The foundation is attributed to one of the Mercian kings who built it
upon the site of a palace belonging to the Princes of Powis which was
burned down by the Saxons. It was a collegiate church, and had a dean
and ten prebendaries. It was partially destroyed by fire in 1393 through
the negligence of one John Plomer, a workman, who carelessly left his
fire while he was engaged in repairing the leads. Plomer, seeing the
result of his thoughtlessness, endeavoured to make his escape, but in
running near the Severn was drowned—as a judgment? In consideration of
the damage thus sustained Richard II. graciously granted to the
inhabitants a remission of their fee-farm rent, and exemption for three
years from the payment of taxes upon the understanding that they should
re-build the edifice. This they did. In 1547, by order of the bailiffs
of the town, the pictures of Mary Magdalene and of St. Chad were removed
from the church and burned in the Market Square. On July 9th, 1788,
another disaster befell this unfortunate structure. Its decayed tower,
shaken by the vibrations occasioned by the chimes, suddenly fell down,
and crushed the nave and transepts into fearful desolation. Some masons
who were at work upon it fortunately escaped. The church was restored in
1796. The interior, which contains a number of monuments, one to the
memory of the celebrated Rev. Job Orton amongst others, has recently been
improved and modernised. In the churchyard several members of well-known
county families have received interment, such as Lyster, Vincent Corbett
of Moreton Corbett, Hugh Owen, M.D., Mytton, Burton, Ireland, Dr. Rowland
Lee, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and Lord President of the Marches,
and Captain Benbow, the officer who was shot in 1651. Benbow’s grave is
at the end of the pathway adjacent to Belmont.
It was in this church that the dawning light of the Reformation first
beamed in Shrewsbury. That light gleamed in the preaching of William
Thorpe, an ardent follower of Wickliffe. He denounced the dogmas of the
Romish Church with the fervour common to the early Reformers. For his
preaching he was confined in the prison here, and then removed to London
to be examined by the archbishop, who, it is conjectured, granted him his
liberty.
At the south-east of the churchyard up to the year 1858, stood or rather
were propped up and made to stand, St. Chad’s Almshouses—worn, ruinous
cottages, which served admirably for the purposes of animated nature.
They were founded in 1409 for old men and women by Bennet Tupton, a
public brewer. The following story, relative to Mr. Tupton and his
daughter, is interesting:—“This yeare, 1424, and in the second yeare of
King Henry 6th, one Bennet Tupton, beere brewer, dyed, who dwellyd in a
brue house in St. Chad’s Church Yard in Shrewsbury, which afterwards was,
and now of late days is, called the Colledge,” and was buried in St.
Chad’s Church. “He left behynd hym a daughter of his namy’d Blase
Tupton, who came by chance to be a leper, and made the ‘oryell’ which
goeth along the west syde of the sayde church yard, and so came aloft to
hear service through a door made in the church wall, and so passed
usually upon the leadder unto a glass window through which she dayly saw
and dayly hurde servys as long as she lyvyd.” The houses were demolished
in 1858.
From this church we turn down a passage on the right hand side of the
street, called now GOLDEN CROSS PASSAGE. Formerly it was denominated
Sextry Passage, a corruption of Sacristy. The sacristy of the church is
supposed to have been situated within it. The “Golden Cross” inn appears
to have been a tavern in 1495, the proof being that in that year 13s. 2d.
is said in the archives of the Corporation to have been expended “for
wine on the king’s gentlemen in the sextrie.”
Emerging into High Street again we walk a few yards down, and on the left
hand come to the UNITARIAN CHAPEL, which was formed on October 25th,
1691, by the Rev. John Bryan, M.A., ejected from St. Chad’s, and the Rev.
Francis Tallents, ejected from St. Mary’s, in 1662, for the use of a
Presbyterian congregation. One of the successors of the founders was the
Rev. Job Orton, who ministered from 1741 to 1766, when he removed to
Kidderminster. Shortly after his removal a secession took place, which
resulted in the formation of the Independent Church, Swan Hill. That
“divine madman,” Coleridge, preached in the High Street Chapel, and
Hazlitt walked from Wem to hear him.
Further down the street, and on the right hand side, at the bottom of
Grope Lane is what was once the MERCERS’ HALL. A few paces beyond is a
fine Elizabethan house now establishment of Mr. Springford, mercer, which
for a long period prior to the present century was set apart as the
Judges’ Lodgings. The large square opposite is the