Davies Thomas
Parkes John
WOODCOTE
is a township and chapelry in the parish of Sheriff Hales, three miles south-east by south from Newport, which in 1801 contained 130 inhabitants; 1831, 195; and in 1841 there were 29 houses and a population of 140 souls. The township contains upwards of 1,000 acres of land; rateable value, £1,003. 10s. Woodcote Hall is a spacious and handsome mansion, of free stone, delightfully situated on a gentle acclivity, and surrounded with park-like grounds finely timbered and richly diversified with sylvan beauty. A little west from the hall are extensive gardens. The Hall is the seat of John Cotes, Esq., who is owner of the whole township. The Chapel, situated near to the hall, is a plain structure of free-stone of considerable antiquity. On the south side is a door which exhibits the Saxon style of architecture. It contains several neat tablets in memory of the Cotes family, the last of which is in memory of John Cotes, Esq., M.P. for the county of Shropshire, who died in 1821, aged 72 years, leaving two sons and six daughters. A large marble slab, reared up against the pews near the altar rails, appears to have been the top of an altar tomb. It is curiously ornamented with two full length figures, and has a mutilated inscription round the edge. We did not observe any date upon it, but it is very ancient and worthy of inspection. A little west from the hall is an eminence called Heath Hill, which commands an extended view over this and the adjacent county of Stafford, and also of the towering heights of the Welsh mountains. On the eastern side of the township a small stream called Moreton Brook divides this county from that of Staffordshire; on the banks of which is a dilapidated corn-mill. The rest of the parish of Sheriff Hales, except Lilleshall House and a few scattered farms, are within the bounds of the county of Stafford, and may at a future period be included in a similar volume for that county. The village of Sheriff Hales is pleasantly situated three miles north from Shiffnal and five miles south from Newport. The parish contains 5,317a. 2a. 37p. of land, and at the census of 1841 there were 32 houses and 191 inhabitants returned as in the county of Shropshire, the names of the principal residents of which have been given in the Lilleshall directory.
The following are the principal residents in Woodcote township, viz.:—John Cotes, Esq., Woodcote Hall; George Alsop, farmer, Lynn; John Bedford, farm bailiff; John Downes, gamekeeper; James Lockley, farmer, Pave lane; Richard Lascombe, butler, The Hall; John Morris, farmer, Lynn; Cornelius Whitehouse, gardener, The Hall.
WROCKWARDINE
is a considerable parish in the Wellington division of the South Bradford hundred, which comprises the several townships (for highway purposes) of Admaston, Allscott, Bratton, Burcott, Charlton, Clotley, Long Lane, Wrockwardine, and Wrockwardine Wood. The parish contains 4,630a. 3r. 12p. of land, of which 469a. 0r. 28p. are woods, plantations, roads, and waste. The soil is various, the arable lands produce good crops of grain, and the grazing lands an abundance of grass. Gross estimated rental, £11,727, 7s. 4d.; rateable value, £10,554. 15s. In 1801 there were 1,913 inhabitants; 1831, 2,528, and in 1841, 541 houses and 2,741 inhabitants. A court leet and baron is held for the manor. Mrs. Mary Cludde, of Orleton, is lady of the manor, but Miss Anne Maria Cludde, daughter of the late Mr. Cludde, took the estate as heiress on September 9th, 1851. Wrockwardine township is pleasantly situated in a rich country pleasingly diversified with undulations, and contains 1,094a. 1r. 20p. of land, and in 1841 had 258 inhabitants. Rateable value, £2,464. 14s. The village stands on elevated ground, and commands some fine views of open landscape scenery, of the hilly country in the Condover hundred, and of the Wrekin. The Church is an ancient structure of red sand stone, dedicated to St. Peter, with a tower rising from the centre, in which are six musical bells; the tower is supported by four pointed arches rising from fluted pillars. It is neatly pewed, and the pulpit and reading desk are of beautiful carved oak. The organ was erected in 1846, at a cost of about £200 raised by subscriptions. The east window is beautified with stained glass, and contains a representation of our Saviour, very chastely executed. In the chancel are several handsome monumental tablets, one of which remembers Edward Pemberton and his wife, dated 1800, and is very beautifully executed in the Grinshill free stone. Another of the same stone has been erected to the memory of Edward Cludde, Esq., and is dated 1785. There are also very beautiful tablets to other members of this family, and to the Cockburns, Phillips, Roe, and others. The living is a vicarage valued in the king’s book at £7. 8s. 6d., now returned at £427 in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. George L. Yate, M.A. The vicarage is a good residence a short distance from the church. The vicarial tithes are commuted for £353. 19s., and the rectoral for £225. It appears from the parish register that the Houlston family have held the office of parish clerk for a period of 257 years, and is still held by the same family.
Wrockwardine Hall is a commodious mansion of brick stuccoed, beautified with pleasure grounds and shrubberries, and is the seat of Miss Anne Maria Cludde. Orleton Hall, a delightfully situated mansion, the seat of the ancient and highly respected family of Cludde, is now the residence of Mrs. Cludde; the hall is stuccoed, and the gardens and pleasure grounds are very extensive, and kept in the most admirable order. It commands a fine view of the Wrekin, and is surrounded by a park of 160 acres, beautifully wooded. The Boys’ School, a substantial brick building, was built at the cost of Mrs. Cludde, who is also a munificent contributor towards its support; 75 children attend. The Girls’ School has an attendance of sixty children, and is supported by Miss Cludde. Two Almshouses were erected in 1841, “and endowed for the maintenance of two poor women in their declining years; they are dedicated to the memory of Edward Cludde, Esq., late of Orleton, in this parish, by his tenants and neighbours, in testimony of their respect for a man who was an eminent example of pure and undefiled religion, visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keeping himself unspotted from the world.”
Charities.—Edward Pemberton, in 1680, devised a rent charge of £3 per annum for putting forth an apprentice every other year, fatherless or motherless children to be always preferred. The amount is charged upon an estate now the property of Mrs. Cludde. A yearly sum of 10s. is paid as charged upon the Burcot estate, and a like sum as charged upon the Leaton property; in respect of 10s. payable by Mrs. Cludde, two bushels of wheat flour are given away by her agent to the poor. The other sum is laid out in the purchase of bread. It is supposed these charities were left by one of the Langley family.
Several sums of money given for charitable uses, amounting in the whole to £60, were laid out in the purchase of a piece of land called Tidicross Furlong, which was improved in 1670 by Edward Pemberton, who built a house and barn thereon. About the year 1801 a parish workhouse was built on these premises, and the old house and barn was pulled down. Up to the year 1829 the sum of £4. 10s. per annum (which was the amount of the rent when the workhouse was built) was paid out of the poor’s rate, and given away on Good Friday. In consequence of a suggestion of the charity commissioners that the rent ought to be raised, it was resolved at a vestry meeting of the parish, held 5th May, 1830, that the sum of £8 should in future be paid by the parish annually for the lands above mentioned.