Prees, Shropshire Family History Guide

Prees is an Ancient Parish in the county of Shropshire.

Other places in the parish include: Willaston, Steel, Sandford, Millenheath, Mickley, Faulsgreen, Fauls, and Darliston.

Status: Ancient Parish

Parish church: St. Chad

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1597
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1669

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Parishes adjacent to Prees

Historical Descriptions

Prees

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

PREES, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Wem district, Salop. The village stands 1¼ mile E of the Crewe and Shrewsbury railway, and 4¼ NE by N of Wem; has a station on the railway, a post-office under Shrewsbury, and fairs on the second Monday of April and Oct.; and had formerly a market. The parish contains also the townships of Darliston, Fauls, Mickley, Millenheath, Willaston, Calverhall, Whixhall, Sandford, and Steel. Acres, 14,461. Real property, £20,065; of which £25 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 3,196; in 1861, 3,097. Houses, 661. The property is subdivided. P. Hall belongs to Viscount Hill, and was the birth-place of the first Viscount. Calverhall is the seat of J. P. Heywood, Esq. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £571. Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The church is ancient, was partly restored in 1864, and contains monuments of the Hills. The p. curacies of Fauls, Calverhall, and Whixhall are separate benefices. There are chapels for Independents and Methodists, a public school, and charities £93. The sub-district contains also part of Hodnet parish. Acres, 16,650. Pop., 3,362. Houses, 715.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

PREES (St. Chad), a parish, in the union of Wem, Whitchurch division of the hundred of North Bradford, N. division of Salop; containing 3270 inhabitants, of whom 1538 are in the township of Prees with Steel, 4¾ miles (N. E.) from Wem. The parish comprises between 13,000 and 14,000 acres, and is intersected by the road from Whitchurch to Shrewsbury, and by that from Chester to Birmingham. Prees once had a weekly market and annual fair, the former of which has been long disused: two fairs are now held on the second Mondays in April and October. A considerable traffic is carried on in coal, lime, and slate, by means of the Quise Brook canal, which runs through the parish. The living is a vicarage (with the great tithes of the township of Whixall annexed), valued in the king’s books at £10; net income, £471; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Lichfield. The glebe comprises 68 acres. The church, an ancient cruciform structure, with a tower of modern erection, contains two old figures of Moses and Aaron, and some pieces of tessellated pavement; also several monuments to the ancestors of the late General Lord Hill, who was born here in 1772. At Whixall and Calverhall are chapels. There are places of worship for Independents, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists; and charity schools with several small endowments.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Prees. A parish in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of Bradford, North, a peculiar, a vicarage remaining in charge, in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, the deanery of Salop, and archdeaconry of Salop. 484 houses, 3190 inhabitants. 4 miles north-east of Wem.

Rowland Lord Hill, whose brilliant military services have acquired such general approbation, was born at Prees, August 11, 1772, and is the second son of the late Sir John Hill, Bart. of Hawkstone, in the county of Salop, who married Mary, one of the daughters and coheiresses of John Chambre, Esq. of Petton, in the same county, by which lady he had sixteen children. His lordship entering the army in the sixteenth year of his age, his first commission was an Ensigncy in the 38th regiment. Having obtained leave of absence, with the view of improving his military knowledge, he was placed at an academy at Strasburg, where he remained one year, and then accompanied his older brother, and his uncle, the late Sir Richard Hill, in a tour through Germany, France and Holland

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Darliston

Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845

Darleston, a hamlet, in the parish of Prees, Whitchurch division of the hundred of North Bradford, N. division of Salop, 6 miles (S. S. E.) from Whitchurch; containing 278 inhabitants.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.

Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Darlaston. A township in the parish of Prees, and in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of Bradford, North. 5 miles north-east of Wem.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Faules Green

Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Faules Green. A township in the parish of Prees, and in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of Bradford, North. 6 miles north-east of Wem.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Fawes and Whitley

Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Fawes and Whitley. A township in the parish of Prees, and in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of Bradford North.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Mickley

Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Mickley. A township in the parish of Prees, and in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of Bradford, North.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Millen Heath

Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Millen Heath. A township in the parish of Prees, and in the Whitchurch division of the hundred of Bradford, North.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Steel with Prees

Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845

Steel, with Prees, a township, in the parish of Prees, union of Wem, Whitchurch division of the hundred of North Bradford, N. division of Salop, 3 miles (S) from Whitchurch; containing 1538 inhabitants, of whom 65 are in Steel.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.

Administration

  • County: Shropshire
  • Civil Registration District: Wem
  • Probate Court: Court of the Prebend of Prees or Pipe Minor
  • Diocese: Lichfield
  • Rural Deanery: Market Drayton
  • Poor Law Union: Wem
  • Hundred: North Bradford
  • Province: Canterbury