Caughley

In the Middle Ages, Caughley belonged to the parish of Holy Trinity centred on Much Wenlock, but by 1649 it was in Barrow parish. Caughley was transferred to Linley Civil Parish, in the Barrow ward of Wenlock borough, in 1934, but returned to Barrow Civil Parish when Linley Civil Parish was itself absorbed by Barrow Civil Parish in 1966.[2] Barrow Civil Parish was in Bridgenorth rural district from 1966 to 1974, and from 1974 in Bridgnorth district.

The name of Caughley is first attested in 901, as an estate-name among lands acquired by the minsters of Much Wenlock, cahing læg.[2][3] This was interpreted by Sigurd Karlström as deriving from a personal name *Cah(h)a followed by the Old English place-name-forming suffix -ing,[4] but later by Eilert Ekwall and Margaret Gelling as the Old English word ceahhe ('jackdaw') followed by the same suffix, meaning 'jackdaw place'. The læg element is a form of the Old English word lēah ('clearing in woodland'). Thus in total the name probably meant 'jackdaw-clearing'.[5][1]

Caughley teaset from the 1780s

Unusually, Caughley is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Mining of limestone, coal, and ironstone, with associated iron production, was underway already in the sixteenth century; Thomas Munslow had established an ironworks there by around 1523. A pottery was established around 1750, creating slip-coated and coarse wares. With the establishment by 1775 of the Salopian China Manufactory, flanked by coal mines to the south-west of Inett Farm to the east of what was then the Caughley hamlet of Darley, Caughley came to prominence as an industrial centre, employing the noted porcelain engraver Robert Hancock and supplying the Salopian China Warehouse, which opened in London in 1783. By 1793, the factory had around one hundred workers. The lease, factory, and stock at Caughley was acquired in 1977 by the Coalport porcelain makers Edward Blakeway, Richard Rose, and John Rose. John Rose closed the Caughley works by 1821.[2]