Part 8

The eastern extremity of the nave is terminated by a wall, built between the two great western piers which once supported the central tower, in which is inserted a fine triple Norman window, {133} elaborately adorned with mouldings, containing figures of David, Solomon, St. John, St. James, St. Peter, and St. Paul, executed by Mr. David Evans with his usual taste. Underneath this window is a stone altar screen, composed of an arcade of five Norman arches, with rich and varied mouldings, surmounted by a pierced balustrade. The central arch contains a painting of the Angels appearing to the Women at the Sepulchre, by Mr. John Bridges, of London. The holy table is fenced by a STONE RAILING, uniform in style. The whole of the stone work of the eastern portion, together with the windows on the south aide of the church, were designed and executed by Messrs. Carline and Dodson of this town, through the pious liberality of the late Rev. R. Scott, B.D.

[Picture: Abbey Church, eastern end]

The western ends of the side aisles are separated from the church, and used as a vestry and schoolroom. At their eastern extremities are the arches which communicated with the transept, now blocked up and pierced with square-headed windows, in which are some ancient shields of arms, in stained glass, preserved from the monastic buildings. The north-east window of the north aisle contains a large figure of St. Peter, the arms of the See of Lichfield, of Lord Berwick the donor, and of thirteen incumbents since the Reformation. The opposite window of the south aisle is of a rich mosaic design, enclosing shields of the marriages of the family of Rocke.

[Picture: Stone Railing, Abbey Church]

The remnant of the screen of a chauntry chapel, in the north aisle, decorated with a series of small foliated niches, each divided by a buttress and finial, and containing traces of sculptured imagery, appears to indicate the situation of the chauntry of the guild of St. Wenefrede.

The ancient and curious font originally belonged to the church of High Ercall, in this county. In the pavement, near the vestry-door, are many interesting specimens of emblazoned tiles; and a font, the basin of which, representing an open flower, wound with drapery festooned from the mouths of grotesque heads, was found among the ruins of the Abbey, and is fixed on a pedestal formed of the upper part of the ancient cross, called the “Weeping Cross,” and sculptured with the Visitation, the Virgin and Child, the Crucifixion, and a figure in the attitude of devotion.

Communicating with the north aisle by a fine semicircular arch, overspread with massy round mouldings, rising from clustered piers, is the spacious vaulted north porch. The exterior portal is formed by a deeply recessed square opening, the mouldings of which fall over the angles far down the sides, ending in mutilated busts. Within this is a graceful pointed arch, rising from a round column on each side. Above are two chamber stories, each lighted by a small window. On the right and left, a tabernacled niche, extends the whole height of the upper stories. An ill-designed stone parapet crowns the gable.

And now

“let’s talk of graves, of tombs and epitaphs;”

of which many ancient ones, either found among the ruins, or removed hither on the demolition of other sacred edifices in the town and county, are preserved in the ample side-aisles; the more remarkable of which, we shall briefly enumerate in the order of their supposed dates:—

[Picture: Monument to Roger de Montgomery, Abbey Church] Under an arch in the south aisle, a mutilated figure of a warrior in the costume of the reign of King John, found among the ruins, and said to represent the founder, Earl ROGER DE MONTGOMERY.

In the north aisle, a cumbent figure, brought from St. Chad’s, of a person in the robes and coif of a judge.

In the south aisle, a monument brought from St. Giles’ church, of the shape en _dos d’ane_, and probably of the early part of the thirteenth century. The sculpture consists of a rich foliated cross, in high relief: under which is a figure in priestly vestments with uplifted hands, also in relief, and the insignia of the priestly office, the chalice, bell, book, and candle, in outline. Round the edge of the stone are the letters, T : M : O : R : E : U : A.

Opposite to the last, a cumbent effigy of a cross-legged knight, in linked armour and surcoat, removed from the priory church of Wombridge, in this county, and conjectured, from the tradition of that neighbourhood, to commemorate Sir Walter de Dunstanville, the third lord of Ideshale, a great benefactor of that priory, who died 25th Henry III., 1240.

In the north porch, two very singular figures, which originally lay on a large double altar-tomb in the style of the fifteenth century, in old St. Alkmund’s church. One represents a knight in plate-armour of the fifteenth century, partly covered with the monastic dress, and the other a person in the dress of a hermit of the Romish church.

Near the founder’s tomb in the south aisle, an alabaster altar-tomb, bearing recumbent figures of a man, “plated in habiliments of war,” and his wife, originally erected in Wellington church, in this county, to William Charlton, Esq. of Apley Castle, who died the 1st July, 1544, and Anne his wife, who died the 7th June, 1524.

[Picture: Altar-tomb of Richard Onslow, Esq., Abbey Church]

At the eastern extremity of the north aisle, a large altar-tomb with cumbent effigies, to the memory of RICHARD ONSLOW, Esq. Speaker of the House of Commons in the 8th Elizabeth, who died 1571, and his lady Katherine Harding; formerly in the Bishop’s Chancel of Old St. Chad’s Church.

In a corresponding situation in the south aisle, an altar-tomb of alabaster, in the Grecian style of the age of James I., bearing two cumbent figures; an alderman in his civic “robe and furr’d gown,” and a lady in the scarlet gown formerly worn by the lady-mayoresses of our town, commemorating WM. JONES, Esq. who died the 15th July, 1612, and Eleanor his wife, who died 26th February, 1623; the grand-father and grand-mother of Chief Justice Jones. This was removed from St. Alkmund’s.

[Picture: Altar-tomb to Alderman Jones and his wife]

Above Speaker Onslow’s monument, a mural monument, from St. Chad’s, in the Grecian taste of the seventeenth century, representing a gentleman in a ruff and long gown, and a lady with a long veil thrown back, kneeling under two escallopped arches: above, a lady in a richly laced habit and coif, and a little girl kneeling;—inscribed to the memory of Thomas Edwardes, Esq., who died 19th March, 1634, and of Mary, the wife of his son, Thomas Edwardes, Esq., died July 18th, 1641.

Above Jones’s monument, a mural monument, from St. Alkmund’s, with the figure of an alderman as low as the waist, with falling band, representing John Lloyd, Esq., Alderman of Shrewsbury, who died 16th June, 1647.

Near the vestry is a mural monument to the Rev. R. Scott, with the following inscription:—

AS A MARK OF GRATITUDE TO THE REVEREND RICHARD SCOTT, B.D. WHOSE OWN WORKS ARE BETTER PRAISE THAN THE WORDS OF OTHERS, THIS MEMORIAL IS PLACED HERE BY THE PARISHIONERS OF THE HOLY CROSS AND ST. GILES. HE REBUILT THE EASTERN WINDOW OF THIS CHURCH, ADDING A PART OF THE STAINED GLASS TO IT. HE GAVE THE ALTAR SCREEN AND STONE RAIL, THE SERVICE OF COMMUNION PLATE, WITH THE BOOKS, AND ALL OTHER FURNITURE OF THE ALTAR. HE REPEWED BOTH THE AISLES, THE NORTHERN BEING GIVEN FOR THE USE OF THE POOR. HE BUILT THE SIX WINDOWS IN THE SOUTH AISLE, AND THE TWO SMALLER WINDOWS AT THE WESTERN END OF THE CHURCH, ADDING STAINED GLASS TO THE GREAT WESTERN WINDOW. HE GAVE NEW FIGURES OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL TO BE PLACED WHERE THE OLD HAD BEEN AT THE WESTERN FRONT OF THE TOWER. HE RESTORED THE ARCH OF THE WESTERN ENTRANCE. HE ALSO GAVE MANY OTHER LESSER GIFTS TO THIS CHURCH. HE RESTORED ST. GILES’S CHURCH, MAKING IT AGAIN AVAILABLE FOR THE SERVICE OF GOD. HE GAVE TO THE SAME CHURCH, PARTLY IN HIS LIFE TIME AND PARTLY BY BEQUEST, THE SUM OF ONE THOUSAND POUNDS VESTED IN THE PUBLIC FUNDS, AS AN ENDOWMENT TOWARDS THE SUPPORT OF A CURATE. HE DIED ON THE 6TH OF OCTOBER, 1848. BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHICH DIE IN THE LORD FROM HENCEFORTH; YEA, SAITH THE SPIRIT, THAT THEY MAY REST FROM THEIR LABOURS AND THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM.

REVELATION XIV. 13.

Numerous other mural monuments and inscriptions of more modern dates, many of which are chaste and elegant, record deceased members of the principal families of the parish.

Southwestward of the church, on the margin of the Meole Brook, stands,

THE MONK’S INFIRMARY,

where “crepytude and age a laste asylume founde.” The building is of red stone, in length about 130 feet, and originally consisted of two oblong wings, with high gable ends, pierced with round arched windows, connected by an embattled building resting on rude Norman arches, and lighted by three square headed windows between strong shelving buttresses. One of these wings next the street was in 1836 taken down, and modern houses erected on its site.

On the south side of the church are the remains of a long building, now converted into stables, formerly the DORMITORY, OR DORTER.

Of the spacious Refectory no portion exists, with the exception of

THE READER’S PULPIT,

[Picture: Reader’s Pulpit, Abbey Church]

the admiration of every antiquary and person of taste. Its plan is octagonal; some broken steps lead to the interior through a narrow flat-arched door, on the eastern side. The southern half rests on the ruined walls, and originally looked into one of the outer courts. Its arches are open, unadorned with sculptured pannels, and bear marks of having been glazed. The corresponding moiety, which projected considerably within the hall, rests on a bracket enriched with delicate mouldings, which springs from a corbel. The western side is a blank wall. Six narrow pointed arches with trefoil heads support the conical stone roof, which is internally vaulted on eight delicate ribs, springing out of the wall, and adorned at their intersection in the centre, by a very fine boss, representing an open flower, on which is displayed a delicate sculpture of the Crucifixion, with St. John and the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross. The three northern arches, which were within the hall, are filled up, to the height of two feet from the floor, with stone embattled pannels, sculptured into crocketed tabernacles, with intervening buttresses terminating in pinnacles. On the central pannel is the Annunciation; the right-hand one bears figures of St. Peter and St. Paul; and that on the left, St. Wenefrede and the Abbot Beuno. The architecture of this elegant structure is referred to the fifteenth century. Much conjecture has arisen amongst the most eminent antiquaries respecting its probable use, but there can be little doubt, that it originally projected from the wall within the Refectory, and was used as a pulpit, from whence one of the junior brethren of the monastery, in compliance with the rule of the Benedictine order, daily, read, during meal times, some book of divinity to the Monks, seated at the tables below in the hall.

Southward of the pulpit is a large range of red stone building, now incorporated with the Abbey House, ending on the west with a high gable terminated by a flower, supposed to have been the GUESTEN HALL.

To the south-east of this is the ABBOT’S LODGING; of which the only remnant is a portion of the cloister, consisting of three pointed arches, on the piers of which, are indications of the corbels and springers of an elegant groined roof. A similar fragment adjoins this at right angles.

North of the Abbey Church is the beautiful

HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS,

erected and endowed in 1852, by Daniel Rowland, Esq., in memory of his brother, the late Rev. W. G. Rowland, M.A., a native of Shrewsbury, who resided during a long life, in a house on the spot, and who for 32 years officiated as Curate of the Abbey Church, until his subsequent appointment to the living of St. Mary, which he held until his death, November 28th, 1851. The edifice comprises five houses, and was designed and executed by Mr. S. P. Smith. The appointment is vested in the Ministers of the Abbey and St. Mary, and the Head Master of the Free School, as Trustees. The Hospitallers must be widows, those residing in the Abbey and St. Mary’s parishes having a preference, and receive from the endowment an annual sum of £10. 8s. 0d.

A raised walk, formerly overshadowed by a venerable avenue of umbrageous horse-chesnut trees, but now flanked with modern houses, and called “Whitehall Place,” and “Tankerville Place,” conducts us to THE WHITE HALL.

This stately mansion acquired this appellation from the conspicuous appearance which its white-washed walls present from many points of the adjacent neighbourhood. It is, constructed of freestone; in plan is square and lofty, the summits of the walls broken into numerous pointed gables, and the roof adorned with highly ornamented chimneys, and crowned with a central octagonal turret. The gatehouse still remains, and opens through its arched portal to a small court in front of the house. The interior is spacious, and adapted by subsequent alterations to the modern notions of comfort and convenience. The walls of the extensive gardens are clothed with many curious and choice fruit trees; and at the back of the house is a fine Walnut-tree, magnificent in umbrageous expanse, apparently coeval with the mansion. This fine and perfect specimen of the domestic architecture of the reign of Queen Elizabeth was built in 1578, by Richard Prince, Esq. a native of Shrewsbury, who, by skill and integrity in the honourable and lucrative profession of the law, raised himself and his family to distinguished eminence.

[Picture: White Hall]

In the adjacent fields is

THE RACE COURSE,

formed in 1833.

Constituting part of the race-ground is a field bearing the name of “The Soldiers’ Piece,” which “old folks, time’s doting chronicles,” point out as the spot on which the unfortunate Charles I., when at Shrewsbury in 1642, drew up his army and addressed the assembled gentry of the county on the subject of his distresses.

A short walk now brings us to THE COLUMN, erected by the voluntary subscriptions of the grateful inhabitants of the town and county of Salop, to commemorate the brilliant victories and achievements of that distinguished warrior, their countryman, Lieutenant General Lord Hill. This fine Doric pillar, considered to be the largest in the world, was completed on 18th June, 1816, the anniversary of the glorious Battle of Waterloo, at an expense of £5,973. The design was furnished by Mr. Edward Haycock, and the masonry executed by Mr. John Straphen, both of Shrewsbury. The height, including the statue, is 132 feet, and the weight 1120 tons. The chastely fluted shaft ascends from a square pedestal, raised on two steps, and flanked by angular piers, bearing lions couchant, and is surmounted by a cylindrical, pedestal, supporting a statue of his Lordship. Appropriate inscriptions are engraved on the panels of the basal pedestal. A beautiful spiral staircase of stone, the munificent donation of the spirited builder, Mr. Straphen, winds round the interior of the shaft, and opens on the summit, at the base of the pedestal of the statue, from whence the delighted visitor will enjoy a panoramic view over the fertile plain of Shropshire, unrivalled in extent and splendour:—

“Ten thousand landscapes open to the view, For ever pleasing, and for ever new.”

[Picture: Column in honour of Lord Hill]

Near the column, in a neat Doric stone cottage, dwells the attendant who shows it.

At a few paces’ distance in a peaceful and retired spot stands the only ecclesiastical structure of the town, with

ST. GILES’S CHURCH,

[Picture: St. Giles’s Church]

the exception of St. Mary’s church, which has descended to our times in an entire state. Of its foundation we possess no record, though it has been conjectured that its erection did not long precede the year 1136, when Robert, Prior of Shrewsbury, rested here with the bones of St. Wenefrede, previous to their translation to her shrine in the Abbey; and some confirmation is afforded to this conjecture by the arches of the northern and southern doors, the oldest existing portions of the structure, being of the architecture of that æra. It was doubtless used as the chapel of the hospital for lepers, which formerly stood at the west end, but of which all traces have long been swept away. The edifice consists of a nave, chancel, and north aisle, with an open stone bell-turret, pierced for two bells. The nave is entered by plain semicircular doorways on the north and south sides, and is divided from the side-aisle by three pointed arches on plain round pillars; attached to the north sides of which are massive square piers, having fillets above and on a level with the capitals, singularly adorned with sunk quatrefoils. A handsome pointed arch of the fourteenth century communicates with the chancel, in the flat-arched eastern window of which are spirited figures of the Evangelists under rich canopies, with their characteristic emblems above, and representations of the Visitation, the Wise Men’s Offering, and the Presentation, all most exquisitely executed in stained glass by Mr. David Evans. The small lancet window on the north side also contains a figure of the patron saint, St. Giles, in ancient stained glass.

In the floor are several ancient stones bearing crosses, probably memorials of the masters of the hospital. At the east end of the north aisle is a font originally in the Abbey Church, formed of a Norman capital.

According to entries in the Parish Books of the date 1665, this church originally possessed a “steeple” at the western end, probably an open stone bell-turret, somewhat similar to the present one, springing from corbels, which were visible in the western wall previous to its being rebuilt in 1852, and a porch before the south door. In the “steeple” was a “great bell” and two smaller ones, which were taken down in 1672, and used in the following year, with four lesser bells and the great “Wenefrede” Bell, in the recasting of the present ring of eight of the Abbey Church.

In 1740, a considerable sum raised by subscription was expended in a thorough repair of St. Giles’s Church, when probably the “steeple” and the porch were removed, a bell-turret and single bell erected, and the whole brought into the state in which it continued down to the recent restoration.

In 1827 this curious edifice was, through the laudable exertions and entirely at the expense of the Rev. W. G. Rowland, the liberal donor of the beautiful east window, thoroughly and judiciously repaired, and happily rescued from that ruin and decay to which its previous neglected condition was fast hastening.

[Picture: Interior of St. Giles’s Church]

The primitive rude and massive oak benches in the nave were subsequently removed, and replaced with new ones. A new pulpit, reading-pew, and altar-screen, of oak, beautifully carved and in unison with the architecture, were added, and the whole building fitted up for divine service by the pious munificence of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D. Divine Service, which had previously been celebrated only on two Sunday evenings in the year, has, since June 1836, been regularly offered up every Sunday.

In the church-yard is a large stone with a cavity on the upper side, (doubtless the base and socket of the cross) termed “the PEST BASIN,” which tradition states to have been used during the time of the plague for holding water, in which, to avoid the spread of the disease, the towns-people deposited their money in their bargains for provisions with the country-folk. A portion of the head of this cross was discovered under the west wall of the church during the repairs in 1852. It is now placed in the north aisle, and displays sculptures of the Crucifixion, St. Giles, Virgin and Child, and St. Michael.

[Picture: “Pest-Basin,” in St. Giles’s Churchyard]

Our town has been many times visited with those severe scourges of Heaven, the dreadful pestilential diseases of the sweating sickness and the plague. The former desolated the town in the reign of Edward III. in 1349, and again in that of Henry VII., in the years 1485 and 1551; and the latter raged here with frightful fury in the years 1537, 1575, 1630, 1632, and 1634. In the years 1832 and 1849, also, many of the inhabitants fell victims to the cholera.

For the support of the Hospital of Lepers, Henry II. granted thirty shillings yearly out of the rent of the County of Salop, and a handful of two hands of every sack of corn, and a handful of one hand of every sack of flour, exposed for sale in Shrewsbury market. Henry III. also in 1232 gave them a horse-load of wood, daily, from his wood of Lythwood.

The appointment of the Master was vested in the Abbot and Convent of Shrewsbury, who, a short time previous to the Dissolution, granted a long lease of it to Richard Lee, Esq. of Langley, who assigning his interest to the family of Prince, of the White Hall, it passed with their other estates into the Tankerville family. The Earl of Tankerville still annually receives from the Sheriff the thirty shillings granted by Henry II. and nominates the four hospitallers, who now live in the adjoining comfortable cottages, and to each of whom his Lordship pays 1s. 6d. per week, 3s. at Midsummer for coal, and 12s. 6d. at Christmas for a garment. {153}

Near St. Giles’s is a handsome edifice of brick, built by government in 1806, at an expense of £10,000, after a design by Wyatt, and intended as

A DEPÔT

for containing the arms of the volunteer corps in this and the adjoining counties.

The principal building is 135 feet by 39 feet, divided into an upper and lower story, and is surrounded by an oblong enclosure, within which are 13 small neat houses. Little use having for many years been made of this structure, it has, by purchase, become the property of the present Lord Berwick. Recently it has been adapted as the Military Depôt of the Shropshire Militia. {154}

We now return along the suburb of the Abbey Foregate,

“A long great streate, well builded large and faire, In as good ayre, as may be wisht with wit.”

to the English Bridge.

Turning on the left we enter the suburb of Coleham, and soon arrive at

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY,

[Picture: Trinity Church]

consecrated August 25, 1837, for the accommodation of the numerous inhabitants of Coleham, by voluntary subscriptions, aided by grants from the Church Building Societies, at a cost of nearly £1900. Adjoining is a large cemetery for the whole parish of St. Julian, and also commodious school rooms. The church, which was made a district parish church in 1841, contains 812 sittings, of which 504 are free. In the gallery is a small organ, by Bishop; in the window over the altar are figures in stained glass of the Evangelists, and St. Peter and St. Paul; and in two of the windows in the body of the church are various scriptural medallions in stained glass, which, together with a handsome service of communion plate, were presented by the piety of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D.