ALBRIGHTON

is a parish and populous village in the Shiffnal division of the Brimstree Hundred, situated five miles south east by east from Shiffnal, and twenty-three south-east from Shrewsbury. The parish lies in the eastern verge of the county, and contains 3,365 acres of land, of which 59 acres are in roads and plantations. In 1801 there were 901 inhabitants; 1831, 1,054; in 1841, 1,058, and 236 houses; and in 1851, 242 houses and 1,141 souls. Rateable value, £7,089, 16s. 11d. This pleasant rural village is delightfully situated in a salubrious part of the county, intersected by good roads, and contiguous to the Shrewsbury and Birmingham railroad. Within the last few years it has attracted much attention, and several handsome villa residences have been built, which are chiefly occupied by respectable families and tradespeople from Wolverhampton and the neighbourhood. There are many good shops in the different branches of the retail trade, and the inns and boarding houses afford every accommodation to the numerous visitors who annually attend the celebrated Albrighton Hunt. The land in this locality has a bold undulating surface, and the views are varied and beautiful. The farms are extensive, and by unremitting industry, and an outlay of capital, have been brought to a state of productiveness far superior to what has been hitherto known in this district. The farm houses are in general well built, and provided with commodious out-premises. The Earl of Shrewsbury is the principal landowner and lord of the manor. The other chief owners are Thomas Plowden Presland, Esq.; Launcelot Shadwell, Esq.; William Oatley, Esq.; the Earl of Dartmouth; Mr. John Oatley; John Yates, Esq.; George Jones, Esq.; the representatives of the late John Meeson; Richard Wood, Esq.; and the trustees of the poor of Tong, Albrighton, and Tattenhall; besides whom there are several smaller owners.

In the time of Edward the Confessor Albrighton was in two manorial, divisions, held by Algar, Earl of Menia, and a Saxon, named Godit. In the reign of the Confessor, one hide and a half of land in this parish were taxed to the king. After the conquest it extended to four carucates, when they were in demesne three carucates, thirteen servants, three villains, and three borderers, with one carucate of plough land. There was at that time a wood sufficient to fatten one hundred hogs, which was then in the hands of the king. In the reign of the Confessor it was valued at 21s., and at the Conquest at 16s., when it was found wasted, from whence we may learn that the hand of the Saxon destroyer had been raised in revenge. In a manuscript of Dr. Hardwicke’s, now preserved at the vicarage, the parish is spoken of as comprising the lordships of Albrighton and Bishton, the manors and granges of Cosford and Whiston, and many other places of less note. This lordship being enjoyed by Norman the Hunter, shortly after the conquest, was undoubtedly in his possession in 1066, when he and Roger his brother, lord of Beckbury, attended their superior Lord Roger, the Count Palatine, and Adelaisa his second countess, at their palace at Quatford, near Bridgnorth, on the great festal occasion of the dedication of that church, 22nd July, 1086, which they so amply endowed with lands and tithes, arising out of several parishes in this county, as these two lords are particularly noticed as attesting witnesses, with many other lords of manors, the vassals of the count. In the reign of King Henry I. (1102) the manor was granted by the king to his favourite Sir Ralph de Pitchford, in whose family it continued through several generations; as Camden states that a Sir Ralph de Pitchford, 29th of Edward I., had his residence within this manor of Albrighton, where he died, leaving three sons, John, Nicholas, and Hugh, and Margery his relict, who in the 32nd year of this reign, recovered in the Court of King’s Bench, his service against Roger Charles and William the Beadle of Brimstree, of eleven marks rent, with appurtenances in Albrighton. John de Pitchford, the eldest son, was lord of Albrighton and Pitchford, holding them of the crown by the service of one knight’s fee each. It afterwards passed to Sir John de Tregon, Lord Tregon, who, dying without male issue, it came to his grandson, Sir John la Warre, who held in chief by one knight’s fee, and in the 31st of Edward I. obtained a charter to hold a market on a Tuesday, and a fair on the eve of the day, and the day after the translation of St. Thomas the Martyr; and also to hold courts leet and view of frankpledge in the manor half yearly. He was summoned to parliament from 26th August, 1307, to 26th February, 1342, and died in the 21st of Edward 3rd, 1347. About this period Roger Careless, a considerable proprietor of lands in Albrighton, gave 60 acres of land there to found a chantry in the Church at Albrighton, to which he added lands and 2s. rent within his manor of Ryton adjoining. The charter of Albrighton was renewed by King Charles II., and the manor given or confirmed to the Talbots in 1663. The Lady Mary Talbot presented the borough with a mace. The market has long been obsolete, but fairs are held for cattle, sheep, swine, and general merchandise on the first Monday in March, 23rd of May, and the last Saturday in June. A feast is held on the first Sunday after the 18th of July, and races on the following Monday. A flourishing society of the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows, is held at Mr. Bucknall’s, the Crown Inn. The Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway Company have a station here: Mr. James Davies is the station master. Flys and cars are daily in attendance at the station on the arrival of each train.

The Church is a venerable fabric, dedicated to St. Mary, consisting of nave, chancel, and side aisles, with, a square tower, containing six bells. The interior is spacious and handsome, and is neatly pewed with dark oak sittings. Upon the gallery, at the west end, there is a fine-toned organ. The chancel is divided from the nave by a lofty pointed arch, and the east window is richly foliated. The church contains some beautiful tablets and other memorials to the Talbots and several other distinguished families. An alabaster tomb has two full length figures in a recumbent posture, with hands joined in the attitude of prayer; the knight clothed in a surcoat and chain armour, and his feet resting on a lion. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s book at £5. 10s., now returned at £651, in the patronage of the Haberdashers’ Company and the Governors of Christ’s Hospital, London, alternately. The Rev. George W. Woodhouse, M.A., is the incumbent. Divine service is performed twice a-day throughout the year in the church. The Vicarage, a spacious stuccoed residence, a little east from the church, is ornamented with pleasure grounds tastefully laid out. The tithes have been commuted, and £626. 7s. 2d. apportioned to the vicar, and £20 to Mr. George Jones. There are 15a. 2r. 32p. of glebe land. Gilbert Talbot, bishop of Bertha, in Italy, resided chiefly at Lower Pepperhill, in this parish, where he erected a brick mansion, with a court before it. The pope, in consideration of his high birth, family connections, and enormous wealth, raised him to the see of Bertha. He enjoyed his great hereditary property nearly twenty-six years in much privacy and seclusion, engaging himself in acts of charity and devotion, and dying at Lower Pepperhill, on the 12th of December, 1743, was interred in the Catholic Cemetery of the White Ladies, near Albrighton. There is a Parochial School, in which six boys are taught gratuitously, in consideration of the schoolmaster having the free use of the school-house.

Charities.—By indenture, dated 18th May, 1682, reciting two bequests to the inhabitants of Albrighton, one of £20 by one Southall, the other of £10 by Roger Brooke, the interest of which was to be yearly disposed of among poor people, and which two sums, with some accumulation of interest, had increased to £40; and further reciting a gift by George Bromley of £100, the yearly profits to be distributed on St. George’s day and the Feast of All Saints, with the yearly increase thereof then amounted to £150; it was witnessed that in consideration of the sum of £210, composed of the above benefactions and a sum of money borrowed for the use of the parish, to make up the deficiency, certain lands were conveyed in trust for the benefit of the poor. In the year 1771, William Whitwich, the only surviving trustee, with the approbation of the parishioners and inhabitants assembled at a parish meeting, exchanged the two pieces of land, called the Wooden Croft, and the Six Butts, containing together four acres, for certain lands, called the Pool Field, containing two acres and rood, and a sum of £60 in money. The lands held in trust for the poor, when the charity commissioners published their report, comprised 14a. 3r. 16p. and a workhouse which had been built upon the charity land, together producing a yearly rental of £61 16s. 1d. The sum of £60 paid by Thomas Meeson, in part consideration for the exchange for lands in 1771, was suffered to remain in his hands at an interest of £4 per cent. till May, 1779, when it appears to have been paid up and applied, together with two other sums of £31. 10s., and £20 belonging to the trust, making in the whole £111. 10s. in the erection of a building for the reception of paupers, for which the parish paid a rent of £7 from the year 1780. This application of these several sums is not indeed expressly stated in the trustees’ books, or in any of the parish books or other documents that we could procure; but it seems sufficiently to be inferred from the circumstance that the payment of interest on those sums appears in the books till the year 1780, when it ceases, and the payment of rent for the workhouse commences. As this house is kept in repair from the trust funds, it does not seem to have been a very beneficial investment of the money. From whence the two sums of money above mentioned were derived does not appear. In the returns, under the act of the 26th Geo. III., two legacies to this parish of uncertain date are mentioned, one of £40 by William Scot, and the other of £20 by T. Davenhill. It is possible that a part of the first and the whole of the second of these legacies may have constituted part of the funds for the erection of the parish poorhouse. This, however, is mere conjecture, as we could learn nothing further concerning these charities.

Thomas Chapman, in 1655, granted to trustees three several rent charges, amounting in the whole to 30s., issuing out of a messuage called Harbour House and certain lands within the manor of Donington, and directed 13s. 4d. (part thereof) to be distributed among the poor of Albrighton, 10s. among the poor of Donington, and 6s. 8d. (the residue) for the relief of the poor inhabitants within the parish of Boningale. The amount allotted to Albrighton is carried to the general charity fund of the parish.

Mrs. Mary Waltho, in 1783, gave the sum of £20, in trust, to place out the same, with the approbation of the minister and churchwardens of the parish, the interest to be disposed of among poor widows. An annual sum of 16s., which is understood to be the interest of this legacy, was paid by Mr. Meeson. Mr. Meeson stated to the Charity Commissioners that his father had been accustomed to make the payment to poor widows, from whence he concluded that he had received the £20 left by Mrs. Waltho. It does not appear that any security is given for it; nor do the minister and churchwardens interfere with the distribution of the interest.

In 1848, a portion of the charity land was required for making the railway, for which the Charity Trustees received the sum of £712. 3s. 3d., which has been invested in government securities; the dividends of which and the rent of lands amount at the present time to about £74 per annum, which is distributed on Holy Thursday and St. Thomas’s day among widows and the indigent poor not receiving parochial relief.

Post Office—At Maria Jones’s. Letters arrive at 9 A.M., and are despatched at 5.30 P.M.

Bedwell Orson, Esq.