Badger is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England, about six miles north-east of Bridgnorth. The parish had a population of 134 according to the 2001 census, falling to 126 at the 2011 census.
Badger Parish is at grid map reference SO 768 995. The boundaries of the parish contain the village of Badger, one side of Badger Dingle, and Badger Heath Farm. It is approximately 2.7 km at its widest point.
The village and its surroundings, particularly the Dingle, are considered a visitor attraction. In their present form they owe much to deliberate planning and landscaping in the 18th century.
Etymology
Badger has its origin in the Old English language of the Anglo-Saxons. It has no connection with the mammal, spelled similarly: as late as the 1870s, the alternative spelling Bagsore was current. The late Margaret Gelling, a specialist in Midland toponyms, formerly based at the University of Birmingham separates it into two separate elements:
The first element in the name, Bæcg, is an Anglo-Saxon personal name – perhaps one of the Angles who came to settle in the evolving kingdom of Mercia, and shared with Beckbury.
The second element, ofer signifies a hill spur. In a detailed discussion of this latter term, Gelling admits that it is a conjectural reconstruction of a word that never occurs separately, but is a common part of place-names, with the main concentration being in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire. It has often been construed simply as a hill or ridge, but Gelling's detailed examination of sites suggests a more precise significance: that the place is on or close to a long, narrow ridge, perhaps jutting from a larger ridge. At Badger, "the settlement lies to the E. of an appropriate hill-spur.". There is indeed a spur, rising up behind Badger Farm, with a slope to the south-east enfolding the village and running down to the Dingle, while the western slope descends to the River Worfe.
History
Medieval origins
As its name suggests, the origins of the village of Badger seem to lie in the Anglo-Saxon period. The first real evidence comes from the Domesday survey of 1086, which compared the situation at that point with that before the Norman Conquest. The entry translates: "Osbern, son of Richard, holds BADGER from Earl Roger, and Robert from him. Bruning held it; he was a free man. 1/2 hide which pays tax. Land for 2 ploughs. In lordship 1 plough; 4 smallholders with 1 plough. Woodland for fattening 30 pigs. The value was 7s; now 10s." This indicates the pre-Conquest Anglo-Saxon owner was Bruning, who got 10s. a year from it. It had since fallen in value, like most northern and Midland villages, and belonged to Roger de Montgomerie, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Osbern fitz Richard, baron of Richard's Castle, was one of Roger's vassals and held it as a fief. However, he let it to someone called Robert.
To the four smallholders or bordars, their families must be added, but the population was obviously very small. A hide had been a unit of area, but by this stage it was simply a way of expressing liability to tax. Half a hide is a very small assessment. Badger was a long way down the territorial scale, its manor run by a man two levels below the regional magnate, Earl Roger.
A little later, in the early 12th century, under Henry I, Earl Roger's son, Robert, lost his earldom and the barons of Richard's Castle are at the top of the pyramid (beneath the king, of course). The history of the lordship is rather convoluted, but by the end of the 12th century, the immediate overlord was the Prior of Wenlock.
The history of the actual occupiers or "terre tenants" of the manor is a little less complicated. William de Badger was the tenant in the mid-12th century, and he sold up to one Philip, who is soon also known as de Badger. After that it passed from father to son for nearly two centuries, until 1349, and stayed within the same family until 1402, when Alice, widow of John de Badger, died without issue. Thereafter there was a complex situation of shares in the manor held by members of the Elmbridge family, until Dorothy Kynnersley née Elmbridge conveyed it to her son, Thomas Kynnersley, in 1560.
The medieval village was probably surrounded by open fields, although there is no direct evidence of them until the 17th century, on the eve of their enclosure. At that point the fields were called Batch and Middle fields and Uppsfield. It was surrounded by woods to the west and north and heathland to the east. The layout was probably very similar to the modern pattern. The church, rectory and hall form a group, and the rest of the village is strung along the road to the south of them.