Welshampton

Welshampton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Welshampton and Lyneal, in the Shropshire district, in the ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It is located on the A495 road, near to the town of Ellesmere. It is adjacent to the villages of Lyneal and Colemere which comprise part of the so-called 'North Shropshire Lake District', all of which is within walking distance of Welshampton. At the 2001 Census, the Welshampton and Lyneal civil parish had a population of 839, increasing to 852 at the 2011 Census. with a total population of 3,896 (2001) for the Ellesmere and Welshampton ward.

==History== According to a small history booklet written by local historian Christopher Jobson, published April 2007 entitled "What was on in Welshampton", "a small mound in the field called 'Moat Meadow' was tentatively identified as the site of the house of a Saxon ealdorman or King's Thane by the Rev. Thomas Auden towards the end of the nineteenth century." According to an article by the same author, in the August 2008 edition of "Mere News", the original village was known as 'Hampton' and had been in the barony of le Strange from Knockin since the 14th century. It came into the estates of the Earls of Derby through the marriage of Elizabeth Stanley (the daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley and Joan Gousell) and Thomas Strange in the early 15th century. The Stanley family is reputedly descended from Adam de Aldithley and the origin of the names may therefore be no mere coincidence.