of which little appears excepting the outer portion of a red stone
building, now used as a tan-house. The Friars Eremites of St. Augustine
are supposed to have located in this town about the middle of the
thirteenth century, and erected their house on a site which had been used
during the reign of John as a place of sepulture, interment in
consecrated ground having for a period been forbidden by that king.
The following beautiful initial letter, affixed to a charter from Edward
the Third, in 1345, assigns to the friars of this convent the out-work
above alluded to, under certain conditions, with leave to have a postern
gate for ingress and egress towards their house and church.
[Picture: Initial Letter of a Charter from Edw. III. to the Austin’s
Friars]
The king is depicted as sitting upon his throne, holding a globe in his
left and a sceptre in his right hand, with two friars kneeling before
him, and a third presenting a book or charter.
In the church of this Priory was a sanctuary, where a murderer could take
refuge, and thereby escape his merited punishment; and several knights
and men of rank, slain in the battle of Shrewsbury, were buried within
its walls.
Previously to the dissolution, this house, like many others, fell
suddenly into a state of bankruptcy, and the church was stripped of its
furniture and vestments. On the site of the precinct which once
pertained to this friary, and extended to the Quarry walk, several good
houses have been erected.
On the opposite side of the river is the suburb of Frankwell, bordered
with gardens; Millington’s Hospital crowning the eminence.