Lawley: Local government and public services

A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11, Telford. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1985.

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'Lawley: Local government and public services', in A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11, Telford, (London, 1985) pp. 280-281. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/salop/vol11/pp280-281 [accessed 24 March 2024]

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES.

There was a court baron in the late 16th and earlier 17th century, of which an estreat of 1589 survives. (fn. 1) In 1255, (fn. 2) and still in 1615, (fn. 3) Lawley was partly in the leet jurisdiction of Hinstock and partly in that of Bradford hundred. In the mid 16th century one constable presented at Hinstock, and perhaps more than one in the early 17th. (fn. 4) In 1540 the inhabitants were required to make a pound for the lord of Hinstock. (fn. 5) Part of Lawley still owed suit to Hinstock in 1813. (fn. 6)

The township was in Wellington civil parish until 1894, Wellington poor-law union 1836- 1930, Wrekin highway district 1865-82, and Wellington rural sanitary district 1872-94. In 1894 the township became part of Wellington Rural C.P. and Wellington rural district. (fn. 7) Much of the southern part, including Horsehay common and Spring Village, was taken into Dawley C.P. and urban district in 1934 (fn. 8) and almost all the rest in 1966, leaving a tiny area at the northern tip in Wellington Rural C.P. (fn. 9) (renamed Ketley C.P. in 1976). (fn. 10) In 1974 the whole township became part of the district of the Wrekin. (fn. 11) In 1963 the parts in, or later added to, Dawley C.P. and U.D. were included in the designated area of Dawley new town, (fn. 12) and in 1968 the whole township was included in the designated area of Telford. (fn. 13)

From 1909 Dawley urban district council, by agreement with Wellington rural district council, supplied mains water to Lawley Bank and Horsehay Common from the U.D.C.'s Lawley Bank reservoir. (fn. 14) The system was later extended to the rest of the township, (fn. 15) reaching Newdale in 1924. (fn. 16) The R.D.C., with Dawley U.D.C., opened a small sewerage scheme at Lawley Bank in 1926. (fn. 17) In 1939 the R.D.C. completed a larger scheme serving Lawley Bank and Lawley village and opened a new disposal works at Lawley Bank. (fn. 18) The first sub-post office within the township boundary opened in Lawley village in the 1940s. (fn. 19)

Footnotes

  • 1. S.R.O. 215/24; 1011, box 169, estreat.
  • 2. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii. 56.
  • 3. S.R.O. 322, box 2, ct. bk., 'A note showing how the town of Lawley is divided in several leets'.
  • 4. S.R.O. 327, box 4, ct. r. of 1543, 1545; box 5, ct. r. of 1606, 1609.
  • 5. Ibid. box 4, ct. r. of 1540.
  • 6. Ibid. box 6, suit r. of 1813-20, p. 63.
  • 7. Above, Wellington, intro; Local Govt.
  • 8. Salop Review Order, 1934 (Min. of Health order no. 77933); O.S. Map 6", SJ 60 NE. (1954 edn.).
  • 9. Salop Order 1966 (Min. of Ho. & Local Govt. order no. 22958); O.S. Map Referred to in The Salop Order 1966 (copy in S.R.O. 2981, parcel VI).
  • 10. S.C.C. Planning Dept. file no. 051001, Wrekin District Council sec. to co sec. 15 July 1976.
  • 11. Census, 1971, Rep. for Co. of Salop as constituted on 1st Apr. 1974, 2.
  • 12. Dawley New Town (Designation) Order 1963 (Stat. Instr. 1963, no. 64), accompanying map (copy in S.R.O. 2981, parcel VI).
  • 13. Dawley New Town (Designation) Amendment (Telford) Order 1968 (Stat. Instr. 1968, no. 1912), map accompanying Explanatory Note.
  • 14. S.C.C. Mins. Suppl. Rep. on Water Supplies of Pars. of Wellington Rural and Hadley, 28 June 1912, 3. For reservoir site see O.S. Map 1/2,500, Salop. XLIII. 2 (1927 edn.).
  • 15. A. H. S. Waters, Rep. on Water Supplies (S.C.C. 1946), 98.
  • 16. S.R.O., DA 26/100/3, pp. 75, 79.
  • 17. Ibid. pp. 241, 291-2.
  • 18. S.R.O., DA 26/100/6, pp. 184-6; /112/1, p. 62.
  • 19. County Assocs. Ltd. Wellington & Dist. Dir. [1950], 115.