Home

Welcome to the Website of Rushbury Parish Council

We serve the parish of Rushbury that includes the settlements of East Wall, Longville in the Dale, Lushcott, Rushbury, Stanway, Stone Acton and Wall under Heywood situated in Apedale within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Parish of Rushbury is a rural parish comprising of traditional farms with mixed arable and livestock farming. It incorporates the villages of Rushbury and associated hamlets of Longville in the Dale, Wall under Heywood, East Wall and numerous outlying farms.

The Parish covers an area of approx 9 square km, bisected by the B4371, key to communications and route to local services in Church Stretton (to the South) and Much Wenlock (North). The Parish has relatively few facilities, but they are all well supported, particularly the new village hall and millennium green.  The whole of Rushbury Parish lies within the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a national designation given to England’s best and most intrinsically beautiful landscapes. This special landscape comprises very important and often rare, either nationally or globally, environmental features. This raises concerns and challenges where development, habitat threat and altered population characteristics pose difficult balances to be achieved.

Much of the woodland within our Parish lies on the site of ancient woods which means that the ground flora is rich in its diversity. The Parish is host to a number of both biological and geological Sites of Special Scientific Interest such as the magnificent grassland at Marked Ash at the top of Roman Bank or the rocky outcrops on Slaughter House Lane. Whilst the bluebells in Wenlock Edge Wood are in plentiful supply, globally the decline in their numbers is of significant concern. Very special animal species are also to be found in the Parish, many of which are rare nationally such as dormice, water voles, otters, bats and barn owls. It isn’t however just the rare or endangered that give this Parish its character, anything from a magnificent old oak tree to primroses flowering along our lanes make this Parish a very special place in which to live.

Rushbury’s character also reflects the depth of its historic environment. There is firm evidence that man has inhabited the Parish for at least 3000 years. The Iron Age Fort in the Mogg Forest on the edge of our Parish is dated at around the 1st Millennium BC and gives us the first indication of mans settlement in the Parish. Evidence of Roman remains has been found under Wenlock Edge and elements of Roman masonry were reused in the building of St. Peters Church in Rushbury. The church itself is perhaps the oldest remaining building with the nave dating from early Norman times. Wilderhope Manor, to name just one of our manor houses, is Elizabethan, dated at late 16th Century and our many black and white buildings are Tudor in origin, dated between the 16th and 17th centuries. Some of Rushbury’s buildings are Scheduled Ancient Monuments such as one of the pack horse bridges in Rushbury which is now sadly in need of attention.

Rushbury’s landscape as we see it today is essentially manmade. It is the product of man living off the land and we have our forefathers to thank for leaving us this legacy.

                                                                                                                Rushbury Parish Plan

T