{{Short description|Village in Shropshire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox UK place |country = England |static_image_name = Old Quarry Plantation and Little Wenlock - geograph.org.uk - 2069988.jpg |static_image_caption = The Old Quarry Plantation and Little Wenlock, seen from the Wrekin |coordinates = {{coord|52.658|-2.524|display=inline,title}} |official_name = Little Wenlock |label_position = left |population = |population_ref = |civil_parish = Little Wenlock |unitary_england = Telford and Wrekin |lieutenancy_england = Shropshire |region = West Midlands |constituency_westminster= The Wrekin |post_town = TELFORD |postcode_district = TF6 |postcode_area = TF |dial_code = 01952 |os_grid_reference = SJ645068 }} '''Little Wenlock''' is a village and civil parish in the Telford and Wrekin borough in Shropshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 605.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11125760&c=Little+Wenlock&d=16&e=62&g=6386784&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1448708739785&enc=1|title=Civil Parish population 2011|access-date=28 November 2015}}</ref> It was mentioned in the Domesday Book, when it belonged to Wenlock Priory. Ancient habitation is attested by the discovery of two caches of Bronze Age weapons.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=18076 Local history from British History Online]</ref> The village is situated two miles west of Dawley.
Nearby is the 1335-foot-high Wrekin, one of Shropshire's famous hills with an ancient hill fort. Part of it falls within Little Wenlock parish, while the adjoining parts fall into other parishes.
The name "Wenlock" as found in Much Wenlock and Little Wenlock (and also Great Wenlock, a now obsolete name, but found in some historic sources<ref>{{cite book|last=Worcester |first=Joseph Emerson |year=1823 |title=A geographical dictionary or universal gazetteer, ancient and modern |volume=2 |edition=2 |publisher=Cummings & Hilliard |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vXM9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA876 876]}}</ref>) is probably derived from the Old English ''*Wenan loca'' meaning ''"Wena's Stronghold"'' (''wéna'' being feminine and meaning ''"hope"'')<ref name=harrison>''Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary'', Henry Harrison, Genealogical Publishing Com, 1996, 0806301716, 9780806301716. Page.270</ref> The town was recorded in the Domesday Book as ''Wenloch''.<ref name=harrison/> The "Little" of the name distinguishes it from the larger settlement and market town of Much Wenlock, which is situated several miles to the south, on the other side of the River Severn.
11-year-old Alice Glaston from Little Wenlock was hanged together with two men in Much Wenlock on 13 April 1546, for an unknown crime.<ref>{{cite book|author=Butler, Sir Thomas|title=The Cambrian Journal, 49 |place=London|year=1861|pages=89|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QmQtAAAAMAAJ&q=glaston+little+wenlock&pg=PA89}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/alice-glaston/|title=Alice Glaston|date=19 March 2010}}</ref><ref name="capitalpunishmentukorg">{{Cite web|url=http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/child.html|title=Children & juvenile executions}}</ref> She is the youngest known girl legally executed in England.
The village features a public house (the "Huntsman Inn"),<ref>[https://whatpub.com/pubs/TEL/208/huntsman-inn-little-wenlock WhatPub.com] The Huntsman Inn, Little Wenlock</ref> village hall, playing field and the Church of England parish church of St Lawrence. Charles Henry Hartshorne, antiquary and cleric, was curate at the church from 1828 to 1836,<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Hartshorne, Charles Henry|volume=25}}</ref><ref>{{acad|HRTN821CH|Hartshorne, Charles Henry}}</ref> and David Cranage, later Dean of Norwich, was curate at the church in 1897–1898.<ref name=Venn>{{acad|id=CRNG885DH|name=Cranage, David Herbert Somerset}}</ref>
For many years there was small scale mining in the parish, for coal, limestone and fire clay.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/salop/vol11/pp81-87|title=Little Wenlock: Economic history {{!}} British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-04-09}}</ref>
==See also== *Listed buildings in Little Wenlock
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Little Wenlock}} *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070208040328/http://www.littlewenlock.org/ Little Wenlock Parish Council]}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Villages in Shropshire Category:Telford and Wrekin Category:Little Wenlock