Ford Hundred

Need map of FORD Hundred and its history from VCH vol 8.

The meeting place for this hundred was the "Welshman's Ford" at SJ 415 135 where the Shrewsbury-Welshpool road crossed the Cardeston brook.
Derivation: The parish of Ford is said to take its name from the "Welshman’s Ford". Ford Heath, a hamlet south of Ford, probably takes its name from the parish. It does not seem to have any crossing place associated with it. A modern house next to the crossing point of the A458(T) road and the Cardeston Brook has the name “Welshman’s Ford”. The village of Ford lies between the Shrewsbury-Welshpool road and the river Severn and there is another crossing of the Cardeston brook in the village.

Visit and Photographs

It was visited in July 2000. The first photograph shows the view from the modern bridge, looking down into the deep dark stream bed with a small amount of water running in the bottom of it. The modern road crosses the Cardeston Brook by a bridge which was built in 1792 to replace the earlier ford. The stream is now several feet below the road.
	In the next picture, the modern house which preserves the name “Welshman’s Ford” is the most obvious sign. The stream is several feet below the level of the modern road and the stone side of the bridge is behind the crash barrier visible on the extreme right of the picture. On this side of the road, the stream is too far down among the bushes to be visible, it is heard rather than seen.
There is also another crossing of the Cardeston Brook at the far end of the village and this was also visited. Here the stone bridge is clearly visible, but once again the brook is several feet below the road and very overgrown.

References:
The Place Names of Shropshire, Part One: Major Names, Margaret Gelling in collaboration with H.D.G.Foxall, English Place Names Society (1990), p.133
OS Landranger series No 126

Page maintained by Susan Laflin. Last updated May 2009