Blakedown is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the Wyre Forest District

Wyre Forest (district)

This article is about the local government district in WorcestershireWyre Forest is a local government district in Worcestershire, England, covering the towns of Kidderminster, Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, and several civil parishes and their villages...

 in the north of the county of Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Due to its road and rail links it serves mainly as a dormitory village for Kidderminster, and the cities of Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

  and Worcester

Worcester

The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...

. Originally part of Hagley

Hagley

Hagley is a village and civil parish on the northern boundary of Worcestershire, England, near to the towns of Kidderminster and Stourbridge. The parish had a population of 4,283 in 2001, but the whole village had a population of perhaps 5,600, including the part in Clent parish...

 Parish, it was transferred in 1888 to the small adjacent parish of Churchill

Churchill, Worcestershire

Churchill is a village in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershire, England, near to Kidderminster. It is in the civil parish of Churchill and Blakedown and is one of the few surviving water-powered plating forges in the United Kingdom - Churchill Forge Mill.-Further reading:* A Pictorial History...

, which became Churchill and Blakedown.

Much of Blakedown was originally an area of common land

Common land

Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...

, enclosed in the 19th century. However Harborough Hall, which once belonged to the family of William Shenstone

William Shenstone

William Shenstone was an English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.-Life:...

 the poet, is probably the successor of a house that goes back to Medieval times.

The main road

A456 road

The A456 is a main road in England running between Birmingham and Woofferton, Shropshire, south of Ludlow.-History:Much of the road is almost certainly medieval in origin...

  that runs through the village was part of the turnpike road from Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 to Kidderminster

Kidderminster

Kidderminster is a town, in the Wyre Forest district of Worcestershire, England. It is located approximately seventeen miles south-west of Birmingham city centre and approximately fifteen miles north of Worcester city centre. The 2001 census recorded a population of 55,182 in the town...

. The turnpike trust

Turnpike trust

Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...

 was established in 1753.

Blakedown railway station

Blakedown railway station

Blakedown railway station serves the English village of Blakedown, Worcestershire. It was opened in 1852, and was later known as Churchill & Blakedown before adopting its current name .The station is unstaffed, with only a basic shelter on each platform...

was opened in 1852 and originally called Churchill station). Later it was called Churchill and Blakedown before adopting its current name.

The village has a small church, St. James the Great, and a Church of England primary school. Blakedown also includes two local pubs, and a village shop that offers a range of fresh foods and a newspaper delivery service.