History of Madeley including Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale, and Coalport

THE delay which has arisen in the publication of this work since it was first announced needs some apology. It arose from two causes; one the hope that fuller information might...

We are tempted to dwell a little longer here in connection with the Old Court, because considerable interest attaches to features, memorials, and traditions of such places. View...

“This manor, in truth, with its tenements, and the other things premised, reaching the clear annual value of £46 17s. 7d., not considering the tithe. The aforesaid manor, its ad...

The first indication we find at Madeley of the troubled times which ushered in the most remarkable episode in the history of the 17th century is an entry in the church register,...

The first ironworks were of course of a very humble description; the outcrop of the mines did not then determine the situation so much as the presence of a powerful stream which...

“We also enjoyed very much our grandfather’s account of a visit paid to the Ketley Iron Works by Lord Thurlow, the then Lord Chancellor. My grandfather, having gone through the...

Mr. Reynolds was generally pleased with meeting his men, and would readily enter into their whims, and turn such interviews to account. By such means he often obtained from them...

In the year 1341 the parish was assessed at £2 16s. 0d., but the reason assigned for the low assessment was that there had been great storms, want of sheep-stock, and a surrende...

“We intended to write a particular Treatise concerning the effects of this Eclips, which is the greatest this Age hath beheld, and in that Booke to have delivered unto Posterity...

The “Rock Church,” previously spoken of, at Madeley Wood, was a cottage built on a spur of one of the sandstones of the lower coal measures, and it still stands, overlooking the...

“When I went to the spot,” says Mr. Fletcher, “the first thing that struck me was the destruction of the little bridge that separated the parish of Madeley from that of Buildwas...

“After evening service several of the poor who came from a distance, and were usually entertained under his roof, lingered about the house, and at length expressed an earnest de...

In Mr. Fletcher’s time, then, if we except the out places then being opened for the convenience of small societies, there was church accommodation only for 500, leaving 4,000 un...

In evidence adduced sometime since in an Election Scrutiny at Bewdley, a public-house referred to was called the “Mughouse,” which house is situated on the Severn, at a point wh...

The works themselves are ill designed and badly constructed, the greater portion of them having been put up at the latter end of the past and beginning of the present centuries,...

Likewise in the same vault is interred the body of Mr. Edward Reding, (brother-in-law to the above Mr. Wm. Goodwin) who died Jan. 19th, 1797, aged 39. And also the remains of Mr...

The next is an information against John Aston, of Madeley, in the county of Salop, in which the said John is summonsed to appear before the Bailiff, John Warham, gent., and Just...

A building erected and designed for the poor of one parish was scarcely likely to be suited to the wants of a number of parishes, like Barrow, Benthall, Broseley, Buildwas, Dawl...

The following gentlemen were appointed a committee:—Mr. Botfield, Mr. Mountford, Mr. John Horton, Mr. Richard Darby, Mr. Abraham Darby, Mr. Alfred Darby, Mr. Anstice, Mr. Homber...

These are the chief features which strike the eye, and which would come out into prominence in photographic views taken to shew what Coalbrookdale now is. The buildings are comp...

“I think I forgot to say it was Sunday, and that the Darbys were at meeting; the Meeting-house was in Tea-kettle-row, it was before the neat little chapel at Sunnyside was built...

This company, too, have been at great pains to turn their clays to account by copying the Italian and Lombard style of making bricks of various forms and colours; and the buildi...

There were inequalities of surface then as now. The country had its uplands and its valleys, its rivers and its lakes, its dry and damp soils, its cool and sunny spots, but with...

Roads were made pretty much at will, and were repaired at pleasure. Covered waggons, like Crowley’s, drawn by 4 or 6 heavy horses, crept along the rough circuitous roads. It was...

Rose of the Vale Lodge.—This lodge is held at the Tontine Hotel, Ironbridge, and numbers 175 members, who pay into the funds on an average £360 per annum. They have standing to...

The PARK INN, by Mr. Reynolds, and the NEW INN kept by Mr. Jones, Park Lane, with the PHEASANT, kept by Mr. Francis, complete the list of houses at Madeley, where, within our re...

Hales Farm 106 Hales field pits 174 Hancock 201 Hay 328 ,, house 332 Hayes 249 Hayward 225 Harrington 45 Hawking 327 Hawley, Sir Joseph 106–7 Hemmings 342 Heslop, Adam 362 Hiber...

“Mr. Woolfe, when the country fellow told him that it was one that had escaped from the battle of Worcester, said that, for his part, it was so dangerous a thing to harbour any...