Hadley and Horton: Local government and public services

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES.

No records of Hadley court baron are known. In 1255 Hadley did suit to the sheriff's tourn in Bradford hundred but not to the small hundred courts. (fn. 1) In the 1590s Hadley was in the hundred's leet jurisdiction. (fn. 2) A separate view of frankpledge for Hadley was mentioned in 1667. (fn. 3) At least part of Horton, including Horton's wood (fn. 4) and apparently the Hoo, (fn. 5) was subject to Eyton upon the Weald Moors court baron by 1359 (fn. 6) and remained so in the early 17th century. (fn. 7) By 1478 Horton was usually in the leet jurisdiction of Hinstock and so remained in 1851, though in 1506 Horton presented at a court leet held, unusually, for Eyton. Shooting butts were ordered to be provided at Horton in 1506. There were stocks in 1542 and a pound in 1606. Horton had a constable by 1506 and one was still being sworn at Hinstock in 1851. (fn. 8)

Hadley township and the part of Horton in Wellington parish were in Wellington civil parish until 1894, Wellington poor-law union 1836- 1930, Wrekin highway district 1865-82, and Wellington rural sanitary district 1872-94. In 1894 Hadley and Horton became part of Wellington Rural C.P. and Wellington rural district. In 1898 the north-eastern part of Wellington Rural C.P., including Horton and most of Hadley (the part north of the Wellington-Wolverhampton railway), became Hadley C.P., Hadley township south of the railway remaining in Wellington Rural C.P. (renamed Ketley C.P. in 1976) (fn. 9) with only a minor boundary adjustment with Hadley C.P. in 1934. Also in 1934 a small area of Horton, at Trench, was transferred from Hadley C.P. and Wellington R.D. to Oakengates C.P. and urban district. (fn. 10) Outside Hadley and Horton townships Hadley C.P. lost areas to the C.P.s of Wellington Urban in 1903 (fn. 11) and 1934 (fn. 12) and Eyton upon the Weald Moors in 1905 (fn. 13) and 1934; it gained only very small areas of Wellington Rural and Urban C.P.s in 1934. (fn. 14) In 1974 Oakengates U.D. and Wellington R.D. were abolished, their areas becoming part of the district of the Wrekin. (fn. 15) In 1968 Horton township and all but the extreme north end of Hadley township were included in the designated area of Telford new town. (fn. 16)

Hadley township was served by wells until c. 1897 when Wellington U.D.C. extended a main along Watling Street to Beveley. Only houses on the main road benefited (fn. 17) and the council laid no main to Hadley village until 1905. (fn. 18) In 1884 Wellington rural sanitary authority laid a sewer northwards from Hadley village to an outfall on pasture land. The system was extended (fn. 19) but in 1911 Wellington R.D.C. replaced it (fn. 20) and opened a sewage farm north of the village and, at about the same time, another in Horton township, north of Trench. (fn. 21) The former was enlarged in 1938 to take sewage from the new Ketley system. (fn. 22) The Horton works closed in the 1950s. (fn. 23) Later the Hadley and Ketley combined works were superseded by the Rushmoor works (in Wrockwardine), opened 1975. (fn. 24) Hadley parish council opened a cemetery off Hadley Park Road in 1903. (fn. 25) A health centre opened in Hadley centre c. 1982.

Gas was probably introduced to Hadley when the Hadley & Trench Gas Works (in Wombridge) opened, before 1882. (fn. 26) A police constable of the Wellington division was stationed at Hadley from 1840. (fn. 27) A sub-post office opened in the 1870s. (fn. 28)