A view of High Ercall(Ercall Magna)looking due West from Cottwall.The Church(dating from 1060 A.D.)and Manor House dominate the view. 5 miles to the South lies The Wrekin .brooding over the North Shropshire Plain,made up of one of the oldest rocks known to man and all that remains of a mountain range once as great as The Himalayas.The ancient hill abounds with local myths and legends and Shopshire folks wherever they are in the World ,still drink a toast "To all Friends round the Wrekin."

Just outside High Ercall to the West, lies the hamlet of Walton (of Ye Club,as it was called,noone knows why).Here was the dreaded Workhouse,see above,where old folks ,unmarried mothers,orphans and the unemployed were sent by order of the village Overseers. Above right and dating from 1650 A.D. ,three adjoining cottages,which could well have housed John Griffiths,the Shoemaker and also my ancestor Richard Griffiths of Osbaston and Mary Church -their first child was born at Walton.

One mile North of High Ercall lies the small hamlet of Osbaston,where Richard Griffiths 1 lived,probably working on the farm now built over by a wartime airfield and now used for storage. One mile further lie the small hamlets of Rowton and Ellerdine,which were given to Madoc ap Griffin by King Henry 111.Adjacent are the villages of Cold Hatton,where Humphrey Griffiths owned his own small farm ,and Waters Upton,where John Griffiths of Sleape,Parish Clerk and Yeoman lived,possibly in the White House next to the Church above.

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