formerly distinguished for its priory which was situated near or
adjoining to the present church. The parish comprises 5,592A. 2R. of
land, the principal owner of which is the Hon. R. H. Clive; the trustees
of Ludlow charities are also proprietors. At the census in 1801, this
parish contained 540 inhabitants; 1831, 517; and in 1841, 114 houses, and
531 souls. Rateable value, £7,308. 17s. 7d. The few remains of the
ancient priory are situated near to the church. The establishment in the
time of Henry I. consisted of a small college of prebendaries or secular
canons. Osbertus Prior, of Bromfield, is witness to a deed before the
year 1148. This priory was greatly enriched by Henry II., who granted to
it his church in Bromfield, which was dedicated to the blessed St. Mary,
with his royal licence and protection of their extensive possessions of
the towns and lands of Haverford, Dinchope, Efford, Felton, Burghey and
Lethewick; three prebends in Bromfield, and three in Halton. In the
second of Henry II. the prior and brothers of Bromfield subjected
themselves, by authority of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, to the
Benedictine Monastery of St. Peter’s, near Gloucester, called Lanthony
Secunda, and became Benedictines, and continued so to the time of the
general dissolution of religious houses. At the assizes of Salop, 20th
Edward I., the prior of Bromfield claimed free warren in the manor of
Bromfield by charter of Henry II., which was allowed. The said charter
also comprised a grant of Infangthef; and a jury found one Henry de la
Chapele guilty of theft, who was tried and condemned by the prior, and
hanged at Bromfield. The yearly revenues of the priory were valued at
the dissolution at £78. 19s. 4d. In the 4th of Philip and Mary it was
granted to Charles Fox. He was the founder of four families, most of
which were in opulence for four generations; but his estate at Bromfield,
including what is now called Oakley Park, passed by marriage to Matthew
Herbert, whose descendant George, late Earl of Powis, devised it to his
nephew, the Hon. Henry Clive, whose representative of the same name now
inherits the estate, and resides at OAKLEY PARK, an elegant mansion,
mostly of modern construction, delightfully situated on the banks of the
Terne. The surrounding grounds are extremely romantic and beautiful, and
the pleasure grounds and gardens are tastefully laid out. It commands
many fine views in different directions; the meanderings of the river
adding much to the effect. The park, which formerly contained nine
hundred acres, and included within its circuit the priory to which it
belonged, is yet of considerable extent. It is finely adorned with
groves and clumps of stately oaks. The lordship of Bromfield is
co-extensive with the parish, and the chapelry of Walford and Dinchope,
and the township of Ledwich. The manor abounds with game, and is watered
by the river Terne, esteemed one of the finest fishing streams in the
kingdom.
THE CHURCH is picturesquely situated, and consists of nave, chancel,
transept and tower: it exhibits some fine specimens of elaborate
workmanship, and is said to have formed a part of the structure belonging
to the benedictine priory. The interior has a chaste and elegant
appearance; the roof is beautifully painted, and the windows are adorned
with stained glass. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book
at £6, now returned at £350; the patronage is vested in the Hon. R. H.
Clive; incumbent, Rev. Thomas J. Longworth. The Court of Augmentation
decreed the vicar of Bromfield a yearly pension from the dissolved
monastery at Gloucester; and there are, in vellum hooks in the king’s
remembrancer office, accounts of several decrees relating to the
possessions of the priory and the rights of the vicar of this place.
DIRECTORY.—The Hon. Robert Henry Clive, Oakley Park; Samuel Bluck,
farmer, Bromfield house; the Misses Davies, ladies’ academy; Peter Davis,
farmer, King’s head farm; Henry Fletcher, farmer; George Jacks,
cow-leech; Rev. Thomas I. Longworth, vicar; Henry Lippitt, farmer,
Priors Walton; Thomas Payter, shoe maker; John Preece, vict., The Clive
Arms; William Swift, farmer, Hill Halton; Herbert Titley, farmer,
Cookridge; Richard White, agent to the Hon. R. H. Clive; Henry Vaughan,
farmer, The Butts.
CARDINGTON
is a considerable parish, in the upper division of the Munslow Hundred,
comprising upwards of 6,000 acres of land, and containing the several
townships of Cardington, Broome, Chatwall, Comley, Enchmarsh, part of
Gretton, Holt-Preen, Lydley Heys, Plaish, and Willstone. At the census
of 1801 the parish had a population of 623 souls; 1831, 718; and in 1841
there were 138 houses and 691 inhabitants. The village of Cardington is
situated is a secluded and romantic country, three miles and a half E.E.
by N. from Church Stretton, having the lofty heights of the Caradoc and
Lawley to the east, and the Hope Bowdler hills on the south-west. The
township contains 995 acres of land, the rateable value of which is £815.
15s. Panton Corbett, Esq., is the principal landowner; there are also a
few small freeholders. THE CHURCH is a plain unpretending structure,
consisting of nave and chancel, with a tower, in which is a peal of
bells. The handsome altar tomb, erected in memory of Sir William
Leighton, of Plaish, who died December 20th, 1607, is now much
dilapidated. He was chief justice of North Wales, and one of the council
of the Marches of Wales, which offices he held with integrity and honour
for more than forty years. The living is a vicarage, valued in the
king’s book at £6. 2s. 6d., now returned at £294, in the patronage of
Rowland Hunt, Esq.: incumbent, Rev. William J. Hughes. The court leet
and court baron, with view of frank-pledge, held for the manor of Lydley
and Cardington, as a court of record, is of the highest antiquity, and
accounted a king’s court, of which Panton Corbett, Esq., is the present
lord. The jurisdiction existed long before the conquest, and the first
formation of it is attributed by several law authorities to King Alfred.
“The term leet is not discoverable in Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, but is
understood to be derived out of the Sheriffs’ tourn, whose power therein
was suspended, if not superseded.” The nature and extent of the court
leet jurisdiction, in its first formation, may probably be best
illustrated by a brief view of the different ranks of people and the mode
of administering justice in the Anglo-Saxon era. The lowest order of the
people were complete slaves, either by birth or by forfeiture of their
freedom, by crimes or breach of faith, and were incapable of any office
of trust or honour. But the spread of Christianity led to the frequent
manumissions, and established a class of people called Frilazin; and
persons so made free were considered to be in a middle state only,
between slaves and freemen. Those who were freemen from birth were
called Ceorls, and constituted a middle class between the nobility and
such labourers and mechanics as were slaves, and being generally devoted
to agriculture, a Ceorl was the usual appellation of a husbandman; but
the acquisition of 500 acres of land, the attainment of holy orders, or
by the owner of a ship or cargo making three voyages beyond sea, advanced
a Ceorl to the dignity of a Thane of the lower order; and the higher
class of this order, which were styled King’s Thanes were of three
different degrees. The Thanes were the only nobility among the
Anglo-Saxons; but all members of royal families were of superior rank.
The kings were chief judges in their respective territories, and
frequently administered justice in person. King Alfred employed both day
and night in hearing appeals, with the aid of learned assessors; thus
forming a supreme court of justice, until the establishment of monarchy,
when it was found necessary to appoint a chief justicary to preside in
the king’s court; and the first institution of such office is supposed to
have been at the time of the incursion of the Danes. In 1622, Sir John
Hayward obtained from the crown a licence to alienate the manor of Lydley
and Cardington to Edward Corbett, Esq., for the sum of £3,200.
CHARITIES.—THE SCHOOL.—_William Hall_, by his will, dated 6th April,
1720, bequeathed £400 to the parsons of the parishes of Cardington, Hope
Bowdler, and Longnor, in trust, for the building a schoolhouse at
Cardington, and the maintenance of a schoolmaster. A school was
subsequently built with part of the above mentioned legacy, and the
residue was laid out in the purchase of copyhold lands, held of the manor
of Lydley and Cardington. In 1827, an order was made in the Court of
Chancery, on the petition of Richard Butcher and others, overseers and
inhabitants of the parish of Cardington, whereby it was referred to the
master to take an account of the charity estate, and of the value
thereof, and to approve of a scheme for the future management of the
charity. The master, by his report made April 1st, 1828, directed £10
a-year to be reserved out of the rents, to put the schoolhouse and the
premises on the school estate in good repair, and afterwards such less
sum as the directors should see fit, but not less than £5; and that the
surplus rents should be paid to the schoolmaster and his assistant. The
school estate consists of 27A. 3R. 32P., and an allotment containing 5A.
1R. 10P. on Cardington Moor, allotted to the trustees of the school under
an enclosure act, passed 41st Geo. III. The estate now produces £34. 3s.
1d. per annum. The school is open to all the children of the parish (boy
and girls) without any charge, except 1s. for entrance and 1s. yearly for
fuel. They are taught reading, writing, and accounts.
_Roger Maunsell_, by will, 1651, devised a piece of ground, called
Bowneford, in the parish of Long Stanton, to the churchwardens of the
parish of Cardington, and their successors, and to Thomas Powell and his
heirs, and ordered that the said churchwardens, at the feast of St.
Michael, should receive the sum of 26s. 8d. yearly for ever. He directed
the first three years after his decease, the said sum of 26s. 8d. should
be expended in a weekly distribution of bread, to be divided among six
poor men one week, and among six poor women the following week; and that
for the next three years it should be laid out in buying sacramental
bread and wine; and the seventh year in adorning or buying any ornament
to be used in the church at Cardington; and so from seven years to seven
years.
_Anne Tipton_ gave a rent charge of £1. 10s. per annum, issuing out of
the Day House, and directed six penny loaves to be given to six poor men
and six poor women of this parish, alternately every Sunday in the year;
but on Easter Sunday, Whit Sunday, the last Sunday in the old and first
Sunday in the new year six threepenny loaves each day.
The sum of £1. 6s. is paid every alternate year to the churchwardens of
Cardington, as a gift of _Dinah Roberts_. This and the like payment made
to the parish of St. Julian, in Shrewsbury, are charged upon a farm in
Wilstone, which was purchased by Archdeacon Corbett about fifty years
ago. The amount is applied in a distribution of six penny loaves every
Sunday in the year in which it is received.
_Francis Southern_, by will, dated May 9th, 1773, bequeathed to the
minister and churchwardens of the parish of Cardington and their
successors £42. 10s., upon trust, that the interest of £32. 10s., part
thereof, should he laid out in bread and given away every Lord’s day to
three poor widows or old men of this parish, who should attend divine
service; and the interest of the other £10 he left to the minister of
Cardington for preaching a sermon every New Year’s-day. Of this money we
are informed £32. 10. was laid out in 1814 in the purchase of a cottage
at the east end of the town, called the Butt, which was formerly occupied
by poor persons placed there by the parish. £1. 6s. is paid from the
church-warden’s account for providing bread for the poor. The remaining
£10 was paid to the churchwarden’s account in 1819, and the churchwardens
pay the interest thereof to the minister.
In the parliamentary returns of 1786 it is stated the poor’s stock
amounted to £45, for which interest was paid for many years. It is
understood that £5 of this money was lost, and that in 1799 £40 having
been borrowed of Joseph Powell by the parish for building a poor house,
the poor’s stock was applied in paying off the debt. Nothing has been
paid in charity in respect of the above sum for a long period. The poor,
we conceive, are entitled to the interest of the money which was left for
charitable uses, and not for the ease of the ratepayers.
_John Russell_, by will, 1813, gave to the minister of Cardington for the
time being £1 yearly for preaching a sermon annually on the day preceding
the day of his interment. He also gave to the poor of Cardington thirty
threepenny loaves on each of the following days—Christmas-day,
Easter-day, Whit Sunday, and the Wakes Sunday; and to six of the poorest
widows of the parish a blue woollen gown every Christmas-day, and the
same to six of the poorest girls of the said parish on the same day, and
also to a schoolmistress £10 a year to teach twelve poor girls of the
said parish to read, knit, and sew. He also gave £5 a year towards a
Sunday school, and he bequeathed to certain trustees £570, on trust, to
place out the same in public funds, and out of the dividends pay the
annuities before mentioned, and also an annuity to the Rev. John Witts
for his life. In respect of this charity there is now £628. 12s. 4d. new
four per cents. standing in the names of the trustees, producing annual
dividends of £25. 2s. 10d. The trustees, after carrying out the specific
intentions of the donor, apply the surplus in the purchase of coal, which
is distributed among the most necessitous poor.
There were in this parish certain lands called the Church Estate,
consisting of several detached parcels; but on the enclosure of the lands
in the manor of Lydley and Cardington, in 1817, exchanges were effected,
whereby between fifteen and sixteen acres lying together were set out by
the churchwardens. There are also nine cottages, chiefly occupied by
poor persons. The rents of these premises were formerly paid half to the
churchwardens, to be applied in the repairs of the church, or in aid of
the church rate, and the other moiety to the overseers of the poor, by
whom the amount was given away in charity. But for many years the rent,
now amounting to £14, has been carried to the overseers’ account, and
applied to the general purposes of the poor’s rate. Coals to the amount
of £5 or £6 are, however, annually given away by the overseers. It
appears questionable, from the usage which formerly prevailed, whether
the rent of this estate ought not to be applied, one moiety thereof in
the repairs of the church, and the other to such poor persons as appear
fit objects of charity.
DIRECTORY.—William Aincham, carpenter and wheelwright; John Brazier,
maltster and beerhouse keeper; John Corfield, farmer; Joseph Dayus,
farmer; Samuel Evans, vict., Royal Oak; Mr. John R. Durnell; William
Eaton, butcher; Samuel Edwards, farmer; Edward Haynes, shopkeeper; Rev.
William Jones Hughes, vicar; John Parker, schoolmaster; George Onslow,
farmer; William Preen, farmer and beerhouse keeper; Thomas Price,
wheelwright; Francis Smout, farmer; Francis Waters, gentleman; Ann Woof,
farmer.
CARDINGTON TOWNSHIPS
BROOME is a small township in the parish of Cardington, having 177 acres
of land, the rateable value of which is £178. 10s. At the census of 1841
there were three houses and thirteen inhabitants. Mr. John Evans is the
only resident farmer.
CHATWALL township in 1841 had six houses and thirty inhabitants, and
contains 763 acres of land, the principal owners of which are Panton
Corbett, Esq., John Norris, Esq., Richard Butcher, Esq., Mrs. Bourne.
The land is mostly poor and cold. Rateable value, £575. 15s. The chief
residents are Samuel Jones, farmer and beerhouse keeper; John L. Mitton,
farmer; Richard Wall, farmer, and Thomas Woodcock, farmer, Lower
Chatwall.
COMLEY AND BOTVYLLE is a township in the parish of Cardington, containing
464 acres of land, which is chiefly the property of Panton Corbett, Esq.
Rateable value, £330 10s. At the census of 1841 there were 17 houses and
57 souls. The principal residents are Edward Evans wheelwright; Philip
Hayward, farmer; William Higgins, farmer, The Shoe Trough; John H. Smith,
farmer; William Tomlinson, farmer.
ENCHMARSH is a township and village two miles N. from Cardington,
comprising 400 acres of land, and in 1841 contained eighteen houses and a
population of 94 souls. Rateable value, £392. 5s. Panton Corbett, Esq.,
is the chief landowner. The principal residents are Richard Evason,
farmer; William Haynes, blacksmith; William Norris, farmer.
HOLT PREEN is a township in the parish of Cardington, situated about a
mile from Church Preen, and four miles N.E. from Cardington. It contains
793 acres of land, and in 1841 had sixteen houses and 111 inhabitants.
Rowland Hunt, Esq., is the landowner and lord of the manor. The
principal resident is Mr. Thomas Norris, Holt Hall.
LYDLEY HEYS, a township in Cardington parish, has 790 acres of land, and
in 1841 had eight houses and 52 inhabitants. Panton Corbett, Esq., is
the sole proprietor in this township. Rateable value, £580. 5s. The
chief residents are Richard Everall, farmer, Day House; Henry Matthews,
farmer, Lawley Farm; John Russell, farmer, Court House; Richard Shuker,
farmer, Pankridge Hall.
PLAISH township in Cardington parish is situated about three miles from
the parish church, and at the census of 1841 had six houses and 37
inhabitants. The township contains 908 acres of land, the rateable value
of which is £611. 10s. Rowland Hunt, Esq., is sole proprietor and lord
of the manor. The Hall is a venerable old structure, partly in ruins,
and partly occupied as workshops and granaries. It was formerly the seat
of Sir William Leighton, chief justice of North Wales, and one of the
council of the Marches. He died in 1607, and was buried under a
sumptuous monument in Cardington church. The Hall contains some fine
specimens of oak carving, and although decayed and ruinous bears traces
of its former splendour. The principal residents in Plaish are Samuel
Eaton, farmer, Plaish Hall, and Thomas Lewis, farmer, The Sheaves.
WILLSTONE, a township in Cardington parish, containing 711 acres of land,
at the census of 1841 had four houses and 34 inhabitants. Rateable value
of the parish, £469. 10s. Panton Corbett, Esq., and Thomas Bolton, Esq.,
are the landowners; the former is lord of the manor. The resident
farmers in Willstone are Isaiah Lindop, and William Minton.
CHURCH STRETTON
is a market town and parish in the Upper division of the Munslow hundred,
thirteen miles S.S.W. from Shrewsbury, fourteen miles N.N.W. from Ludlow,
and 153 miles from London. The parish comprises the townships of Church
Stretton, All Stretton, Little Stretton, and Minton, and contains 5,717
acres of titheable land, and 5,000 of common, making a total of 10,717
acres in the parish, the gross estimated rental of which is £7,592.
Rateable value £6,133. At the census of 1801 there were 924 inhabitants;
1831, 1,302; 1841, 1,604. At the latter period there were 346 houses, of
which 183 houses and 860 persons were in the township of Church Stretton.
This place is supposed to have derived the name of Stretton (formerly
Street Town), from its contiguity to the Watling Street, the Roman road
that led from Uriconium (now Wroxeter), the principal city of the
Cornavii, to Kinchester, near Hereford. This ancient road runs nearly
parallel with the turnpike road from Shrewsbury to Hereford. The town is
small, and chiefly consists of one street, in the widest part of which is
the market hall. It is a polling place for the southern division of the
county, and is situated in a picturesque vale, from which rise gradually
wooded eminences of great beauty, backed by lofty ranges of hills. On
the eastern side are the Lawley and the far-famed Caer Caradoc, one of
the military entrenchments of Caractacus in his long and arduous struggle
with the Romans; on the western side is the lofty range of the Longmynds,
extending eight or nine miles, and on the summit of one called Boddbury
was a Roman station or camp of observation. A pole has been erected on
the highest point of the Longmynds, from which spot there is a most
delightful and commanding view of a wide extent of country. The prospect
includes on the west the Stipperstones, the mountainous district of
Wales, including the Sugarloaf near Abergavenny, the Table mountain,
Cader Idris, and the intervening range from that mountain to Snowdon; on
the east and north-east are seen the Edgwood, the Clee, and Malvern
hills, and the majestic Wrekin; to the south-west are the hills of
Radnorshire, and on the north-west the Denbighshire hills, besides which
there is a fine view of the fertile plains of Shropshire, with many other
objects of deep interest. The secluded and romantic situation of Church
Stretton, the grand and majestic character of the surrounding scenery—its
proximity to scenes of great historical interest—the mildness and
salubrity of the air, which is at the same time peculiarly bracing,—its
general exemption from contagious and epidemic disease, and the
excellence of the water, all conduce to render it peculiarly attractive
to parties in pursuit of health and pleasure. During the summer months
it is a very favourite resort of visitors from the neighbouring towns,
the great variety of the scenery rendering it almost impossible to weary
the most fastidious taste. When it has become more easy of access by
railway it will no doubt become a favourite retreat for persons from all
parts of the kingdom. The Shrewsbury and Hereford railway now in course
of construction will pass within three hundred yards of the town.
Camden, who wrote in the time of Elizabeth observes, “Near Stretton, in a
valley are yet to be seen the rubbish of an old castle called Brocard’s
Castle and the same set amiddest greene meadowes that before time were
fish ponds.” In the 17th of King John, Hugh de Mortimer received command
from the Barons to deliver up the castle of Stretton Dale to Hugh de
Neville, but standing firm to the king he was rewarded the next year by
receiving a grant of the castle of Holdgate from John. The Caer Caradoc
probably acquired that name from having been one of the military stations
of Caractacus, and it was once considered the place where he fought his
last battle until a strict comparison of its situation, with the
description given by Tacitus, caused the opinion to be abandoned.
Formerly a society of gentlemen used to meet annually on this hill to
celebrate the fame of the British chief in compositions of prose and
verse. A very spirited poetical effusion was on occasion delivered
almost extempore by the Rev. Sneyd Davies. Almost every dingle and
narrow valley of this locality has its peculiar brook or rivulet, which
in several instances form beautiful cascades over their rocky channel;
they all produce excellent trout. At the foot of the Caradoc, near All
Stretton, is a farm house called Botvylle which a family of that name at
an early period held under the Knights Templars of Jerusalem. One of
this family was a lawyer, and was called John of the Inns, which was
corrupted into John Thynne, and from him there is a tradition that the
family of the Marquis of Bath is descended, who possessed the manor till
the year 1808, when it was sold to Thomas Coleman, Esq. In the 10th of
Edward III. the king bestowed Stretton on Richard, Earl of Arundel, and
the year following he obtained the grant of a market on Thursday, and a
fair on the eve, the day, and the day after the feast of the Exaltation
of the Holy Cross. The market is still held on Thursday, and is well
attended with provisions. Fairs are held on the Monday before Shrewsbury
first March fair; 14th May, 3rd of July, for wool, 25th of September, and
the last Thursday in November. The Market Hall is a neat and spacious
building in the Elizabethan style, consisting of a good room where public
meetings are held, and an area underneath for the market. It was erected
in the year 1839, at a cost of about £1000, and was conveyed to the
following trustees, some of whom were the principal subscribers to the
funds for its erection, namely: the Earl of Powis, Lord Darlington, Lord
Clive, Hon. R. H. Clive, Rev. N. R. Pemberton, E. W. Smythe Owen, Esq.,
G. R. Benson, Esq., Panton Corbett, Esq., Thomas S. Acton, Esq., E. B.
Coleman, Esq., William Pinches, Esq., Mr. John Broome, and Mr. John
Robinson. The old market hall, an antique structure much admired for its
primitive appearance, was chiefly composed of timber and plaister, and
was built in the year 1617; it was fast falling to decay when it was
taken down; the inhabitants purchased the site and the tolls for £200,
which was raised by subscriptions, so that the market is now toll free.
In a deep valley about a quarter of a mile from the town is a flourishing
flannel manufactory, the machinery being turned by a mountain stream; the
inhabitants are however chiefly engaged in agricultural pursuits; large
flocks of sheep are pastured on the neighbouring hills. The principal
landowners are Moses George Benson, Esq., Charles Orlando Childe
Pemberton, Esq., and Mrs. Coleman; the latter is lady of the manor.