Great Ness
Great Ness and Little Ness are two nearby civil parishes in Shropshire, England. They surround the villages of Nesscliffe, Hopton, Kinton, Willcot, Felton Butler and Alderton. The parishes share a parish council that meets on the first Tuesday of every month (except January and August) at Nesscliffe or Little Ness Village Hall.
Great Ness
Great Ness is a compact village with a mix of houses, and it has many listed buildings (25 in total). The Church of Saint Andrew is the main parish church and is Grade I listed; it forms part of a group of parishes with Little Ness and Ruyton-XI-Towns. Great Ness is described in the Domesday Book as the “Manor of Nessham.” In 2011, Great Ness was designated a conservation area.
The area sits to the north of the River Severn, in a fertile river valley that has supported farming since ancient times. Agriculture has been a dominant activity for centuries. The landscape includes Nesscliffe Country Park, Nesscliffe Hill, Hopton Hill and The Cliffe, with Shruggs Common on Nesscliffe Hill. The park is near the Old Three Pigeons Inn, a 15th‑century building once said to be the watering hole of the legendary Humphrey Kynaston, or “Wild Humphrey Kynaston.” Inside the inn, a seat from Kynaston’s cave is now part of the fireplace.
Nesscliffe Rock Cave, also called Kynaston’s Cave, is a small sandstone cave with a six-metre-high entrance and two little chambers. It bears the date 1564 and the initials H.K., linked to Humphrey Kynaston. Access to the cave has changed over time and is now restricted.
Little Ness
Little Ness has its own parish and, in 2011, a population of 303. The village has St Martin’s Church, a Church of England church built in the 12th century as a chapel to Baschurch. It has medieval features and stained-glass fragments, including pieces connected to local history and commemoration of World War I.
Adcote is a notable institution in Little Ness. It is an independent girls’ day and boarding school housed in a late Victorian country house built by Richard Norman Shaw for the Darby family. The school moved to Adcote in 1927 and has since grown, expanding its facilities to accommodate more pupils. By 2014, plans were announced to extend boarding capacity and facilities due to overseas investment. The school now educates around 280 pupils, with about 120 boarders. Adcote celebrated its centenary in 2007. The village of Little Ness also has a World War I memorial.
Notable people
Conservative politician Derek Conway lived in Little Ness in the late 1980s.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:14 (CET).