Atcham

The village has the only church in England dedicated to Saint Eata, Bishop of Hexham. The reason for the dedication is unclear, as there is no written record of Eata coming so far south. However, there is a crop photograph from the 1970s of a field in Attingham Park showing the site of a Saxon palace identical to one excavated near Hexham. "Atcham" is a contraction of "Attingham", meaning "the home of Eata's people". The church building dates from the 11th century. The local airfield RAF Atcham, now returned to agriculture and light industry, was held by an American training unit for much of World War II. It used P-47 Thunderbolts and later P-38 Lightnings for operational training of…

Landmarks at Atcham include Attingham Park, seat of the Berwick barons until the title became extinct in 1953. The hall at Attingham Park is now the regional headquarters of the National Trust. Also on the estate is the Shropshire office of Natural England. Adjacent to Attingham Park is Home Farm, Attingham. Now separate from the hall that it traditionally supplied, it is a family-run organic farm and tearoom open to the public. The older of the two bridges at Atcham, built in 1769–1771 by John Gwynn, is commonly known as Atcham Bridge. It is both Grade II* listed and a scheduled monument. Its replacement, opened in 1929, carries the old A5 (B4380) road over the River Severn. The village…