Stoke on Tern

Stoke on Tern is a village located in Shropshire, England, on the River Tern. The civil parish is known as Stoke upon Tern.

History
Stoke on Turn was a substantial Domesday manor so well-established by at least the later 1000s. Roger de Lacy is recorded as holding it, and the presence of priest here in the 11th century suggest a church was already here and this was a principle manor for the Lacy's (and their successors the de Say and Vernon families). There are records of a moat that is square, of significant scald, in the area of the church. This could be a lordly house of the 1200s/1300s.

Church
The Anglican Church of St Peter, Stoke on Tern, has a Sunday service every other week and a Wednesday prayer meeting four times a month. The church building (1874–1875) and some concurrent and earlier features to be found in and around it are Grade II listed. There is a war memorial listing the First World War victims of Stoke and Hodnet held in St Luke's Church, Hodnet.

The Corbet Monument
One of the most important artifacts in the church is the Corbet family monument, which dates from the third quarter of the 16th century, and furnishes Stoke on Tern with connections to the family of William Shakespeare (and the setting of his play As You Like It and individuals potentially memorialised in that work and others) as well as the project to deliver the Geneva Bible.



The monument was raised to Reginald Corbet (d. 1566), a notable lawyer in the Tudor period, and his wife Alice Gratewood.

Alice was an heiress of her uncle Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton, who published the Geneva Bible and is considered the inspiration for the character Old Sir Rowland in As You Like It, which is also understood to be inspired by this part of Shropshire, which is in on the edge of the Forest of Arden, the play's setting. These links to Shakespeare continue in the marriage of one of the daughters of the marriage represented in the tomb, when their daughter Elizabeth Corbett marries a son of the Arden family, of which Shakespeare's mother Mary is part.



More specifically, Edward Arden of Park Hall, Castle Bromwich, was Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1575 and was the son of William Arden (d. 1545) was a second cousin of Mary Shakespeare. In 1583, he came under suspicion for being head of a family that had remained loyal to the Catholic Church, and was sentenced for allegedly plotting against Elizabeth I. His son, Robert Arden also of Park Hall (b. 1553) married Elizabeth Corbett (b. 1551), the great niece and heiress of Sir Rowland Hill and this alliance with important Protestant families was important in repairing the standing if the ancient Arden family.

Reginald held several Staffordshire and Shropshire manors, including Stoke.

Human and physical geography
The village straddles the River Tern, which flows through the south and west of the village. The parish includes the smaller settlements of Eaton upon Tern, Ollerton, Stoke Heath and Wistanswick. Its population of 1,740 in 440 households at the time of the 2001 census rose to 2,034 in 492 households at the 2011 Census. It was estimated to be 2,431 in 2019.

Amenities and transport
Stoke has a four-class primary school with a nursery attached. It continued to be graded "good" after a short Ofsted inspection in January 2018.

The nearest medical centre is at Hodnet (2.6 miles/4.2 km). The nearest shopping facilities and other amenities are at Market Drayton (6.5 miles/10.5 km).

Since 2020 there has been no bus service serving the village, although the 341 and 342 routes between Market Drayton and Telford via Childs Ercall were operated by Arriva Midlands until 2016. There have been petitions to reinstate the service. The village's nearest bus stop is now in Hodnet, with bus links to Shrewsbury and Market Drayton.

The edges of the parish are crossed by the main A53 and A41 roads.

Notable persons

 * William Hill, (d. 1585) the priest of the parish in the middle 1500s, brother of Sir Rowland Hill, Geneva Bible publisher; possibly a royal chaplin.
 * Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683), Puritan divine and 19th Provost of King's College, Cambridge, was born at Whichcote Hall, Stoke on Tern.