Little London, Alveley
My partner Chris has the habit of checking every square of a new map for hints of droving activity… what a crazy habit, but how useful! In this way she found a Little London at SO 757834, outside & south of Alveley.
This gave us the means to apply the acid test to what has only ever been an assumption based on folklore: that LLs (the most commonly repeated place-name in Britain) were the home of Welsh Drovers. The name is assumed to be a translation of the Welsh Llundainfach, meaning little stopping-places on the way to London, but this LL is close to the Severn, and not on the Welsh side. So, if it was used by the Welsh, there must have been a crossing point nearby. But where was it? There’s a ‘loade’ (c-p) two miles upstream at Hampton and a modern bridge in the Severn Valley Country Park – well worth a visit, btw – but none near enough to the LL. Has the Welsh idea always been a myth?
I had left a card with the owner’s mother, who was looking after the dogs while the family were away and expected to hear no more. One thing she told us: the farmhouse was very old (#1), the left hand side being C16 and the right C18. When we got home, we looked at the Nat. Lib. Scot. 1880’s 6” map and found the southern half of Hallclose Coppice, just north of LL and on the east bank of the Severn, described as “Little London Coppice”…
Then: a text from Rich, the owner, saying he’d returned and what did I want to know? I told him how excited we were and arranged a day to revisit on the way north. It was a beautiful October day when we arrived and Chris seemed to know the way without any discussion and off she went (#2), through a farm gate a hundred yards down from the farmhouse and into the copse. I followed! (#3)
When we reached the field at the bottom, next to the river (#4), we walked to our left because that’s where the path seemed to lead. Seemed. We saw what could have been a crossing point opposite The Ship Inn, but after that my energy gave out so I took a few shots then walked back up. Meanwhile Chris had walked upstream a few hundred yards and came across this (#5), which we found later was the correct crossing. (Damn!) It had been used by Neville (the farmer) to take/bring cattle across the Severn, so Rich told us.
(Millstones were mentioned, but I cannot remember the context! Why were they clustered on the bank, I have yet to find out but Rich of LL Farmhouse says that millstones, being so heavy & valuable, needed a shallow crossing to get across the Severn without capsizing the boat. There certainly were millstones, said Chris, and one is visible in another picture she took.)
What a triumph. We have proved finally what was only half proven before: the Welsh Llundainfach or English Little London was truly the Home of the Welsh Drovers. And John Trimmer tells me there is even one at Wells-next-the-sea, in North Norfolk… Really?
