Welsh Frankton Explained

Country:England
Official Name:Welsh Frankton
Coordinates:52.8919°N -2.9467°W
Civil Parish:Ellesmere Rural
Shire County:Shropshire
Region:West Midlands
Os Grid Reference:SJ 364 331
Static Image Name:St Andrew, Welsh Frankton 2.jpg
Static Image Width:200
Static Image Caption:St Andrew's Church

Welsh Frankton is a village in the civil parish of Ellesmere Rural in Shropshire, England, about 2.5miles southwest of Ellesmere, on the A495 road.

Description

Welsh Frankton is one of four wards of the Ellesmere Rural Parish Council area, and elects two of the twelve councillors in the council.

The village hall, built in the early 1930s, is alongside the church. It is run as a registered charity.[1]

The Shropshire Union Canal runs through the parish.[2] There was once a railway station, on the Cambrian Railway.[3]

St Andrew's Church

The church, designed by Edward Haycock in Early Decorated style, was built in 1857–58 on the site of a chapel of 1835. It was a chapel of ease until the parish of Welsh Frankton was created in 1865 from parts of those of Ellesmere and Whittington. The tower, with a broach spire, is in the south-west corner. The first incumbent was Oswald Moseley Feilden, who donated the marble reredos in 1870. He died in 1924, and the stained-glass east window was installed in his memory.

The village's war memorial consists of a stone shrine surmounted by a cross built into the churchyard wall on the side of the main road between Ellesmere and Oswestry, with a marble plaque listing those killed in the First World War, with two names from the Second World War below it.[4] The churchyard contains the war grave of a King's Shropshire Light Infantry soldier of the First World War.[5]

The church is part of a benefice with Criftins and Dudleston Churches.[6]

Notable people

Future Victoria Cross recipient John Brunt (1922-1944) attended village school at Welsh Frankton before going up to Ellesmere College.[7]

See also

Notes and References

  1. https://welshfranktonvillagehall.co.uk/ Welsh Frankton Village Hall
  2. http://www.ellesmererural-pc.gov.uk/community/ellesmere-rural-parish-council-13200/home# Ellesmere Rural Parish Council
  3. https://ukga.org/index.php?pageid=24560 "Frankton or Welsh Frankton, Shropshire"
  4. Book: Francis, Peter. Shropshire War Memorials, Sites of Remembrance. 2013. YouCaxton, Bishop's Castle. 183. 978-1-909644-11-3.
  5. Web site: Serjeant George Urion, casualty record. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 6 July 2023.
  6. https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/4272/ "Welsh Frankton Church: St. Andrew"
  7. Book: Elderwick, David. 50 Shropshire Celbrities, Past and Present. 1989. IMPRINT, Newtown, Wales. 23.