of ornamental sculpture on the outer walls, and from its situation on a
commanding eminence, presented from a distance, a fine, solemn,
cathedral-like appearance. It was cruciform, and comprised a nave, side
aisles, transept, choir, a broad low central tower, and chauntry chapels
north and south of the choir. The architecture was chiefly of the
Anglo-Norman and lancet styles of the 13th century, with some subsequent
additions of the 15th and 16th centuries. {109}
Early in the summer of 1788 considerable fissures were observed in the
north-western pier of the tower, which continuing to increase, Mr.
Telford was employed to examine and report the cause. On inspection, it
was discovered that the foundations had been undermined by graves
heedlessly made too near the walls, and that the pier, in consequence,
had given way; that the tower and the whole of the north side of the nave
were in a most dangerous state, and the chief timbers of the roof
decayed. He recommended that the tower should be immediately taken down,
the pier rebuilt, and the other parts of the fabric properly and
substantially secured. This reasonable advice through ill-judged economy
was fatally rejected, and a stonemason employed to cut away the infirm
parts of the pier, and to underbuild it, without lessening any of the
incumbent weight of the tower and bells. The workmen accordingly
commenced, and proceeded in their operations for two days; but on the
third morning, July 9th, 1788, just as the chimes struck four, the
ruinous pier gave way, the tower was instantly rent asunder, and falling
on the roofs of the nave and transept with a tremendous crash, involved
those parts in one indescribable scene of desolation and horror. Many
portions of the building still remained standing but so great was the
panic occasioned by the catastrophe that they were all immediately taken
down, with the exception of the present chapel.
The collegiate establishment of St. Chad consisted of a dean, ten secular
canons, and two vicars choral, and was founded soon after the subjugation
of Pengwern, in the 8th century, by Offa, king of Mercia, who, as
tradition states, converted the palace of the kings of Powis into his
first church. In Edward the Confessor’s time, this church held twelve
hides of land, which it retained at the compilation of Domesday. Between
the years 1086 and 1326, other considerable possessions were acquired by
the college, so that at the dissolution their revenues amounted to the
clear yearly sum of £49 13s. In 34th Henry VIII. on the apprehension of
a dissolution, the last dean, Sir George Lee, granted a lease of the
deanery, (with the exception of certain tithes previously disposed of) to
Humphrey Onslow, Esq. for sixty-one years, at a rent of £10, and a
payment of £4 6s. 8d. to a curate to celebrate divine service in the
church. On the dissolution of colleges, 2nd Edward VI., the crown leased
the collegiate property to George Beston, Esq. for a term of twenty-one
years; and two years afterwards, without any notice being taken of that
gentleman’s interest, it was appropriated to the Free Schools, in which
it is now vested.
The living, though properly a curacy, has long been styled a vicarage,
and is in the patronage of the crown. The incumbent is always the
mayor’s chaplain.
This parish is by far the largest in the place, comprising very nearly
half the town, and a great extent of the surrounding country.
The day-spring of the Reformation early visited our town. In 1407,
Master William Thorpe, a priest, came to Shrewsbury, and mounted the
pulpit in St. Chad’s church, from whence he boldly condemned the
favourite tenets of popery. Thorpe was in consequence thrown into
prison, subsequently conveyed to Lambeth, and after a confinement of
several months convened before the Archbishop of Canterbury at Saltwood,
on a complaint exhibited against him by “the bailives and worshipful
cominalte” of this town. In his examination he candidly admitted the
charges laid against him, but adhered to his opinions with manly and
unshrinking steadiness. Of the result of the trial and his subsequent
history we possess no account.
In the year 1394, this church, which had at that time a wooden steeple
covered with lead, was consumed by accidental fire, which extended its
ravages to a great portion of the town, then chiefly consisting of timber
houses with thatched roofs. The damage sustained was so considerable,
that Richard II. remitted the payment of the fee farm of the town for
three years towards the repairs.
In 1490, Henry VII., accompanied by his queen and son, Prince Arthur,
kept the feast of St. George, (April 23,) in this church. In 1581, Sir
Henry Sidney, President of the Council of the Marches, as a Knight of the
Garter, kept the feast of St. George, (April 23,) in this town, with
great splendour. He marched in solemn procession from the Council House
to St. Chad’s Church, the choir of which was fitted up in imitation of
St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the stalls decorated with the arms of
the Knights of the Garter. Sir Henry sat in his proper stall, near that
reserved for the Queen; in passing which he bowed with the same respect
as if her Majesty had actually been present. On the conclusion of divine
service Sir Henry devoted the afternoon to feasting the burgesses.
THE COLLEGE OF ST. CHAD
adjoined the south-western extremity of the church. Its buildings, now
converted into three handsome houses, are so entirely modernized, that
scarce a vestige is visible, except a portion of the wall adjacent to the
church-yard. The outer walls of its precinct may be traced to a
considerable distance in the neighbouring gardens.
North of the church-yard, in a close passage called “the Sextry,” are
some old timber buildings, once communicating with the church by a
covered passage over the street. These were, as is supposed, the
dwellings of the Vicars Choral. In this old tenement the attendants of
Henry VII. were lodged during his visit to the town in 1496, when the
Bailiffs entertained him in almost sumptuous and royal manner. These
premises were subsequently used as
THE MERCERS’ HALL,
though the Company have long since ceased to hold their meetings here.
The Company of Mercers, on their union with the Ironmongers and
Goldsmiths, received on May 11, 1480, a confirmation of their
composition, from Edward V. then Prince of Wales, and resident in
Shrewsbury. This fraternity were patrons of the Altar of St. Michael in
St. Chad’s Church.
On the south side of the church-yard are
ST. CHAD’S ALMSHOUSES,
wretched hovels, projecting considerably into the adjoining street of
Belmont. They were founded in 1409, by Bennet Tipton, a public brewer,
then residing at the College, who, so far as can be ascertained, did not
make any provision for the support of the almspeople. An annual
rent-charge of £8, charged upon the Lythwood estate by the family of
Ireland, and a payment of 2s. 2d. from the Mercers’ Company, constitutes
the whole endowment, which is distributed in allowances of 14s. 7½d. per
annum to each of the inmates. These tottering habitations, from the want
of a fund for judicious repairs, are capable of affording little comfort
or accommodation to the infirm tenants, who are nominated by the
proprietors of the Lythwood estate.
Opposite to the almshouses are
THE JUDGES’ LODGINGS,
a handsome house, purchased by the county in 1821, and appropriated to
the accommodation of the judges and their retinue during their attendance
at the Assizes.
Passing down College Hill, we have on our right the south elevation of
the Public Rooms. In this spot previously stood the remains of
VAUGHAN’S PLACE,
an ancient stone mansion, erected in the early part of the 14th century,
by Sir Hamo Vaughan, knight, of West Tilbury, in Essex, or by his father,
Sir Thomas Vaughan, knight, of Stepney, members of an old Welsh family,
probably of the illustrious lineage of Owen Gwyned. By marriage with
Eleanor, daughter and heiress of Sir Hamo, Reginald de Mutton, member of
a family conspicuous among our early Bailiffs, acquired this property,
which thenceforth became, for many generations, the town mansion of the
Myttons, and by whose descendant, the late John Mytton, Esq. of Halston,
it has been sold. The spacious hall and adjacent apartments now contain
THE MUSEUM
of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian
Society.
This Society was established on the 26th June, 1835, and has for its
object the formation of a Museum and Scientific Library of Natural
History, Antiquities, &c. and the collection from every quarter, of
accurate information respecting the Natural and General History of the
important District of Shropshire and North Wales—its topography,
statistics, climate, and meteorological phenomena—its geological
structure, mineral, and organic fossils—its mines and collieries—its
various animal and vegetable productions.
In order to place the Institution on the most liberal basis, and to
render it of the greatest possible public advantage, the property of the
Society is vested in the Lords Lieutenant, (for the time being,) of the
county of Salop, and of the several counties of North Wales, as Trustees
for the permanent use and benefit of the district at large; by which
arrangement the perpetuity of the Institution is secured, and the
possible dispersion of the Museum, at any future period, effectually
guarded against.
The affairs of the Society are under the management of a Council,
consisting of a President, and other Officers, elected annually, and
twelve Members, of whom six retire by rotation.
All persons proposed to the Council by two Subscribers, and contributing
One Guinea annually, are Members of the Society, and have the privilege
of admission for themselves and families to the Museum and library, and
of introducing Visitors.
To diffuse a taste for Science, periodical meetings of the Society are
held, at which scientific communications are read, and popular lectures
on the various branches of Natural History delivered.
In addition to the more local objects of the Society, the Museum is open
to the reception of any specimens from distant localities, with which the
friends of science in various quarters may be induced to enrich it, and
which may serve to complete the series, and enhance the scientific value
of those indigenous to the district. For this purpose the Council have
authority to effect exchanges of the natural products of Shropshire and
North Wales, for specimens furnished by the Cabinets of Societies, or
Individual Collectors in other parts of the world.
A General Meeting of the Society is held in August, in each year, at
which the officers are elected, the Annual Report of the progress of the
Society is read, and an appropriate Address delivered by the President.
The Museum and library are open every day, (Sunday excepted); during the
summer months, from ten o’clock in the morning until six o’clock in the
evening; but in the winter are closed at four o’clock in the evening.
In the same building is
THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL OF ART AND DESIGN,
for the purpose of “establishing classes for acquiring elementary
instruction in Art, in connexion with existing Public Schools and
Institutions, with a view of diffusing a knowledge of Art among all
classes of the public, whether artisans, manufacturers, or consumers, and
for preparing students for entering the Schools of Art heretofore known
as Schools of Design.”
On some part of this property it is supposed the chapel, dedicated to St.
Blase, formerly stood.
Turning to the left we proceed down Swan Hill, near the bottom of which,
on the right-hand side is
THE INDEPENDENT MEETING-HOUSE,
a brick building, of an oblong form, erected in 1767.
Immediately adjoining is
ALLATT’S CHARITY SCHOOL,
erected in 1800, pursuant to the will of Mr. John Allatt, thirty-eight
years chamberlain of the Corporation, who died 2nd November, 1796, and
bequeathed his property for the education and clothing of the children of
the more respectable classes of poor persons resident in the town, and
for providing coats and gowns for a considerable number of indigent men
and women. The structure is of freestone, plain but elegant, and
comprises commodious houses for the schoolmaster and mistress, connected
by arcades with spacious school-rooms.
The interest of the money unexpended in the building of the schools is
applied to the maintenance of a master and mistress, who instruct twenty
boys, and the same number of girls, in reading, writing, arithmetic, and
the girls in sewing. They are clothed once a year, and at a proper age
apprenticed. Twenty coats and eighty stuff gowns are also annually
distributed to the poor.
Proceeding on the left along Murivance, we soon arrive at
EBENEZER MEETING-HOUSE,
erected in 1834, by a congregation of seceders from the Wesleyan
Methodists.
Contiguous to this is the only remaining
TOWER ON THE TOWN WALLS,
It is square, embattled, of two stories, lighted by narrow loops, the
entrance to the upper being from the top of the wall, through a small
plain pointed arch of the age of Henry IV. A similar arch forms the
doorway of the lower story.
[Picture: Tower on the Town Walls]
The more accessible parts of the Town Walls, particularly on the south
and south-western sides, were formerly strengthened by similar towers,
all of which are now demolished.
At a short distance further on, a considerable portion of
THE TOWN WALLS,
now reduced in height and stripped of its battlements, forms an useful
and agreeable public walk. This and the Walls on the north side of the
town, called Roushill Walls, extending from the Castle Gates to the Welsh
Bridge, are all the existing remains of our ancient fortifications,
which, when entire, could not have been much less than a mile and half in
compass.
At the end of the walls, on the left, is
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MEETING-HOUSE,
a neat building, erected in 1776, and enlarged in 1825. The interior is
fitted up with much taste and elegance. The altar rests on a
sarcophagus, on the front of which is a painting of the Last Supper,
after Leonardi da Vinci. Above is a figure of Christ on the Cross, with
the inscription “Thus God loved the world.” The roof is coved and rests
on a broad cornice, consisting of angelic figures in relief united by
wreaths and garlands of flowers. In the gallery is a small organ, and on
each side the entrance an elegant white marble shell for the holy water.
BOWDLER’S CHARITY SCHOOL
next demands our attention; a plain brick building, founded in 1724,
pursuant to the will of Mr. Thomas Bowdler, alderman and draper, for the
instruction, clothing, and apprenticing poor children of St. Julian’s
parish. The dress of the children is blue, whence the school is
sometimes called “The Blue School.”
Passing at the bottom of the Wyle a curiously carved timber house,
formerly the mansion of the highly respectable family of Sherar, we cross
“swift Severn’s flood” by
THE ENGLISH, OR STONE BRIDGE.
This elegant structure was completed in 1774, after a design of Mr.
Gwynn, a native of the town, at an expense of £15,710, of which £11,494
was raised by voluntary subscriptions. It is of freestone, 400 feet in
length, and comprises seven semicircular arches, the central one being
sixty feet in width, and forty in height, and is crowned with a fine
balustrade. The fronts are embellished with light and graceful
ornaments. The ascent, owing to the height of the central arch, is
disagreeably steep, and the breadth of the thoroughfare, (only
twenty-five feet,) highly inconvenient to the innumerable carriages and
passengers which are continually passing over it.
[Picture: English Bridge]
The Old English Bridge, built probably by the Abbots and Burgesses
conjointly, was taken down on the completion of the present one. It was
constructed on seventeen arches, and extended over the main stream, and
also an arm of the river now filled up, which crossing the road, flowed
past the monks’ infirmary into the Meole Brook. The principal course of
the river was extended by six large arches. Within two arches of the
eastern extremity, was a gate and strong embattled tower, with chamber
and portcullis, and beyond a drawbridge. The thoroughfare was of the
extremely narrow width of twelve feet, and was greatly encumbered with
houses built on the northern parapet.
We now enter the little hamlet of
MERIVALE,
where, on the left, are still seen several specimens of the timber
architecture of our forefathers, and on the right stands
THE PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION CHARITY SCHOOL,
called also the “Brown School,” from the brown dress of the children,
erected in 1778. Children from all quarters of the town are admissible
on the recommendation of subscribers, and an useful religious education
is afforded to them on the Madras system.
The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway here crosses the street by an
IRON BRIDGE,
with pierced balustrades, springing from stone abutments.
Our attention is next attracted by the venerable remains of
THE ABBEY OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL.
which owes its foundation to Roger de Montgomery, the first Norman Earl
of Shrewsbury, and arose on the site of a small wooden church dedicated
to St. Peter, built in the reign of Edward the Confessor, by Siward, a
Saxon gentleman, then resident in Shropshire. The earl peopled his abbey
with monks of the Benedictine rule, whom he invited over from a religious
house founded on the estates of Mabel, his first Countess, at Seez, in
Normandy. During his last illness the warlike founder entered himself a
monk of his own foundation, and received the tonsure on the 14th July,
1094. He had previously obtained from the Abbey of Clugni, in Burgundy,
the kirtle of St. Hugh, which holy vestment he occasionally wore,
doubtless in anxious hope of its communicating some portion of the
sanctity of its former possessor. Three days after his assumption of the
monastic garb he breathed his last, and was honourably interred in the
Lady Chapel, between the two altars. His son Hugh, the second earl, who
was slain by Magnus, King of Norway, near Castell Aber Lleiniog, in
Anglesea, in the year 1098, also received interment in the cloisters.
On the confiscation of the Earldom of Shrewsbury, in the reign of Henry
I., our Shrewsbury Abbots, became tenants in capite, and were thenceforth
under the necessity, (as it was deemed in those days,) of attending the
King in his Parliaments, as Barons or Peers of Parliament, which honour
was continued to them by Edward III., who limited the number of mitred or
Parliamentary Abbots to twenty-eight, and enjoyed by them down to the
Dissolution.
In 1137, during the Abbacy of Herbert the third Abbot, the monastery was
enriched through the exertions of the prior, Robert Pennant, by the
acquisition of the bones of the martyred Virgin St. Wenefrede, which were
translated from their burial place at Gwytherin, in Denbighshire, and
placed with becoming solemnity in a costly shrine, prepared for their
reception in the Abbey church. To this shrine, countless numbers of
pilgrims and diseased persons continually resorted to pay their
devotions, and to experience cures, which, according to assertion, must
have been little less than miraculous; and the wealthy vied with each
other in the costliness of their offerings. In addition to these
treasured bones, the Monks appear to have possessed, in the reign of
Henry II., a most extensive and varied assortment of other reliques,
doubtless of equal value and efficacy. In 1486, the Abbot Thomas Mynde,
incorporated the devotees, both male and female, of St. Wenefrede, into a
religious Guild or fraternity founded by him in her honour. A great bell
was also dedicated to her memory.
During the various visits with which the English Sovereigns from time to
time honoured our town, it is highly probable that they took up their
residence in the Abbey, and there can be little doubt that the Parliament
of Edward I., 1283, {126} and that of Richard II., 1398, called the Great
Parliament, were held within the spacious apartments of the monastery.
The original endowment was very slender, but within a century and half
after the foundation the abbatial property comprised seventy-one manors
or large tracts of land, twenty-four churches, and the tithes of
thirty-seven parishes or vills, besides very extensive and valuable
privileges and immunities of various kinds. In 26 Henry VIII. their
possessions were found to be of the yearly value of £572. 15s. 5¾d. equal
to upwards of £4700 in the present day. The monastery was dissolved on
24th January, 1539–40, and pensions assigned to the Abbot, Thomas
Boteler, and the seventeen monks.
On the dissolution the burgesses presented a petition to the crown that
the Abbey might be converted into a college or free school, which request
Henry refused to accede to, alleging as a reason his intention of
erecting Shrewsbury into one of his proposed thirteen new bishoprics.
The diocese was to have comprehended the counties of Salop and Stafford,
and the endowment to have consisted of the monastic revenues. We learn
from undoubted authority that John Boucher, Abbot of Leicester, was
actually nominated Bishop of Shrewsbury; {127} and hence doubtless arose
the appellation of “Proud Salopians,” founded on the tradition that our
townsmen rejected the offer of having their borough converted into a
city, preferring to inhabit the First of Towns.
On the 22nd July 1546, Henry VIII. granted the site of the dissolved
Abbey to Edward Watson and Henry Herdson, who, the next day, conveyed the
same to William Langley of Salop, tailor, in whose family it continued
for five generations until 1701, when Jonathan Langley, Esq. devised it
to his friend Edward Baldwyn, Esq., who by will dated in 1726, devised it
to his sister Bridget, the wife of Thomas Powys, Esq. for life, with
remainder successively in tail male to her sons Henry, Edward, and John
Powys. In 1810 the premises were sold by the Trustees of the will of
Thomas, Jelf Powys, Esq. eldest son of the above named Edward Powys, to
Mr. Simon Hiles, in whose devisees they are now vested.
The living is a vicarage, and prior to the dissolution was in the
presentation of the monastery, but after that event it remained in the
crown, until 1797, when it was transferred to the Right Honourable Lord
Berwick, in exchange for certain advowsons in Suffolk.
From time immemorial certain lands in the Parish were given to and vested
in the Churchwardens and their successors “for the maintenance and
repairing of the Churches of the Holy Cross and St. Giles, and of either
of them.” Consequently there has never been any need of a Church-rate.
The lands, &c. are chiefly let out upon long building leases, and the
present annual income is about £150, which upon the falling in of the
several leases will of course be greatly increased. The Vicar and
Churchwardens are a Corporation, with the power of making leases, &c. of
the landed possessions of the said Churches, and have a common seal which
is appended to such documents. The seal is kept in a chest secured by
three locks, and the keys are severally in the possession of the Vicar
and the two Churchwardens. It is of brass, of the _vesica piscis_ form,
and has in the centre a baton or mace, and on either side a clothed arm
projecting towards the centre, that on the dexter side holding a pastoral
crook, that on the sinister side, a naked sword: the ground-work studded
with stars, and around the margin this inscription, * S COMMVNE DE
FFORYATE MONACHOR’. This seal was, according to an entry in the Parish
Book, “viewed and confirmed” by the Heralds, 16 Sept. 1623, for which
10s. was paid.
The site of the Abbey comprises ten acres. An embattled wall surrounded
probably the whole. Of the once stately monastic buildings the remains
are inconsiderable, and consist of the Church, the Infirmary, the
Dormitory, the Reader’s Pulpit of the Refectory, the Guesten Chamber, and
the Cloister of the Abbot’s Lodging.