Pages 273-274
A History of the County of Shropshire: Volume 11, Telford. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1985.
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES.
Ketley was subject to the court baron of Leegomery (fn. 1) and remained so in 1806. (fn. 2) The duke of Sutherland had a pound near Ketley town in 1842. (fn. 3) In 1590 Ketley was in the leet jurisdiction of Bradford hundred. (fn. 4)
The township (except for the part in Wombridge parish) was in Wellington civil parish until 1894, Wellington poor-law union 1836-1930, Wrekin highway district 1865-82, and Wellington rural sanitary district 1872-94. In 1894 it became part of Wellington Rural C.P. and Wellington rural district. (fn. 5) At Ketley Bank a small area was transferred to Oakengates C.P. and urban district in 1934, (fn. 6) and in 1966 the southern part of the township, including Overdale and the Rock, was transferred to Dawley C.P. and U.D. (fn. 7) In 1974 Dawley and Oakengates U.D.s and Wellington R.D. were dissolved, their areas becoming part of the district of the Wrekin. (fn. 8) In 1976 the surviving part of Wellington Rural C.P., which lay mostly in Ketley township, was renamed Ketley. (fn. 9) The part of the township taken into Dawley C.P. and U.D. in 1966 had been included in 1963 in the designated area of Dawley new town, (fn. 10) and in 1968 the whole township was included in that of Telford. (fn. 11)
Before 1897 many inhabitants drew water from Ketley spout, a pure spring near Ketley Dingle, and from Mosseygreen pool, a polluted pond. The former was superseded (fn. 12) in 1897 when Wellington U.D.C. extended a main eastwards along Watling Street to Beveley. (fn. 13) At first only houses on the main road benefited (fn. 14) but by 1912 the U.D.C. system also included Ketley town and Ketleyhill. From 1909 Dawley U.D.C. supplied Wellington R.D.C. with water for Mannerley Lane and the Rock, (fn. 15) an arrangement that eventually covered the rest of the old township. (fn. 16) Main sewerage was first provided in 1938 when Wellington R.D.C. completed a scheme that connected the township to the Hadley disposal works. (fn. 17) In 1952 Wellington Rural parish council opened a cemetery at Redlake. (fn. 18) There was a sub-post office by 1851. (fn. 19)