Part 67

DIRECTORY.—Mrs. Elizabeth Adney, The Hall; John Adney, farmer and grazier; William Edwards, shopkeeper; George Fowler, beerhouse keeper; Charles Jukes, maltster and farmer; Samuel Nicklin, boot and shoemaker; Thomas Nicklin, wheelwright; George Vickers, blacksmith and agricultural implement maker; John Whitfield, Esq., The Villa farm, and chairman to the Wellington Poor Law Board of Guardians.

TERN, OR TEARN,

a small township in the parish of High Ercall, with a few houses delightfully situated two miles S.E. from the parish church, contains 487A. 3R. 13P. of land, of which four acres are in roads and waste; the river Tern bounds the township on the S.E. At the census in 1841 there were seven houses and 41 inhabitants. Rateable value, £659. 18s. The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor and owner of the land. TERN HOUSE, a commodious brick residence, occupied by Thomas Juckes, Esq., is pleasantly situated on a gentle acclivity near the stream of the Tern; the views it commands of the surrounding country are extensive and pleasingly diversified. The farm buildings are of considerable extent, and are provided with all the modern appliances for farming extensively in the most economical manner.

The principal residents are George Jukes, solicitor, and Thomas Juckes, Esq.

WALTON

is a township and parish of High Ercall, situated in a delightful part of the country, about a mile W. by N. from the church; the township contains 855A. 0R. 8P. of land, and in 1841 here were 23 houses and 135 inhabitants; the houses are for the most part scattered on the turnpike road leading from Ercall to Shawbury. The farm houses are good residences, occupied by respectable agriculturists. Rateable value of the township, £969. 12s. The Duke of Cleveland is the proprietor of the whole township and lord of the manor. WALTON HALL, a structure of considerable antiquity, composed of timber and brick work, was a place of no mean pretensions in by-gone days, is now occupied as a farm dwelling.

DIRECTORY.—John Breeze, boot and shoemaker; George Brookes, farmer; William Hughes, tailor; William Juckes, butcher; William Rogers, shopkeeper; Edward S. Webster, The Hall Farm; Mrs. Jane Webster, The Hall; James Wilding, farmer, New House.

EYTON-UPON-THE-WILD-MOORS,

a parish and small village, is pleasantly situated in a retired locality, two miles and a half north from Wellington. The parish comprises 1,190A. 2R. 37P. of land, and in 1801 had 323 inhabitants; 1831, 350; and in 1841, 389; at the latter period there were 82 houses. Rateable value, £2,187. 10s. THE CHURCH is a small brick fabric, dedicated to All Saints. It contains an antique stone font; there is a small gallery at the west end; the east window contains some fragments of stained glass; the other windows are ornamented with armorial bearings of the Eyton family. The living is a rectory united to the vicarage of Wellington. The celebrated Edward Herbert, Lord Chirbury, was born at this place. His lordship stood in the highest rank among the public ministers, historians, and philosophers of the age in which he lived. Lord Herbert was the first and most candid of our English infidels, and his system of deism contains less of acrimonious censure of Christianity than that of any other writer. He was created Knight of the Bath at the accession of James I. He distinguished himself at the siege of Juliers; and, in 1616, was sent ambassador to Louis XIII., but was recalled on account of a dispute between him and the Constable De Luynes. In 1625 he was created a baron of the kingdom of Ireland, and in 1631 was elevated to the English peerage. His lordship left a History of Henry VIII., in folio; a treatise, “De Religione Gentilium um and expedito Buckingami ducis in Ream Insulam,” and an account of his own life. His lordship was born in 1581 and died in 1648. The present noble family of Powis is descended on the female side from Lord Herbert, of Chirbury. Granger, in his “Biographical History of England,” in speaking of his lordship, observes, “It is hard to say whether his person, his understanding, or his courage, was the most extraordinary. But the same man was wise and capricious, redressed wrongs and quarrelled for punctilios; hated bigotry, and was himself a bigot to philosophy; he exposed himself to such danger as other men of courage would have carefully declined; and called in question the fundamentals of a religion which none had the hardiness to dispute besides himself.” EYTON HALL is a handsome stuccoed residence, with a piazza in front supported by twelve pillars; it opens into a neatly laid out garden, beautified with shrubberies; and in front of the hall is a small park, stocked with deer. It is the seat and property of Thomas Eyton, Esq., who is the principal landowner and lord of the manor; the Trustees of Preston Hospital are also proprietors. This parish is intersected by the Shropshire Union Canal. Among the gentlemen who compounded for their estates during the Commonwealth, Sir Thomas Eyton, of Eyton, paid £976.

DIRECTORY.—Thomas Eyton, Esq., The Hall; William Anslow, farmer; Samuel Cartwright, farmer; Helena Cooke, farmer; Matthew Davies, farmer and maltster; Richard Edwards, farmer and farm-bailiff to T. Eyton, Esq.; Mary Jenkins, farmer; John Jones, gardener; Stephen Reynolds, corn miller; John Robinson, blacksmith, agricultural implement maker, and parish clerk; Thomas Shuker, saddler.

KINNERSLEY

is a parish and village, in a pleasant situation, three miles and a half N.N.W. from Wellington, which in 1801 contained 210 inhabitants; in 1841 there were 49 houses and a population of 295 souls. The parish comprises 1,789A. 2R. 36P. of land. Gross estimated rental, £2,720. Rateable value, £2,443. 3s. There are 104A. 3R. 14P. of woods and plantations, and 75 acres of glebe land. The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor and owner of the land. The village is surrounded by what is called moor-land, which was enclosed about half a century ago. It has, however, lost all the characteristics of a moor, and is now chiefly in large enclosures, and generally good grazing land. About half a mile north-east from the church there is a large mound, which encloses upwards of twenty acres of land, and surrounds the premises of the Wall Farm. This is supposed to have been a British encampment, and to have been raised before the moors became boggy; for there is no trace of any road across the moors by which this vast rampart of sand-rock could be conveyed, which must have been the case, if the moss at those early periods was as boggy as in after ages. The rampart measures 1,900 yards in circumference, and is from sixteen to twenty feet in breadth.

THE CHURCH is a small structure, mantled with ivy, and dedicated to St. Chad. It consists of nave and chancel, with a tower at the west end, in which are three bells. There is also a small gallery at the west end; and neat tablets have been erected in memory of the Marriot and Ogle families. The body of the church is very ancient, but the tower was erected in 1726. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £6. 1s. 8d., now returned at £494. Patron, Duke of Sutherland; incumbent, Rev. Andrew Burn, M.A. THE RECTORY is an ancient residence, on the west side of the church-yard. The tithes are commuted for £340. There is a PAROCHIAL SCHOOL in the village, which is chiefly supported by the Duke of Sutherland and the Rector.

DIRECTORY.—Rev. Andrew Burn, M.A., The Rectory; Thomas Brown, farmer; John and Thomas Davies, shoemakers; John Felton, shoemaker; William Gough, shoemaker; Thomas Hitchin, wheelwright; George Hooper, farmer; William Hooper, farmer and maltster, Margaret Hughes, farmer, Wall Farm; Richard Ogle, farmer, Manor House; John Taylor, farmer; William Weston, farmer; William Weston, blacksmith; Richard Williams, farmer and victualler, Crown Inn.

LEIGHTON

is a parish and delightful little village, situate on the banks of the Severn, and near the foot of the Wrekin hill, nine miles S.E. from Shrewsbury. In 1801 the parish contained 338 inhabitants; 1831, 360; and in 1841, 80 houses and a population of 403 souls. Rateable value, £2,691. Robert Gardner, Esq., and Sir George Harnage, Bart., are the principal landowners. The soil is mostly of a superior quality, and produces good crops of all kinds of grain. THE CHURCH, dedicated to St. Mary, is a plain brick structure, situated a short distance from the village, and consists of nave and chancel, with a small tower, in which are three bells. In the chancel are several handsome tablets, chiefly in memory of the Leighton and Kinnersley families, who formerly resided here, and had large possessions in this locality. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £7. 12s. 6d., now returned at £224, in the patronage and incumbency of the Rev. Robert Maddocks. The salubrious situation of Leighton and the vicinity is proverbial, and several extraordinary cases of longevity among the inhabitants have occurred. A short time ago, Stephen Davies was living at the advanced age of 97 years. He recollected old Sarah Beech, who lived in this parish, and died about the year 1738 at the age of 106 years, and who had a sister that lived to the age of 103 years. Stephen Davies had then a brother living at Wroxeter of the age of 96 years.

GARMSTONE is a hamlet, in the parish of Leighton.

CHARITIES—_Ann Lacon_, by her will, left £15 a-year for ever to the poor of Leighton, Sheinton, and Buildwas, to be given to four poor persons of each parish. This gift is secured on a messuage and lands at Much Wenlock, and the moiety belonging to this parish is divided equally among four of the poor inhabitants, _Richard Leighton_, _Esq._, left the sum of £100, the interest to be distributed by the minister and churchwardens for the time being among the poor of the parish on Candlemas-day. This bequest, and several other legacies amounting to £8, were placed out about sixty years ago upon the security of the tolls arising from the turnpike road which passes through Leighton, the interest of which, £5. 8s., is distributed in small sums among the poor on Candlemas-day.

DIRECTORY.—John Bagley, tailor; John Barnet, victualler, Barnet’s Grove; Job Basnett, farmer; Rev. Frederick Burd, curate; John Drury, farmer; John Evans, corn-miller; Daniel Everall, farmer; Thomas Everall, farmer; James Farmer, corn-miller; Robert Gardner, Esq., Leighton Hall; Thomas Gervis, farmer, Garmston; Sir George Harnage, Bart.; Harry C. Jeffries, farmer, Garmston; John Machin, farmer, Eye Farm; Thomas Richards, farmer; Isaac Shepherd, farmer, Longwood; Thomas Tart, tailor.

LILLESHALL

is a parish in the Newport division of the South Bradford hundred, which comprises the townships of Lilleshall, Donington, and Muxton, and embraces 6,111A. 3R. 9P. of land. In 1801 the parish had a population of 2,060 souls; 1831, 3,596; and in 1841 there were 708 houses and 3,851 inhabitants. Rateable value, £12,034. 1s. 8d. The Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole parish, except about half a dozen acres, the property of Mr. John Bradborn, in the township of Muxton. The village of Lilleshall is pleasantly situated on the acclivity of a hill, three miles south-west from Newport. The township in 1841 contained 155 houses and 795 inhabitants; the houses are scattered, and the population find employment in the extensive collieries and iron works with which the vicinity abounds. THE CHURCH is a venerable structure mantled with ivy, and dedicated to St. Mary; in the tower is a peal of six bells. On the north side of the chancel is an altar tomb, with two full length figures, in memory of dame Catherine Leveson and Sir Richard Leveson: the former died March 31st, 1674, and the latter June 2nd, 1661. The old font, about twenty years ago, was used as a cistern to a pump at Lilleshall old hall; it was removed by the late vicar, and now stands at the west end of the church. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £6. 17s. 11d.; now returned at £338; in the patronage of the Duke of Sutherland; incumbent, Rev. Henry George Bunsen; curate, Rev. Thomas Bucknall Lloyd. On Lilleshall Hill, in this parish, a monument was erected in 1839, to the memory of the first Duke of Sutherland; on June 20th, 1839, it was struck with lightning, and sustained considerable damage; but it was shortly after put in a state of complete reparation. On the north side is the following inscription.—

To the memory of George Granville Leveson Gower, K G First Duke of Sutherland, The most just and generous of landlords. This monument is erected by the occupiers of his Grace’s Shropshire farms, as a public testimony that he went down to the grave with the blessings of his tenants on his head, and left behind him upon his estates the best inheritance which a gentleman of England can bequeath to his son: men ready to stand by his house heart and hand.

On the south side of the monument is the inscription, “Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s, thy God’s, and truth’s.” It is related that at the trial of Queen Caroline, the Lord Chancellor Eldon, in his charge to the peers, told them to “Be just and fear not,” when the Duke of Sutherland immediately rose from his place in the house and declared that he echoed the sentiments of his noble and learned friend on the wool sack, and would copy the immortal bard still farther by saying, “Let all the ends thou aimest at be thy country’s, thy God’s, and truth’s.” This was the occasion of the inscription being placed on the monument. The obelisk was designed by Sir Francis Chantrey.

His Grace, in March, 1803, succeeded to the trust estates and canal of his maternal uncle, the late Duke of Bridgewater, and in October in the same year, by the death of his father, he became Marquis of Stafford, and entered into possession of the paternal estates of the Leveson branch of the family, in Staffordshire and Shropshire, and to the ancient patrimony of the Gowers of Yorkshire. For some time he filled the office of postmaster general, and was ambassador to the court of France at the commencement of the revolution in that country. His titles were George Grenville, Duke of Sutherland, Marquis of the County of Stafford, Earl Gower, Viscount Trentham, Baron Gower of Sittenham, and a baronet. His Grace was also a Knight of the Garter, and a Privy Councillor. Among the near relations of the Duke of Sutherland may be enumerated the distinguished families of Bedford, Rutland, Lansdowne, Marlborough, Dorset, Kingston, Waldegrave, Jersey, Thanet, and Warwick. The Shropshire estates of the Duke of Sutherland are upwards of 20,000 acres.

THE NATIONAL SCHOOL, a plain brick structure a little south from the church, has an attendance of about eighty boys and sixty girls. It is supported by the Duke of Sutherland and a small charge from each scholar. There are about three roods of garden ground attached to the school, which is divided into twenty allotments, and cultivated by twenty of the senior scholars for their own benefit.

LILLESHALL ABBEY.—In a solitary and retired situation, about a mile south from the church, may be seen the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey. At the great western entrance is a fine Norman arch, richly recessed with ribs and running foliage. The pillars and arches of the church have been entirely destroyed, but the doors and windows still remain. The south door, by which a communication was formed with the cloister, is doubtless one of the most highly ornamented arches in the kingdom. A semi-circular arch, overspread with ornaments peculiar to the Saxon and early Norman buildings, is supported by clusters of slender shafts, some of which are spiral, and others covered with lozenge work, having the intermediate spaces embellished with mouldings. The east window of the choir has a beautiful pointed arch of the fourteenth century, and the north and south windows are narrow plain, and round headed. The walls of the refectory have been converted into a residence. The church was cruciform, and had probably two towers: one in the centre and the other at the west end; the breadth of the nave is thirty-six feet, and the length two hundred and twenty-eight feet. The boundary wall of the abbey encompassed several acres, and in some parts is still entire. The ruins of the abbey are scattered over a large space, and the walls, which in some parts are mantled with ivy, are of considerable height, and the fragments of superb workmanship still to be seen show it to have been a place of great magnificence and architectural grandeur. The stalls of the choir at the dissolution were removed to the collegiate church of Wolverhampton, where they now remain. Richard de Belmeis, says Bishop Tanner, the last dean of the collegiate church of St. Alkmund, in Shrewsbury, about the year 1145, with the consent of pope Eugenius and King Stephen, surrendered up that church with all the lands and churches belonging to the same to the use of some regular canons of the order of St. Augustine, who came from Dorsetshire and began to build an abbey to the honour of the blessed virgin, upon one of the prebendal estates, here in the wood of Lilleshall, to which his kinsman, Philip de Belmeis was an early and great benefactor. Other authorities state that in the time of the Saxon dynasty a religious house was dedicated here to the use of secular canons or prebendaries, and afterwards became a nunnery, which was reduced to a state of desolation by the predatory incursions of the Welsh tribes, and it so continued until about the year 1145. Among the principal benefactors to this abbey were Alanta Zouche John le Strange, who gave the church of Hulme; and Hillaria de Trussebut, the wife of Robert de Bulders, who gave certain lands, and directed her body to be buried within the precincts of the abbey. In the 34th Henry III. the abbot had leave to grub up twenty-three acres in the woods of Lilleshall, and in the 7th of Edward to make an assart of the wood near Watling street, in the forest of Wombridge. In the 11th of Edward I. the abbot had leave to make a park. The abbey was endowed at subsequent periods by different pious individuals, and the annual income at the general dissolution of religious houses was valued at £229. 3s. per annum. On account of the situation of this monastery, near the Chester road, the abbots were sometimes known to complain that their income was too scanty to entertain the continual influx of visitors that travelled that road.

CHARITIES.—_Sir Richard Leveson_, by will, dated 5th of November, 1660, gave to the poor people inhabiting the parish of Lilleshall a rent charge of £5 per annum, issuing out of certain lands called Kainton Meadow. The Marquis of Stafford pays this gift yearly, which is distributed on St. Thomas’s-day by the minister and churchwardens. There is a piece of land still called Kainton Meadow, which is no doubt the land charged by the testator.

_Lady Catherine Leveson_, by her will, in 1670, devised to trustees her manor of Foxley, in Northamptonshire, and directed the yearly proceeds to be put to charitable uses; among others to the payment of £120 a year to the maintenance of twelve poor widows, three of whom were to be inhabitants of the parish of Lilleshall, and she directed that there should be provided by the minister and parish officers, out of the £10 respectively allowed for their maintenance, a gown of grey cloth, upon the breast of which gown the letters of K. L. in blue cloth should be set, which gown should be constantly wore by the widows, and if any one should refuse to wear them she should lose the benefit of the charity. The testator gave a further sum of £100 yearly to be applied in putting forth ten poor boys apprentices, two of whom should be children of the inhabitants of Lilleshall. In respect of this charity £50 a year is received by the churchwardens of Lilleshall, out of which £10 a year are paid to three poor widows, appointed by the minister, churchwardens, and overseers of the poor, a preference being given to such as have fallen into poverty from better circumstances, and have not received parochial relief. The gowns have not been provided for them for many years. Two boys are usually apprenticed every year with premiums of £10 each. Upon inspection of the parish books which commence in 1634, it appears that various small benefactions have been given to the poor, which were placed in the hands of different persons, who paid interest for them. These sums appear to have passed in various proportions to other persons, and the interest thereon to have fluctuated so as to afford no certain information as to the amount or donation of the benefactions. In the year 1718 the poor’s stock appears to have amounted to £40. In 1734 the sum of £56 was put by the churchwardens into the parish chest for the use of the poor. No further entry occurs till 1757, when a sum of £20 appears to have been in the hands of Charles Lawrence, and £15 in the hands of Henry Barber. The £20 subsequently passed into the hands of Robert Garmeson, who in 1786 gave his note of hand for the money, and shortly after died insolvent. The entries of receipt of interest of the £15 cease in 1800, for several years previous to which it appears to have been paid by Mr. James Barber, about which time he died in bad circumstances, so that this sum may also be considered as lost.

LILLESHALL HOUSE, the magnificent seat of the Marquis of Stafford, is situated on a commanding eminence, from which extensive and beautiful prospects of the surrounding country are seen. The mansion is about a mile from the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey, within the bounds of the parish of Sheriff Hales, and was erected by the late Duke of Sutherland; it is built of beautiful white free stone, and exhibits a fine specimen of the Tudor style of architecture, from designs by Sir John Wyattville. The garden and pleasure grounds are laid out with admirable taste, and cover between forty and fifty acres. The flower garden from its extent and the beautiful order in which it is kept is surpassed by few in the kingdom; the manner of planting the flowers of one particular colour so as to form the greatest contrast with the beds contiguous to it has a most brilliant and dazzling effect. An avenue in the garden, which stretches 300 yards in length, has a very pleasing appearance; the frame work is of wood, to which are trained roses, japonicas, the various sorts of clamitas, and fruit trees, and in the delightful season when the clustering fruits hang in profusion, enriched with the autumnal tints, among the beautiful blossoms of the japonica and rose—the whole has a most enchanting appearance. The terrace commands a fine view of the park, the woody scenery in the vicinity, and a large tract of the country extending over North Shropshire into Staffordshire, Cheshire, and the mountainous district of Wales.

The village and parish of Sheriff Hales is mostly situated in Staffordshire. The residents of a few scattered farms, and at the mansion of Lilleshall House, are included in the following directory.

_Those with * affixed are in the parish of Sheriff Hales_, _and the rest in Lilleshall parish_.

* Stafford The Marquis of, Lilleshall House

Adams John, assistant overseer & constable

Adams Thomas, nursery and seedsman

Bates William, parish clerk and bricklayer

Birch Thomas, surveyor

Bunsen Rev. Henry George, vicar, Lilleshall Old Hall

Diggens Emma, schoolmistres