Having passed the Welsh Bridge we enter
“An auncient streate cal’d Franckwell many a day:
To Ozestri, the people passe through this,
And unto Wales, it is the reddie way.”
The suburb of Frankwell, was in 1234, during the wars of Henry III. and Llewellin Prince of Wales, reduced to ashes by the Welsh army.
Shrewsbury was the first place in England in which that dreadful epidemic, the Sweating Sickness, broke out in the year 1551; and there is a tradition that it made its first appearance in a passage in Frankwell, called the White Horse Shut. This disease again appeared in this suburb in the early part of June 1650, and continued its ravages throughout the town until the middle of the January following. It is said that the Butchers escaped the pestilence; and the fact of there being fewer entries of burials in the register of St. Alkmund’s, the parish in which they chiefly resided during that time, tends greatly to confirm the tradition.
About the middle of Frankwell on the right hand side, stands
ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH.
This neat structure was erected in 1829, on a site presented to the parish by Richard Drinkwater, Esq. and designed as a chapel of ease to St. Chad’s Church. It is constructed of free-stone, in the lancet style of architecture, and comprises a nave, transept, chancel, and western tower. The interior is fitted up with due regard to elegance and convenience, and will contain a congregation of 750 persons, for 460 of whom free kneelings are provided. By the pious liberality of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D. of this town, the chancel has been graced with a carved altar screen and chairs of an architectural Gothic design, the gallery with a small organ by Fleetwood, and the triple lancet windows filled with most brilliant and spirited figures of Isaiah, St. Matthew, and St. Mark, in stained glass, in the execution of which, that ingenious artist Mr. D. Evans has, if possible, surpassed his previous elegant productions. The windows of the transept likewise contain fine stained glass of a rich and elaborate mosaic pattern, by which a mellowed and devotional gloom is shed over this portion of the fabric, which contributes considerably to the imposing effect of the splendid east window.
The edifice was designed by Mr. Edward Haycock, and erected by Messrs. Joseph Birch and Sons of this town, at a cost of nearly £4000, raised by the voluntary subscriptions of the parishioners. The township of Frankwell has been assigned as a district parish to this church.