Adjoining the south side of the nave was the great cloister, which was encompassed by the refectory, dormitory and chapter house. Two arched doors which open in the cloisters still remain, but not a fragment of the cloister itself. The chapter house is an oblong square, 66 feet by 31 feet. It communicates by a small door with the house of the Prior, the exterior of which, and some of the apartments, retain their original character. The whole of the eastern side of the building has a singular cloister or ambulatory, consisting of upper and lower story, each of which is formed by a continued line of arches, that have originally been glazed. Opening into the upper gallery are two apartments, one of which is supposed to have been the dining hall, which was lighted by a line of windows somewhat resembling those of the ambulatory, but having in the angles curious little pedestals, of the height of a table. In some parts of these apartments are traces of fresco painting. A narrow stone staircase in one corner communicates with the kitchen underneath. In another part is the private chapel, now divided into several rooms, in one of which is the stone altar, and a beautifully carved dish was dug up some years ago. The architecture of the Prior’s house would lead to the conclusion that it had not been built long at the time of the dissolution of the priory. Fragments of this opulent monastery are scattered to a great distance, and the precinct included full thirty acres. About a century ago a considerable part of the ruins was taken down by an agent of the manor to rebuild some houses which he had on lease, but Sir W. Wynne put a stop to any further demolition.
The site of this monastery and manor was granted soon after the dissolution to Augustine de Augustine, and was sold in 1545 to Thomas Lawley, Esq., who made it his residence, and it continued in the Lawley family till it was sold by Robert Bertie (who was the son of Ursula, the great granddaughter of the said Thomas Lawley,) to the family of Gage. Viscount Gage sold it about the year 1632 to Sir John Wynne, of Wynnstay, in whose family it continues in the person of Sir W. W. Wynne, whose father was happily called (by George IV., when Regent) “the real prince of Wales.”
The most memorable prior was one Joybert, a Norman, who held the monasteries of Coventry, Daventry, Wenlock and Bermondsey, all at the same time. The annals of Worcester state that a confederacy was entered into in the year 1253, between that house and this, for the mutual support of both; and the same annals take notice of one William, a monk of Wenlock, who put himself at the head of a gang of robbers, but was afterwards taken and executed. John Cressage, who surrendered this monastery January 26th, 1539, had a pension assigned him of £80 per annum.
Charities.—The Rev. Francis Southern by his will, proved on the 19th December, 1778, left to the minister and churchwardens of Great Wenlock, and their successors, the sum of £300, to be disposed of as follows. The interest of £200 to be paid to a school-master for teaching ten poor boys to read and write, to be continued till they can read the Bible and write a plain legible hand, and repeat the catechism with Lewis’s expositions readily and distinctly, and understand the first five rules of arithmetic. The interest of £65 to be laid out in bread, to be given every Lord’s day to six poor widows, or old men, who should attend divine service. The interest of £25 to buy Bibles, Testaments and Expositions, to be distributed on New Year’s day among the poor schoolboys. And lastly, the interest of the remaining £10 he gave to the minister for preaching an annual sermon on New Year’s day. This legacy of £300 was invested in the purchase of £640. 2s. 3d. three per cent consols, the dividends of which amount to £19. 4s. per annum, and are disbursed in the following manner. £14. 5s. 10d. paid to a schoolmaster; £1. 5s. expended in books; 12s. 6d. to the minister for a sermon; and £3. 0s. 8d. is distributed in bread. There have been always ten free boys in the school, and generally twelve. A charge is made to each of 2s. 6d. a year for fire money, which is the only expense incurred by them.
The following benefactions to the poor of this parish are noticed on a table in the church, the donors of which directed the interest of the several sums affixed to their names to be distributed in bread:—Ralph Pendlebury and Dorothy his wife, £20; William Churchman, £5; Thomas Lokier, £4; Henry Sprott, £5; Edmund King, £5; Joan Patten, £8; William Parsons, £111; Richard Cleveley, £10; John Clark, £5; Richard Littlehales, £10; Edmund Hancocks, £10; Joseph Read, £10; Mrs. Jane Litllehales, £5; and Thomas Patten, £10. Of these specific benefactions, the total amount of which is £213, no further trace remains in any parish book or document; but there is a sum of £240. 19s. 4d. stock, in the three per cent. consols, now standing in the name of trustees, supposed to have resulted from a part of these benefactions. The money with which a part of this stock was purchased was £150, which had formerly been placed on the security of the Wenlock turnpike trust. With the dividends of this stock, amounting to £7. 4s. per annum, 420 fourpenny loaves are annually distributed to the poor.
John Murrall, dyer, by will, dated in 1796, bequeathed to such poor people as frequent divine service in the parish church of Much Wenlock, the yearly sum of £7. 4s. to be distributed in bread; twelve twopenny loaves on every Sunday in the year, and ten twelvepenny loaves on each of the following days, namely, St. Thomas’s day, Old Christmas day, Good Friday, and Easter day. Mr. Murrall died in 1769, and his will having been contested, his executors were not able to establish any fund for securing the payment of this charity till 1781, when a sum of £250 stock in the three per cent. consols was purchased for that purpose. The dividends, amounting to £7. 10s. a year, are now received by Dr. Rowley and Geo. Pritchard, Esq., and a distribution of bread takes place on St. Thomas’s day and Good Friday.
John Skett, by will, dated 13th March, 1727, left 10s. per annum to be given to the poor of this parish in bread, chargeable on a certain house in Shineton street, the property of Mr. France.
John Littlehales, by will, 1760, devised to Richard Woof a messuage in Shineton street, in Much Wenlock, in trust, that he and his heirs should pay yearly out of the profits thereof, to the minister and churchwardens, the sum of 30s., on the 25th of December, to be given in wheaten bread, as follows:—Twelve twopenny loaves to be placed near a tombstone erected by him, before the service begins, on the first Sunday of every month, and to be given when the communion is ended by his heirs, the vicar and churchwardens, to twelve ancient people of the parish, regard being had to those who frequent the church service; and so to continue the first Sunday of each calendar month, Christmas day, Good Friday, and Easter day, yearly.
Mrs. Mary Smyth, by will, dated 23rd November, 1773, gave the interest of ten guineas to be distributed yearly in sixpenny loaves on the feast of St. Thomas, amongst poor widows and housekeepers of the parish of Wenlock.
Almshouses.—Mrs. Ann Sprott bequeathed £10, the interest to be applied in the repairs of the almshouses. In the parliamentary reports of 1786 it is stated that a person of the name of Price left, for clothing the poor in the almshouse, land then vested in Harry Yate, and producing £4 a-year. With respect of the first mentioned sum of £10, it is conjectured that it formed part of a sum of £150 poor’s stock, previously noticed, as an entry found in the churchwardens’ book, in 1773, states that 10s. was then received, to be laid out in the repairs of the almshouse, being part of the money due to the poor of the parish from the turnpike security; but nothing has been paid for this purpose from the produce of the poors’ stock for many years. With respect to Price’s benefaction, it appears that clothing was formerly provided for the poor in the almshouse by Harry Yate, formerly a draper at Ludlow, in respect of a small estate in Herefordshire, but this was discontinued upwards of seventy years ago by the above mentioned Harry Yate, on the ground that the gift was void under the statute of George II., c. 36.