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Featherstone, Staffordshire

Village in Staffordshire, England

Summary

Village in Staffordshire, England

Field	Value
country	England
official_name	Featherstone
coordinates
static_image_name	Very Patriotic 'Red White and Blue' Public House - geograph.org.uk - 236636.jpg
static_image_caption	Red, White and Blue public house
population	4,725
population_ref	(2011 Census)
shire_district	South Staffordshire
region	West Midlands
shire_county	Staffordshire
constituency_westminster	Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge
post_town	Wolverhampton
postcode_district	WV10
postcode_area	WV
os_grid_reference	SJ937050

Featherstone is a village in the district of South Staffordshire in Staffordshire England. It is near to the border with Wolverhampton.

History

Originally a farming community consisting of a few scattered farms, it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 and was owned by the clergy of Wolverhampton Church. It is possible that the population numbers were fairly static until the opening of a new mine, Hilton Main, in the 1920s, it closed in 1969.

The Duke of Cleveland was lord of the manor of this small township of 550 acres and just 34 souls in 1851. This was once the residence of John Huntbach, the noted antiquary. The principal inhabitants were Joshua Price and Edward Tunycliffe, farmers, John Perry the lock manufacturer and Thomas Hill a vermin killer.

The village's population at the time of the 1851 census was 35. By 1921 this had risen to 39. By the time of the 2001 census it was 3,948.

Today

The village has one primary school, Featherstone Academy.

Recently, controversy was sparked over the proposed building of 1,500 houses on green belt land, although many people believed the extra facilities proposed would make the village a better place to live. After much public opposition, this plan was rejected in early 2009.

Featherstone also has a Methodist church and some small shops. There are three off licences, a hairdresser and a chemist. In 2008 there was some concern over the future of the post office, but it was not one of those closed.

On the outskirts of the village are three prisons; HM Prison Featherstone, HM Prison Oakwood and HM Prison Brinsford, which is also a Youth Offender Institution (YOI).

Nearby is the site of the former Brinsford Lodge Teachers' Training College and Polytechnic Hall of Residence. The site of the old college, which stood near Oakwood Prison, is rich in history. There are traces of several old Second World War shelters and tiles from the kitchens.

Schools

Featherstone Academy, the Avenue (formerly Whitgreave Primary School)

Churches

Featherstone is part of the ecclesiastical Parish of Shareshill, where the Parish Church of St Mary & St Luke is situated.

There is a Methodist chapel sited at the junction of the Avenue and the A460.

Transport links

The village has a regular hourly bus service (service 70, Mon-Sat) to Wolverhampton and Cannock. The bus service is run by D&G Bus trading as Chaserider. In addition Select Bus service 67 runs three times daily Mon-Fri between Wolverhampton and Cannock via Wedge Mills and Bushbury. This latter service also serves Featherstone Prison.

The nearest active railway station to Featherstone is Landywood on the Chase Line and Wolverhampton on the West Coast Main Line.

Political representation

Featherstone has a parish council with two wards.

Brinsford Ward, two councillors.
Featherstone Ward, nine councillors.

Featherstone is represented in the House of Commons by Member of Parliament Gavin Williamson, Conservative member for South Staffordshire.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from either the Wrekin or Sutton Coldfield TV transmitters.

Radio stations are served by BBC Radio WM, Heart West Midlands, Smooth West Midlands, Greatest Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, Hits Radio Black Country & Shropshire, and WCR FM, a community based station which broadcast from nearby Wolverhampton.

The town is served by the local newspaper, Express & Star.

Notable people

Andy Thompson (born 1967 in Featherstone) an English former footballer, played 533 professional games, of which 376 were for Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

References

"Civil Parish population 2011".
William White, ''History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire,'' 1851, p.154
"KS01 Usual resident population: Census 2001, Key Statistics for urban areas". Office for National Statistics.
(1 May 2004). "Full Freeview on the The[sic] Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) transmitter".
(1 May 2004). "Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitter".
[http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=7898 SoccerBase Database] retrieved 12 August 2018

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

villages-in-staffordshire south-staffordshire-district

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