ST. MARY’S CHURCH.
It is supposed to have been founded by King Edgar about 980. There were attached to it a Dean and seven Prebendaries, and the stipend of the priest amounted to £6 6s. 8d. In the reign of Edward the Confessor it had a Dean and nine Prebendaries, and was provided with a large estate for their maintenance. In the time of Henry VIII. the revenue was £32 4s. 2d., and the Dean received as his share £22 6s. 8d. In the early part of the reign of Edward VI. the revenue had increased to £42, the whole of which was absorbed by the Dean, “rich on forty pounds a-year.” The church was then collegiate, but upon the dissolution of colleges the greater part of its revenues was given by Edward VI. for founding the Shrewsbury Grammar School. The living was formerly in the presentation of the Mayor of Shrewsbury—a privilege which the Municipal Act extinguished. It is now vested in five trustees; and it is necessary to select a minister who is either the son of a burgess and has been educated at the Grammar School, or who has had the honour of being a native of Chirbury. It was directed that the stipend should be an adequate one—£20 a-year, and the regulation which fixed the amount contained the pleasing addition that it was not to be diminished.
The church is one of the most interesting ecclesiastical edifices in the county from the example it affords of all the architectural styles of the middle ages. It is impossible to give here a full description of it. It must suffice to say that it consists of nave, side aisles, transepts, choir, spacious chapel, two chantrey chapels, with a tower and lofty spire, the total height of which is 220 feet 2 inches. The Anglo-Norman style may be seen in the basement of the tower, the nave, transepts, and doorways; the transition from Norman to the early lancet in the beautiful transept windows; and the obtuse arch of a later period in the side aisles and chantry chapels. The interior presents a stately and magnificent appearance from the massiveness of its arches, from the gorgeousness and beauty of its windows, and from the number of its striking monuments. It has been graced with the presence of royalty, and it has been used as a judicial court. In 1232 a tribunal, composed of legates, was convened here by command of the Pope to hear the charges preferred against Llewellyn for violations of treaties. In 1642 Charles I., then in Shrewsbury, made within its walls a solemn protestation, and took “the Sacrament upon it,” to defend the Protestant religion. In 1687 James II. attended divine service, and afterwards exercised the superstitious and suppositious power of “touching for the evil.”
Some of the incidents in the records relating to the church are curious. Forms were first furnished for the worshippers in 1537. Prior to that there were neither seats nor benches. The floors were strewn with flowers and sweet herbs, upon which the people prostrated themselves.
Among the items of expenditure are some interesting entries. In 1553 it cost 4s. to ring in honour of Queen Mary being proclaimed, and in the same year 4s. for “setting up an altar before Sir Adam Mytton’s grave.” The repairing of chapels seems to have been an inexpensive affair: for we are told that “our Lady’s chapel was mended,” and a “paschal taper” bought for 4s.; while in 1554 the enormous sum of 2s. 6d. was paid for “making an altar in our Lady’s chapel,” and 3s. 5d. for “making Trinity altar.” With a firm adhesion to Protestantism and a stern condemnation of all appearance of Romanism it was ordered on May 12th, 1584, that three superstitious images and inscriptions in the north window be taken down by the churchwardens. In September of the same year it was ordered that the stone altar should be removed, “having been sometimes used to idolatry.”
The spire, too, has a history of incidents. In 1572 it was blown aside by the wind; in 1663 the cock was replaced by a new one and the steeple repaired at the cost of £72; in 1665 and again in 1686 the cock was blown down; in 1690 it was damaged by an earthquake; in 1739 the cock suffered again: in 1754 the spire was shattered by a violent hurricane; and in 1756 the part re-built in 1754 was blown on one side, and once more re-built. The mishap of 1739 one Thomas Cadman undertook to repair. Cadman who is described by Hutton as a “man of spirit and grisle,” succeeded in taking down and re-setting the cock on the summit of the spire. In celebration of his success he determined upon performing some exploits on a rope which he fixed from the top of the spire to a tree in the Gay Meadow, Abbey Foregate, on the other side of the Severn. The adventure was a fatal one. In sliding along he fell near the Water Lane Gate; and for the information of an unappreciative posterity and the gratification of the curious this inscription was placed on the wall over his grave by his admiring survivors:—
Let this small monument record the name
Of Cadman, and to future times proclaim
How by an attempt to fly from this high spire,
Across the Sabrine stream, he did acquire
His fatal end: ’Twas not for leant of skill
Or courage to perform the task he fell,
No! No! a faulty cord being drawn too tight
Hurried his soul on high, to take her flight,
Which bid the body here beneath, “Good night.”
Opposite the front of St. Mary’s Church are the