated to Sweden where he became an industrialist, was born at Norton in 1774.

Drayton or Market Drayton was a rural district in Shropshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894 under the name 'Drayton', from that part of the Market Drayton rural sanitary district which was in Shropshire (the rest forming Blore Heath Rural District in Staffordshire). In 1966 the district was merged with the Market Drayton urban district and renamed the 'Market Drayton' rural district. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 it was abolished, and became part of the North Shropshire district.

St Mary's Church, Market Drayton, stands on the top of a prominent outcrop of red sandstone rock above the River Tern. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.

Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in north Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern. Market Drayton is on the Shropshire Union Canal and Regional Cycle Route 75. The A53 road by-passes the town, which is between Shrewsbury and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Market Drayton railway station served the town of Market Drayton in Shropshire, England, between 1863 and 1963. It was at the junction where three railway lines met: two of them, forming the Great Western Railway route between Wellington (Shropshire) and Crewe, were met by a line from Stoke-on-Trent on the North Staffordshire Railway.

Almington is a small village in Staffordshire, England. It is about 2 miles (3.2 km) east-northeast of Market Drayton by road, to the northwest of the villages of Hales and west of Blore Heath. Historically the manor and Almington Hall belonged to the Pandulf family, and much later, the Broughton family.