THE AUSTIN FRIARS,
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.
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.