Border-country legends
Mucklestone
A small Staffordshire village where a historic church with a medieval tower, a blacksmith's anvil and the story of a fleeing queen lead into battlefield and prehistoric country.
- Best for
- Church history, battlefield memory and standing stones
- Give it
- Editorial estimate: a focused half-day with nearby stops
- Don't miss
- Kempe glass and Skelhorn's anvil at St Mary's
The Fox verdict
A tiny village with an unusually long memory
Mucklestone rewards a deliberate detour, with St Mary's as the starting point for stories stretching from Domesday to Blore Heath.
The church brings together the medieval tower, Charles Eamer Kempe glass and the legend of William Skelhorn's reversed horseshoes. Nearby, Audley's Cross and the Devil's Ring and Finger turn that compact village visit into a wider journey through battlefield and prehistoric history.
Where to go
Places in Mucklestone
Every place below is checked against a published source, listed with what it is and how long to give it.
Local signatures
3 placesAudley's Cross and Blore Heath
Follow the footpath to the cross marking the reputed spot where the Lancastrian commander Lord Audley was killed at Blore Heath.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Blore Heath
- Access
- Use the public-footpath approach from a lane off the A53; the A53 itself is unsuitable for walking or parking.
The Devil's Ring and Finger
See two probably Neolithic standing stones, one grooved and one pierced by an opening once linked in local folklore with cures for children's ailments.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 30 minutes
- Locality
- Oakley Hall park edge
Fordhall Organic Farm
Visit England's first community-owned farm, saved from development by a national campaign in 2006.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 75 minutes
- Locality
- Near Market Drayton
Food & drink
1 placeMarket Drayton Market
Browse the market and use the surrounding market town for the shops and places to eat that Mucklestone itself does not have.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 1 hour
- Locality
- Market Drayton
- Access
- Market trading is scheduled; check the Official site before travel.
Walks & outdoors
1 placeDorothy Clive Garden
Explore a twelve-acre garden built around a former sandstone quarry and begun in 1940 by Colonel Harry Clive for his wife Dorothy.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 2 hours
- Locality
- Willoughbridge
- Access
- Seasonal visitor opening—check the Official site before travel.
History & heritage
1 placeSt Mary's Church
Start with the mid-14th-century west tower and churchyard anvil; if the church is open, look for the thirteen Charles Eamer Kempe windows, including Margaret of Anjou.
- Visit length
- Editorial estimate: Allow around 45 minutes
- Locality
- Mucklestone
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Three ways to explore Mucklestone
Signature outings
Margaret in Kempe colour
Look for Margaret of Anjou among the thirteen Charles Eamer Kempe windows donated by Lady Alice Chetwode.
A garden made for Dorothy
Explore the twelve-acre garden Colonel Harry Clive began in a former sandstone quarry for his wife Dorothy.
The path to Audley's Cross
Take the public footpath to the memorial marking the reputed place where the Lancastrian commander was killed.
The village story
Mucklestone Village Guide
An anvil, a medieval tower and a queen's escape story open onto the old border country around Mucklestone.
The Anvil at the Border
In the churchyard at St Mary's stands an anvil, worn smooth and kept there as a memorial. It's said to have belonged to William Skelhorn, the village blacksmith, whose forge once stood a short walk away on a site now marked only by a plaque.
Mucklestone sits in the far west of Staffordshire, close enough to Shropshire that the border barely registers, in gently rolling farming country that doesn't announce itself. The historic population was 409 at the last count anyone bothered to take, in 1961 — small enough that the church, rather than a pub or a row of shops, is the obvious place to start a visit.
A Village Without a High Street
No pub trading in the village itself could be confirmed, and the only business found is a plant nursery on Rock Lane. Market Drayton, 4.5 miles to the south-west, does the heavy lifting for shops, a weekly Wednesday market and somewhere to eat.
St Mary's earns the detour regardless. The west tower is mid-14th century, the oldest part still standing: three stages of sandstone with angle buttresses, reticulated tracery, gargoyles and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. The rest was rebuilt twice, in 1789–90 and again in 1883 by Lynam and Rickman of Stoke-on-Trent, in Decorated Gothic to match the tower. Thirteen windows of Charles Eamer Kempe glass, given by Lady Alice Chetwode, fill the nave. One shows Margaret of Anjou.
Margaret's Escape Story
That window is there because of what allegedly happened on 23 September 1459. The Battle of Blore Heath, fought a mile and a half away on the heath the A53 now crosses, went badly for the Lancastrians, and local tradition holds that Queen Margaret watched the defeat from the tower. When she saw which way it had gone, she rode for it, and is said to have had Skelhorn reverse her horse's shoes at his smithy so that anyone reading the hoofprints would follow them the wrong way. A plaque on the site of the smithy records the story, though it gives the date as 1450 rather than 1459.
A more elaborate version, recorded by the local historian and blogger Lichfield Lore, has Skelhorn later beheaded on his own anvil for the favour, and Margaret's fury leaving foot-shaped impressions in the tower's stone floor — folklore the source itself suspects a 19th-century parish clerk embellished.
From Domesday to Blore Heath
The Domesday Book is blunter. In 1086 Mucklestone had three villagers, one priest, three ploughlands and a single working plough team, and was worth five shillings a year to its lord.
Audley's Cross marks where the Lancastrian commander Lord Audley died on the battlefield, reachable by footpath from a lane off the A53. A short walk the other way, near the edge of Oakley Hall's park, stand the Devil's Ring and Finger, two Neolithic stones, neither in its original position; the Finger stone is holed clean through. Oakley Hall, a Georgian house built in 1710, stayed with the Chetwode family — lords of the manor since around the 13th century — until they sold up in 1919.
Gardens, Roads and Old Stones
There's no railway station nearer than Wrenbury, nine or ten miles off on the Welsh Marches line; the 64 bus links through to Market Drayton and on to Shrewsbury or Hanley. Dorothy Clive Garden at Willoughbridge, twelve acres built into an old quarry and started in 1940 by Colonel Harry Clive for his wife Dorothy, lies within what was once Mucklestone's parish boundary.
Children used to pass an arm through the hole in the Finger stone, the story goes, hoping it would cure whatever ailed them. The stone is still there, in case anyone wants to try.
Stay around Staffordshire
Make a longer stay of it
Travel Fox holiday homes around Staffordshire, linked directly to their property pages.
Cheddleton
Greenways House - Parking, Pool Table and Garden!
- Sleeps 10
- 4 bedrooms
Cheddleton
Lee House Cottage + Annexe
- Sleeps 19
- 8 bedrooms
Leek
Silkwood House | Boutique 4 Bed nr. Peak District
- Sleeps 8
- 4 bedrooms
Stoke-on-Trent
Heather's House
- Sleeps 6
- 2 bedrooms
A guide with a point of view
Written from research. Edited for real journeys.
Use the Official site links for live practical details, then use this guide for context, ideas and room to explore.
Sources
Every place on this page is checked against a published source. Each entry links the record we used and names who publishes it.
- St Mary's Church — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Audley's Cross and Blore Heath — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- The Devil's Ring and Finger — historicengland.org.uk statutory register or public authority record not machine-readable; publisher restricts automated access
- Dorothy Clive Garden — dorothyclivegarden.co.uk operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Fordhall Organic Farm — fordhallfarm.com operator, sector body or destination organisation
- Market Drayton Market — next.shropshire.gov.uk statutory register or public authority