A
preliminary meeting was held in July 1972 and at the first general meeting of
the Wilkinson Society on August 2nd a committee was elected :
President:
J. Dugdale, Esq.
Chairman
: M. Sylvester Esq.
Secretary:
C. Hardwick, Esq.
Treasurer
: D. Mason, Esq.
Curator:
R. Pee, Esq.
Committee
Members : Messrs. Clarke and Cragge.
Since
then there; have been six committee meetings, two general meetings
(Oct.
27th - a talk by Barrie Trinder on John Wilkinson in Shropshire; and March
9th 1973 - a slide show by Ron Miles on the Severn Gorge); and
a coach-tour of Wilkinson sites in the Wrexham area, organised by Wayne Turner
(May 26th ).
The
first A. G.M. is planned for Thursday October 4th at ‘The
Lawns’
The
Society has been responsible for erecting a notice-board on the site of the New
Willey ironworks, with the kind permission of Lord Forester.
Material
is constantly being added to the collection at the Lawns. Mr.Pee is listing all
the exhibits and contributors, and details will appear in the next issue of the
Journal.
It
is hoped that the Journal will make a modest contribution to research on the
history of the Broseley area, John Wilkinson and industrial archaeology in
general. In this issue, Wayne Turner, who is currently working on a biography of
John Wilkinson, gives an outline survey of the great man's life and work and
Ralph Pee, founder member of the Society and resident at ‘The Lawns’, takes
us round Wilkinson's Broseley home. One issue raised is the date Wilkinson took
up residence there: both writers suggest 1763, the year of his second marriage.
In
his recent book, "The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire's (Phillimore,
Chichester), Barrie Trinder states:
'Wilkinson
made one of his several homes in Broseley. He leased land from Thomas Stephens
in 1778 on which he built a new house which he occupied until 1800".
In
this issue of the Journal there is also the first of a series of selected
extracts on the history of the Broseley area.
Contributions
to future issues of the Journal would be welcome, and should be sent to the
Editor, N.J. Clarke, Cranleigh, Little Wenlock, Telford. (Tel: Malinslee 4135)
The
following account is from "Shropshire: its Early History and Antiquities','
by John Corbot Anderson, first published in 1864 and re-published in 1972 by E.
J. Morton of Didsbury (pp. 64-65)
'It
is conjectured that the following entry in Domesday refers to Broseley:
'The
samie Helgot holds Bosle. Gethne held it, and was a free Man. Here is i hide
geldable. The land is (capable of employing) ii ox-teams. In demesne is one
(team), and (there are) iiii serfs, and iiii boors, and i radman, with i team.
In King Edward's time (the manor) was worth 16s. ld., now 12s. He (Helgot) found
it waste.’
Of
Helgot’s successors not a trace remains.
It
is presumed, that the discerning Henry I bestowed the lordship of Broseley upon
Warin de Metz, of Lorraine, from whose it is thought descended in after times
many lords of Broseley, yet it is conjecture. Certain it is, however, that the
Fitz Warins, de Burwardsley’s d'Eyton's, de Covene's and the de Pychford's,
all, at one time or another, had an interest in the Manor of Broseley, beneath
whome again held undertenants .
Broseley Church was subject to the mother
church of St. Milburg, at Wenlock, within the bounds of whose vast Saxon parish
it stood. The date of the foundation of Broseley Church is unknown. In token of
its affiliation, and probably as a condition of its origin, the Incumbent was
taxed with an annual pension of 2s. payable at the feast of St. Nicholas, to the
mother church. No cure of souls went with new foundation, whose Incumbent was
usually beneficed elsewhere.
In
1291, the church of Burewardsleye, in the deanery of Wenlock, was valued at £6.13s.4d.
per ann. In
1341, the parish was assessed only 42s. to the ninth, for the growing corn had
been destroyed by tempest, a large portion of the parish, owing to the poverty
of the. tenants, lay uncultivated, etc. In 1535, this preferment was valued at
8.5s.8d. per ann. less 7s.2do for synodals.
Early
Incumbent - William, Parson of Burwardesleg, about 1230.
N.
J. CLARKE
