Baldwin de Hodenet built a motte and bailey castle in about 1082 possibly on a moated mound from earlier times. The timber castle was rebuilt in sandstone around 1196 but was burned down in 1264.[2] Hodnet Castle was mentioned in a document of 1223. Odo de Hodnet was granted the right to hold a weekly fair and an annual market by Henry III in the mid-13th century and the village grew to the north and east of the castle by the 12th-century church.[3]
In 1752 the estate passed from the Vernons, who had lived there for 250 years to the Hebers whose descendants still own the property.[4]Hodnet Old Hall was a timber-framedmanor house surrounded by the park which was recorded on Christopher Saxton's Map of Shropshire in the late-16th century. The old hall was demolished in 1870[3] when a new hall in the neo-Elizabethan style was built. The gardens were developed in the 1920s.[4] In the 20th century the hall was used as a convalescent hospital during the world wars and in World War II there was an airfield in the grounds for the storage and dispersal of aircraft from Ternhill and RAF Shawbury.[2]
Hodnet was the meeting place of an Anglo-Saxonhundred which continued to function after the Norman Conquest. Hodnet is recorded in the Domesday Book as Odenet,[5] and the village's 17th-century Hundred House was named for this reason.[2] The tenant-in-chief was Roger de Montgomery. Its hundred court was merged and moved, during the reign of King Henry I (1100–1135), into the Hundred of North Bradford, which was active until the late-19th century.[6]
The four-mile Hodnet bypass, the A53 opened in 2003 at a cost £14 million, taking traffic on the old A53 and A442 roads away from the village's narrow streets.[13] It was built by contractors Alfred McAlpine.
The motte and bailey castle is a scheduled monument in the grounds of Hodnet Old Hall surrounded by Hodnet Park which incorporates elements of a medieval deer park.[3]
St Luke's Church has an early foundation and retains much of its Norman nave. It was extended in the 14th century and its octagonal tower dates from this time. The church was restored in 1846. The church has some notable stained glass windows including one by David Evans depicting the evangelists and is connected with the story of the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend.[17]
Hodnet has a cricket club, Hodnet and Peplow CC. Its first eleven play in the Rollinson Smith Shropshire Cricket League Division 3.
FC Hodnet, a football club formed for the 2007–08 season, played at the Hodnet Social Club. The club won the Shropshire Alliance football league on 10 May 2008 and then competed in the Shropshire County Premier Football League, which became the Mercian Regional Football League since the 2008–09 season onwards. Starting in Division One, after two seasons the team were promoted to the Premier Division in 2010. The following year FC Hodnet won the Premier Division Cup, beating Haughmond in the final at Ellesmere.[29] FC Hodnet folded at the end of the 2016–17 season.
Hodnet Social Football Club, originating in the late 1990s, competed in the Telford Sunday League until 2012.
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