Essington

For other uses, seeEssington (disambiguation).

Essingtonis a village andcivil parishin theSouth Staffordshire,district, inStaffordshire,England, near the city ofWolverhamptonand towns ofWalsall,Bloxwich,CannockandBrewood.The villages ofCheslyn Hay,Great Wyrley,Coven,PenkridgeandFeatherstoneare also nearby. The village forms part of theStaffordshire/West Midlandsborder. The parish includes the hamlet ofSpringhill.In 2021 the parish had a population of 5200.

Essington
St John's Church
Essington Location withinStaffordshire
Population	5,200 (2021)
OS grid reference	SJ962034
Civil parish	Essington
District	South Staffordshire
Shire county	Staffordshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Wolverhampton
Postcode district	WV11
Dialling code	01922
Police	Staffordshire
Fire	Staffordshire
Ambulance	West Midlands

History

In 1870-1872 theImperial Gazetteer of England and Walesdescribed Essington as atownshipin the parish ofBushbury,with a post office and 187 houses. The population had risen from 644 in 1851 to 976 in 1861, "from the extension of mining operations", and aniron churchwith room for 260 people had been built in 1858–1859.

Village

Essington is home to the remains of several moated farmsteads, possibly ofIron Ageorigin, on the land adjacent to the village's current boundaries. There is a public park called Brownshore Lakes, which is the site of two adjacent lakes. They are the remains of three coal mining tailing and settling ponds. The lakes are surrounded by woodland and it is a local recreational meeting place. It is also home towaterfowland there is also an abundance of other wildlife around the lakes and the woods.

Transport

The village has direct connections with 2 main major roads: the A462, which runs from Junction 11 of theM6toWednesbury,West Midlands,and theA460that linksWolverhamptonwithCannockandRugeley.TheM6andM54motorways meet just northeast of the village, and are both accessible via theA460.

While the village was once served by several bus routes, the only service to Essington is route 71. Operating betweenWolverhamptonandCannock,the service runs hourly Monday to Saturdays off-peak. Service 71 is operated byChaserider(previously operated by Select Bus and Arriva). The nearest railway station isBloxwich North,a 35-minute walk away.

Essington Parish

The Parish of Essington is quite large encompassing a village a number of recreational, industrial and farming areas and several hamlets and is part ofSouth Staffordshiredistrict inStaffordshire.It borders the county ofWest Midlands(WalsallandWolverhampton). Services to the parish can appear confusing: the Post Office have assigned theWVWolverhamptonPost-Codefor mail to the area,British Telecomhave given it a Walsall 01922 Telephone prefix, the Health Authority is South Staffordshire, the Ambulance Service isWest Midlands,Social Services are South Staffordshire in Codsall. All property taxes (rates) are collected by South Staffordshire at Codsall.

Essington Parish Council is the lowest tier of local government.

School

The main school in Essington is St Johns Primary Academy.Located on Hobnock Road, it was built in 1846 and became known as St John's Church of England School from 1968.

Brownshore Pre-School Play Group is located opposite St John's Primary School on Hobnock Road.

Essington is a main catchment area forCheslyn Hay Academystudents.

Sports

There are rugby and football facilities in several locations around the parish located in Bognop Road, Essington and High Hill, Essington.

Recreation

A walking group meets most Fridays at about 11 am outside the Minerva Public House in Wolverhampton Road and undertakes walks using some of the many public footpaths around the central village.

Places of worship

St John's Anglican church is in the village and has many activities during the day and sometimes in the evening.It was built in 1932 and has an extension at the west end, completed in 2015.Outside the village, Essington Wood Methodist Chapel is Bursnips Road (A462).

Notable people

• Ealhswith,queen consort and wife ofAlfred the Great,the self-styled first King of England.
• Ralph Sweet-Escott(1869 in Essington – 1907) an English-born international rugby union player, he also played cricket for Glamorgan
• Meera SyalCBE (born 1961) comedian and author; her debut novelAnita and Mewas set in the fictional village of Tollington, which was based on Essington in the early 1970s, where she grew up.

See also

• Listed buildings in Essington

External links

• Essington Parish Council website