Memorials of Shrewsbury / being a concise description of the town and its environs, adapted as a general guide for the information of visitors and residents

by Henry Pidgeon

THE MONASTIC REMAINS

next claim our notice, and although now very inconsiderable, yet, like most other Abbeys, they originally consisted chiefly of two quadrangular courts of different dimensions, the conventual church, as was customary, being towards the north. Situated on the other sides were the refectory, almonry, chapter house, dormitory, locutory or parlour, infirmary, guest hall or hospitium, kitchen, and other domestic offices. The abbot’s house or lodging commonly formed one or more portions of the smaller quadrangle, and consisted of a complete mansion.

This Abbey, bereft of its endowments by the reforming spirit of Henry VIII. shared the fate of other similar foundations in the rapine of the dissolution; the buildings connected therewith were sold, and soon afterwards despoiled of their constituent parts, chiefly for the value of the materials, while portions were converted into dwellings and other purposes, or left quietly to moulder into decay.

Of the remains which have excited most attention is an elegant octagonal

STONE PULPIT,

from which one of the junior monks was accustomed to read to his brethren while seated at their meals. Its situation, one half resting on the ruined wall of the Refectory, indisputably proves this; looking outward of the site of that building it forms a small bay window, while the other portion, once inside the hall, is supported on a moulded bracket, which springs from a corbel originally carved as a head. From hence it projects to the basement of the floor, twelve feet from which rises a conical roof sustained on six narrow pointed arches, having trefoil heads.

The interior forms a beautiful oriel, the roof being vaulted on eight delicate ribs, at the intersection of which in the centre is a boss of comparatively large dimensions; on this is beautifully sculptured The Crucifixion, with St. John and the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, enclosed under a trefoil arch flanked by buttresses. The spaces of the three northern arches, looking inwards, are filled with embattled stone panels about three feet high, on which are enshrined several figures of saints, &c.

This interesting relic is approached from the garden by a flight of steps through a small doorway worked originally, it is considered, within the thickness of the wall of the refectory.

The south wing of what is supposed to have been part of the monk’s infirmary, chapel, &c. remains south-west of the church. It is now appropriated as a malthouse, and may be distinguished by its lofty gables. A similar building converted into dwellings stood near the street, and was connected with the above by an embattled ruin flanked by massive piers, between which were square windows divided by a transom. This was an imposing feature to our monastic remains, and truly venerable from its antiquity, having braved the storms and tempests of nearly one thousand years, but was taken down without a feeling of forbearance in 1836, and the materials applied for the foundations of two houses adjoining its site.

The present Abbey house is supposed to have been the guest hall, or hospitium, to the east of which three pointed arches, once forming part of a groined ceiling, denote the abbot’s lodging.

Of the chapter house, where the members of the monastery assembled to transact their official business, not a relic is left; but in excavating near its site, in 1836, a leaden seal was found, which had been once appended to a bull from the Pope, whose name is thus inscribed on it, INNOCENTIVS. PP. IIII.

The monks of this Abbey, in the third year of Pope Innocent IV. i.e. 1246, obtained a bull, setting forth the injuries committed against their lands, tithes, possessions, &c. by the monastery of Lilleshull, by which the dean and precentor of Lichfield were directed to convoke the parties and hear the cause.

The dormitory was attached to the south-west side of the church, and was cut through in the formation of a new line of road in 1836.

What a train of reflections, loudly bespeaking the vicissitudes of life, may be called forth during our walk along this new thoroughfare. Who is there, it may be asked, with a mind to think and a heart to feel, that can thoughtlessly pass over ground which has been distinguished in history, without a momentary reflection upon its former importance?

Within the Chapter House, which stood on a portion of this road, occurred the earliest authorized assembly of that popular representation in the constitution of this kingdom, to which, under Providence, Englishmen have been indebted for all their subsequent prosperity,—all their energies, and that noble independence which have characterized us as a people among nations. [196]

Here, too, Richard the Second gratified his fondness for magnificence, by entertaining the members of his parliament with a sumptuous feast, and, as if to dazzle by the splendour of monarchy, and to awe by military display, he was attired in his royal robes, and attended by a numerous guard of Cheshire men.

The fervent orisons of a grateful heart have here been uplifted—divinity and other important subjects discussed—and on this spot the nobility, gentry, abbots, priors, deans, &c. of Shropshire, have frequently congregated, and banished for a time the gloomy silence and sable garb of the brotherhood, and exchanged the sober gravity of the refectory, and its austere monkish repast, for wine and wassail, minstrelsey and song.

Before quitting these scattered ruins, the present remains of the Abbey church must excite feelings of regret in the breast of every admirer of our ancient architecture, at the mistaken zeal which caused its partial and barbarous demolition.

An embattled wall encompassed the northern and eastern sides of the precinct, beyond which is the Foregate, a respectable open street, nearly one mile in length, and chiefly occupied by private residences. The houses to the south have gardens which extend to the Reabrook, and command delightful prospects of the adjacent country. This suburb (April 1st, 1774) suffered considerably from a fire, which destroyed 47 dwellings, 16 barns, 15 stables, 4 shops, and several stacks of hay, beside damaging other property.

On the left, half way up the street, is