is a parish and delightfully situated village, near the Wrekin Hill, seven miles S.E. from Shrewsbury, and five miles S.W. from Wellington. The parish comprises 874a. 0r. 10p. of land, the principal owners of which are the Duke of Cleveland and Mrs. Maun, besides whom Mrs. Langley, Mr. Samuel Dalloe, Mr. George Davies, and Mr. William Langley, are also proprietors. The Duke of Cleveland is lord of the manor. In 1801 Eaton parish contained 204 inhabitants; 1831, 244, and in 1841 59 houses and 294 souls. The Church, a neat stone edifice dedicated to St. Mary, exhibits the gothic style of architecture, and was almost wholly rebuilt during the years 1847–8, at a cost of £775. Of this sum £490 was raised by subscriptions, £125 was granted by the Diocesan Society, £60 by the Incorporated Society for Enlarging and Building Churches, and £100 was raised by a parish rate on the parishioners. It is considered a free chapel or rectory, in the patronage of the Duke of Cleveland; incumbent, Rev. Henry Beckwith. The tithes are commuted for £176, of which £46 is paid to the vicar of Leighton, and the residue is paid to the incumbent of Eaton Constantine. There are 25 acres of glebe land. The National School is a modern structure erected at the cost of £190, and situated near the church. The Privy Council on Education granted £40 towards the erection, the Diocesan Society £20, the National Society £15, and the residue was raised by public subscriptions. The average attendance of children is about sixty.
There is belonging to the poor of this parish the sum of £20, the origin of which is not known. It is secured on the Atcham House of Industry, and the interest, amounting to 18s. per annum, is distributed among four of the poorest parishioners. William Warham, in 1806, bequeathed after the decease of his wife the interest of £100, and directed the same to be distributed among five of the poorest parishioners of the parish. The testator’s widow died in 1826, and £90 (£10 having been deducted for the legacy duty), was laid out in the purchase of £114. 2s. 1d. three per cent. consols. The dividends, amounting to £3. 8s. 4d. per annum, are divided on Candlemas-day among five poor men residing in the parish.
Directory.—The Rev. Henry Beckwith, The Parsonage; John Bullock, carpenter; Samuel Dalloe, carpenter; John James, carpenter, Longwood; Maria Langley, beerhouse keeper; John Morris, blacksmith; Henry Smith, grocer; Zechariah Smith, farmer; Robert Thomas, farmer; Thomas Ward, carpenter.
EDGMOND
is a considerable parish, comprising the townships of Adeney, Butterey, Calvington, Caynton, Cherrington, Chetwynd Aston, Church Aston, Stanford, Tibberton, and part of Pickstock. The parish contains 5,026a. 0r. 31p. of land; gross estimated rental, £9,227. 16s. 1½d.; rateable value, £7,854. 8s. 11½d. Population in 1801, 1,699; 1831, 2,300, and in 1841, 2,471. The village of Edgmond is pleasantly situated on elevated ground, about a mile W. from Newport; it contains several good residences, and commands some pleasing prospects of the surrounding country. The township contains 1,933a. 2r. 27p. of land, and in 1841 there were 174 houses and 792 inhabitants. Rateable value, £3,741. 4s. 9¼d. The lands are intersected by the Shropshire union canal, which covers 20a. 0r. 32p. of land. The principal landowners are Thomas Bayley, Esq., Mr. John Cooke Hill, Rev. John D. Pigott, Rev. William Dalton, Mr. John Moore, Mr. John Alcock, Mr. Thomas Harper Adams, and Mrs. Dewson; J. C. H. Borough, Esq., is lord of the manor.
The Church is a fine old castellated structure, dedicated to St. Peter, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with a square tower in which are six bells; four pointed arches rising from octagonal pillars divide the nave from the side aisles. The chancel is spacious and covered with tesselated pavement. Above the altar is a beautiful stained glass window, added a few years ago at the expense of the present rector; it contains figures, chastely executed, representative of St. Peter, St. James, and St. John, the other compartments being richly ornamented with gothic tracery. The west window has also been beautified with stained glass by the liberality of the parishioners. In the centre aisle is a brass with two full length figures, the armorial bearings of the family, and figures of thirteen children, in memory of the Young’s, a family of consequence in this locality in former days. A neat tablet in the south aisle remembers William Briscoe, Esq., of Caynton, who died in 1828; near to it is another tablet to the memory of John Bayley, Esq., who died in 1833. The font has been re-hewn, but the original characters have been preserved. An alabaster slab, recently removed from the chancel to the west end of the church, remembers Nicholas Peckell, supposed to have been the last Roman Catholic rector of this place. The church was anciently appropriated to the abbey of Shrewsbury. In the 10th of Henry VII., the advowson was given to the Carthusian priory at Shortly, near Coventry. The patronage is now vested in the Rev. John Dryden Pigott, B.A., who is also the incumbent. The tithes have been commuted for £2,400, and there are 62a. 2r. 25p. of glebe land. The rectory is a very ancient building on the south side of the church yard; it was no doubt built for the reception of some of the religious orders in Catholic times. A low doorway and some other small fragments are all that remain of the ancient fabric. Edgmond Hall, a handsome brick residence pleasantly situated a little south from the church, is the property of Mr. John C. Hill, but unoccupied when our agent visited Edgmond. The National School, situated a little west from the church, has an attendance of 54 boys and 46 girls. The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel built in 1835.
Charities.—In 1699 certain lands were purchased with the sum of £70, which is supposed to have been derived from some of the numerous benefactions which are recorded on a tablet in the church, and for the greater number of which, amounting to £211, no permanent mode of application is there designed. In the purchase deeds it is directed that six penny loaves should be distributed in the parish every Sunday, from which it is inferred that John Moreton’s gift of £26 formed part of the purchase money, the interest of which at five per cent. would exactly suffice for the weekly distribution of six penny loaves. These lands, with an allotment of about three-fourths of an acre made in respect of them some years ago, contain in the whole 13a. 0r. 22p., and now produces a yearly rental of £12. There are also about twelve acres of land situate in the parish of Edgmond, and belonging to the poor of the parish, which are supposed to have been purchased with other of the benefactions recorded upon the tablet in the church, but there are no deeds or documents now extant indicating the source from which the property was derived, or the trusts on which it is held. There are four pieces of land which together are let for £26. 12s. per annum; from this fund, and £4. 10s. added from the rents of the Hinstock estate, 7s. worth of bread is distributed every week among the poor of Edgmond, and 14s. worth is sent every Easter to Tibberton. £1. 19s. is distributed among the poor of Edgmond on St. David’s-day in sums of 6d. each, as the gift of David Oliver. The residue of the fund amounting to £10. 5s. is expended in warm clothing for the poor during the winter season.
The Rev. Dryden Pigott, in 1734, bequeathed £200, and directed the interest thereof to be employed in clothing and schooling, and for books for such poor boys inhabiting the village of Edgmond as his executor and the rector of Edgmond, their heirs and successors, should judge to be a sufficient number for the purpose; the said boys to be clothed and kept at school so long as the said trustees should think fit. This legacy in 1806 was invested in the purchase of £258. 8s. 3d. four per cent. stock, and the dividends, which amount to £10. 4s. 8d., are employed in the clothing and education of seven or eight boys.
John Smith left £100, the interest to be given upon St. John’s-day to the poor of Edgmond. Robert Pigott, in 1746, left £50, the interest to be given to the poor of Edgmond and Adeney. An annual sum of £7. 10s. is paid by the Rev. John D. Pigott as the interest of these two benefactions. The amount is given away in half-crowns to the poor of Adeney and Edgmond on St. John’s-day.
Adams Thomas Harper, farmer, Anceller House