which also has a communication with the chancel by an arch in the pointed
style.
This building (57 feet by 30) was at first of smaller dimensions, as is
evident from two lancet windows (beneath which are two very early loop
holes) in the wall next to the south aisle. Immediately above the
shelving portion still visible of the roof of the original chapel is a
peculiar circular window.
The enlargement was effected by the Draper’s Company soon after their
incorporation in 1461, having therein a guild or fraternity to the Holy
Trinity. Within the south wall is the sedilia formerly used by the
officiating priests, and the remains of a piscina, all of which were once
overspread with elegant canopies.
On the opposite side is a large pointed arch, now walled up. Under this
is an altar tomb, the sides of which are divided by small buttresses in
ornamental niches of the early decorated style. Above is a mutilated
recumbent figure of a cross-legged knight in linked armour, supposed to
represent one of the LEYBURNES LORDS OF BERWICK, in this parish, and who
died about the middle of the 14th century. The grave below was opened in
1816, and was composed of wrought masonry, when, after a little loose
rubbish had been removed, some leg and thigh bones were discovered. On
digging about three feet lower to the bottom of the tomb, a skeleton was
found wrapped in leather, but without a head. This is conjectured to be
the skeleton of Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, who was beheaded after
the battle of Shrewsbury, and his head sent to London, while his body
found an asylum in the tomb of a family which had become extinct.
This church, in 1232, was the scene of an assemblage of legates, convened
by command of the Pope to hear charges which had been preferred against
Llewelyn for repeated infractions of treaties. This negociation was at
length left to six referees on the part of King Henry III. and four on
that of the Welsh Prince, by which peace was maintained for a season.
When Charles the First visited this town in 1642, it is recorded he took
“a protestation and the sacrament upon it to defend the Protestant
religion established by Queen Elizabeth and his royal father,” which
solemn scene, it is supposed, took place within this edifice, being the
parish church of the mansion in which he was sojourning. King James the
Second, it is also said, attended divine service here in 1687, after
which he exercised the royal gift of healing by touching many persons for
the king’s evil.
THE MONUMENTS of particular interest having been already noticed in their
proper situations, it need only be remarked that there are mural tablets
commemorative of individuals connected with the families of LYSTER, LLOYD
(of Rûg, &c.), MORHALL, BLAKEWAY, &c. on the walls of the chancel, and
several other memorials in the nave, transepts, and chapel; which the
extended description of this church, and the confined limits of the
present work, will not permit further to enumerate.
The length of the building from east to west is 160 feet, breadth
(including side aisles) 50 feet.
The tower contains a peal of ten bells, the harmony of which, it is
considered, cannot be excelled by that of any peal in the kingdom: weight
of tenor 21 cwt. 2 qrs. 17 lbs.
On the west wall of the steeple is an inscription to the memory of Thomas
Cadman, who lost his life in a bold attempt to descend from the top of
the spire by means of a rope, which he had fixed to it and brought down
to the Gay meadow, on the other side of the river Severn. He fell near
the Water-lane gate, Feb. 2, 1739, aged 28, at a time when “the ground
was iron and the Severn glass,” owing, as the epitaph records, to
“A faulty cord being drawn too tight.”
The parish of Saint Mary extends several miles in detached parts of the
country, having within its boundaries five chapels of ease, viz.
Albrighton, Astley, Berwick, Clive, and St. Michael’s (Castle-foregate).
The church is a royal peculiar, and the official court has probate of all
wills and cognizance of all other ecclesiastical matters arising within
the parish. The living is a perpetual curacy, and was, previous to the
late municipal act, in the presentation of the Corporation of Shrewsbury;
and in the choice of a minister, the son of a burgess, who has been
educated at the royal free grammar school, or (in case there be no
burgess’s son of that description) one born in the parish of Chirbury,
with a qualification similar to the foregoing, is to have the preference.