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The
Year’s Activities, 1995-1996 Programme
of Events, 1996-1997 JOHN
WILKINSON AND THE IRON BRIDGE PASSING
THROUGH WILLEY IN 1735by
Neil Clarke
Map
of Shropshire (1752), covering
the area between Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock
WILLIAM
SOUTHORN & CO.
CANNON IN THE GAMBA by MARGARET BARETT (add text and pics from disc)
NOTES
AND NEWS
The
Year’s Activities, 1995—1996
It
is not unusual when secretaries of societies such as ours come to record the
happenings since the previous report that they find themselves hard pressed.
Happily, I am not in that position. Each year since the Society was revived has
been marked by at least one memorable event. The first year saw us visiting the
Wilkinson sites in Bersham and thereabouts. The enjoyment was enhanced because
of our travelling in a 1950s Vauxhall
bus. Last
year we had the honour of hosting a visit from the Friends of Shropshire Records
and Research. Members from across the County joined us for a series of talks and
a walk around sites of interest in Broseley. It was a glorious sunny day, and a
highlight was lunch in the open air at the Foresters' Arms. We
were singularly fortunate to acquire a large quantity of ephemera, amassed by
Mrs Smith, formerly a Broseley resident. These were chiefly bills from traders
in the town, but the winter and early spring of 1996 saw an excited band of
enthusiastic members and others assembling each week to sort these papers. There
was a great deal of good humour on those evenings, and much unrecorded history
came to light. It is true that much of this did not relate to John Wilkinson,
but it gave us a fascinating insight into pre-war Broseley and it had an
enormous benefit in cementing the membership of our Society. In
our lecture series we have had the good fortune to secure the services of a
number of excellent speakers. We have learned considerably more about the
history of railways in this country, and we were treated to an outstanding
lecture from Dr Paul Stamper on the formal gardens of Shropshire. Of
somewhat less high profile is that the Committee has met each quarter. We have
now received from the former committee the tokens in their possession. These are
Wilkinson halfpenny tokens for 1790 (two), 1791 and 1792; a Coalbrookdale
halfpenny token of 1789 in ‘good’ condition and a cartwheel halfpenny which
is sadly not even ‘fair.’ Mr Tony Mugridge has very generously donated a
number of artefacts to the Society, including a bowler hat belonging to a
foreman at Broseley Tileries, a print box formerly the property of the late Jack
Dixon, and a number of Jackfield tiles. The Society is much indebted to donors
for all such items, which we catalogue. David
Shinton, Secretary Programme
of Events, 1996-1997
(Note—indoor meetings are held at The Pipeworks Museum,
Broseley).
Further details will appear in the Newsletter and the
local press.
Eric Cox, Chairman The
Journal
It
gives me great pleasure, after nine years, to resume the editorship of
the Journal of the Wilkinson Society. May I add my thanks to Maurice Hawes and
Rex Key for their work in 1988 and 1995 respectively. The
main articles from journals between 1973 and 1988 (Nos. 1-16), now termed first
series, are being put together by Peter Cooper in one volume which will be
available shortly. The ‘Journal’, second series, begins with No. 17 (1995). In
this issue there is the first part of a stimulating analysis of John
Wilkinson’s part in the Iron Bridge project; a commentary on the account of a
group of early eighteenth century visitors who passed through this area on their
tour of England; and a photographic survey of an industrial archaeology mystery
in West Africa. Contributions
to the next issue of the Journal would be welcome and should be sent to me (by
July 1997) at Cranleigh, Wellington Road, Little Wenlock, Telford TF6 5BH. Neil Clarke, Editor
PASSING
THROUGH WILLEY IN 1735
by
Neil Clarke
We
have learned a lot about the important developments in the Ironbridge Gorge area
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries from those who visited East Shropshire
at the time and recorded their impressions.(1) Earlier visitors were
fewer in number but their observations make a valuable contribution to our
knowledge of the area on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. One such group
passed through Willey on their tour of England in 1735.(2) In this
paper I intend to examine what the writer of their account tells us about the
area in the period before the arrival of John Wilkinson. Both
Celia Fiennes and Daniel Defoe had visited East Shropshire on their respective
tours of 1698 and 1723.(3) Travelling from Shrewsbury (‘a pleasant
town to live in’) to Patshull Park, Celia Fiennes noted the coal pits
operating in the Oakengates area (‘there are great hills all about which I
pass’d over full of coale pitts’)(4) and the condition of the
roads along which she passed (‘here I came into the Whatling
Streete which is one of the great roads of England.. .the roads are
pretty good but the miles are long’).(5)
Daniel
Defoe, taking the same route as far as Whiteladies and Boscobel, also commented
on ‘the great antient road or way call’d Wailing Street which comes from
London to this town [Shrewsbury]
and goes on from hence to the utmost coast of Wales’.(6) Later he
explained how the road between Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury was part of a postal
route, ‘a cross-post thro’ all the western part of England ...
to maintain the correspondence of merchants and men
of business, of which all this side of the island is so full’.(7)
The writer of the 1735 account showed
a similar interest in trade and industry, roads, towns, natural features and the
estates of landed gentry: Sept.
30 We left Bridgnorth8 and went through Willey (9) to some coal pits
belonging to Mr Weld, who has a very good house in the last mentioned place.’(10)
The manner of drawing up coal from the pits and of draining the water from them
is well worth seeing. (11) From the pits we went through a village
called Barrow to Wenlock, a very paltry, dirty town and corporation, its present
members being Samuel Edwards and Win. Forester Esquires.’ (12) Two
miles from this town on a hill called Wenlock Edge we had an extensive and very
pleasant view of Shropshire and Shrewsbury; at 10 miles distant; but we may
truly be said to have paid for our peeping. For the descent of this hill for a
mile to a village called Harley is so steep, stony and slippery that we were an
hour walking and leading our horses down it. (13)
Four miles beyond
this we saw at Cund
[Cound] an exceedingly pretty house and park, belonging to Dr Cresset, Dean of
Clogher in Ireland, (14) and opposite to it on the other side
of the Severn is Ighton [Eyton] in
the parish of Wroxeter, a good old house,
situate in a very pleasant wood, belonging to the Earl of Bradford.(15) About
a mi!e and a half from Cund we crossed the Watling Street (16) and at
2 miles and half further, came to Shrewsbury to the Talbot. (17) It is significant that this group of travellers chose to make a detour from the main
route between Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock in order to visit Wiley. The brief
description of what they saw there confirms that coal mining was a
well-established industry in the area by that date, but the failure to mention
iron making is both puzzling and disappointing. The reference to local road
conditions in the period immediately prior to tumpiking is also of interest. We
should be grateful to the Rev, Cole for preserving this little gem. (18) Notes
1.
An anthology of
visitors’ impressions of Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale and the Shropshire
Coalfield appears in Barrie Trinder, ed., The
Most Extraordinary District in the World (1977). 2. Additional MS, 5842, British Library. This is one of almost 100 folio volumes containing a collection of manuscripts compiled by the Rev. William Cole (1714-82), the Cambridge antiquary. On p. 244, under the heading, ‘Tour of England in 1735’, he wrote: ‘The following journal was lent to me in 1775 by Mr Alderman Bentham of Cambridge who married the only sister and heir of Mr. Riste, one of the party in the expedition. It is all written in Mr. Whaley’s hand, who was the writer of it and went as tutor and companion to John Dodd of Swallowfield in Berkshire, Esq. then a ftllowcommoner of King ‘s College in Cambridge, where Mr. Whaley was then Fellow. Mr. Riste went as companion and governor to Francis Shepheard Esq., son to Francis Shepheard of Exning in Suffolk Esq. and then a fellow-commoner of Clare Hall, who died soon after his return. Although a great part of the journal seems to be mere common place and trite observations, I shall nevertheless transcribe the whole as I shall find it.’ 3.
Celia Fiennes, The Journeys of
Celia Fiennes, ed. Christopher Morris (1947); Daniel Defoe, A
Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain
(Everyman edn., vol. 2,
1927). 4.
Celia Fiennes, Journeys p.228.
In fact, coal was being mined in the Wombridge priory demesne in the early 16th
century; both Leland (1586) and Camden (1586) mentioned the mines, by then
firmly established; and by the third quarter of the 17th century mining was also
established at Coalpit (later Ketley) Bank and probably at Snedshi]l (Victoria
County History of Shropshire, vol. xi, 1985,
p.292) 5.
Celia Fiennes travelled along Watling Street and the road to Shifnal some
28 years before the first major attempt to improve them. By the Act of 12 Geo.
I, c, 9 (1726), Watling Street was turnpiked between Crackley Bank and
Shrewsbury, together with the connecting road from Oakengates to Shifnal (Barrie
Trinder, The Industrial Revolution in
Shropshire, 1973, pp. 142-43). 6.
Defoe, Tour, p. 77, In the
appendix to volume 2 of the Tour, Defoe
referred to the ‘wonderful improvements’ made to the London end of Watling
Street by the setting up of turnpikes (p.
124). As noted above, the Shropshire section was turnpiked at about the
same time as the publication of Defoe’s Tour. 7.
Ibid. p. 188. A cross-post was a postal route running from one major mute
to another, as opposed to bye-posts, which followed major roads which did not
run to and from London. The cross-post from Bristol to Exeter was set up in 1696
and that from Bristol to Chester, via Worcester, Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury in
1700. The notable Ralph Allen of Bath offered to farm the cross-and bye-posts in
1720, after which there was a steady growth in these services (Pat Rogers, ed.
Penguin Edition of Defoe’s Tour, 1971,
p. 712). 8.
The
four companions had set out from London on Monday, 28 July 1735 and journeyed
through southern and western counties of England before arriving at Bridgnorth
(‘a large and handsome town and burgh, situated on a very high rock..
.populous but of no great trade’) on 29 September. 9.
The journey to Willey would most probably have been via Nordley, and
beyond Willey to Much Wenlock via Barrow. In fact, this route across Willey Park
was later turnpiked by the Wenlock Trustees (18 Geo. III, c, 91, 1778), and then
closed to the public early in the 19th century when a new road was built from
Broseley past (New) Willey Furnace towards Barrow (Trinder, md. Rev. Shrops, pp, 144-46). 10.
The Weld family had been at Willey since 1618 when John Weld purchased
the manor from Francis Lacon. Their mansion, referred to in this passage, later
became known as the Uld Hall, tollowing the building of the new Hall in 1813-15.
It was mainly Jacobean in structure (H.E.
Forrest, The Old Houses of Wenlock, 19
15,pp. 95-96). The owner of the estate
at the time of this visit was George Weld, great grandson of John. 11.
For over 100 years the Welds had successfully exploited the mineral
wealth of their estates (which also included the Marsh and part of Broseley),
particularly coal and ironstone (M.D.G. Wanklyn, ‘John Weld of Willey,
1585-1665: an enterprising landowner of the early 17th century’, in West
Midland Studies, vol. 3, 1969, pp. 88-99; Trinder, pp. 10-12, 110-11).
Coal was mined by using either adits or shafts, and depth was mainly
determined by drainage considerations. In this passage, the writer appears to be
referring to mining shafts, with possibly a horse-worked system of drainage. As
for the number of pits operated by the Welds and the amount of coal mined,
evidence for the early 1750’s suggests about 20 pits working in Willey and
Broseley: in 1752 these produced 3,676 tons of coal, of which 762 tons were
delivered to the Old Wiley Furnace: in 1753 4,360 tons were mined, of which
1,002 tons went to the furnace; the bulk of the output was for the Severn coal
trade (Wanklyn, pp. 96-97;
Trinder, pp. 13-14, 90). Intriguingly, there is no mention in the passage of the
ironworks at Wiley. Located on the Linley Brook, ¾ mile to the South of the Old
Hall, an earlier furnace had been rebuilt by John Weld when he bought the estate
in 1618. There are references to its operation in 1657, 1687-88 and 1717. In
1733 Richard Ford and Thomas Goidney leased Willey Furnace to help Coalbrookdale
meet the demands of its Bristol customers for pig iron; and in 1735, for
example, the blast furnace made 92 tons. On the expiry of this lease (probably
in 1754), the furnace appears to have fallen into disrepair, but was eventually
taken over by the New Willey Company in 1757 and operated by them until final
closure in 1774. Throughout its working life the Old Furnace was dogged by an
inadequate water supply, particularly in dry seasons. When operated by Ford and
Goidney, it was never able to keep in blast for more than 40 weeks in the year
(Ralph Pee and Maurice Hawes, ‘John Wilkinson and the two Willey Ironworks’,
in The Journal of the Wilkinson Society, no.
16, 1988, p. 7; Arthur Raistrick, Dynasty
of Ironfounders, 1953, pp, 59-62).
Is it therefore not possible that the travellers who visited Willey in 1735
(at the end of September, traditionally a fairly dry month) may not have
mentioned an ironworks there because they did not see one operating at that
particular time? 12. Much Wenlock clearly did not impress our visitors. Incorporated by a
charter of Edward IV in 1468, the borough at first returned one member of
Parliament but by 1491 there were
two, and this representation continued until the borough was disfranchised in
1885 (W.E Mumford, Wenlock in the Middle
Ages, 1977,
pp. 13 1-34). The M.P.s named in 1735 had
been elected by the burgesses in the previous year, William Forester of Dothill
was the father of Brooke Forester, who in 1734 had married Elizabeth, daughter
and heir of George Weld of Wiley. 13.
The travellers were impressed by the panorama presented by Wenlock Edge,
but not by the effect of the latter on their route to Cound. Two centuries
earlier Leland had recorded the ‘roughe ground, passynge ovar an hiqhe rocky
hill caulyd Wenlok Egge’ (Leland, Itinerary,
ed. L. Toulmin Smith, 1908, vol. ii, p. 84). Seventeen years after the
journey described in the passage, the road between Shrewsbury, Much Wenlock and
Bridgnorth was turnpiked (25 Geo. II,
c, 40), but in 1778 the Wenlock Trustees turnpiked the road from Cressage
through Sheinton to Much Wenlock in order to avoid that very disagreeable part
of the old road well known by the name of Wenlock Edge’ (18 Geo. III, c, 91). 14.
Cound Hall had been built in 1704 for Edward Cressett. Designed by John
Prince of Sbrewsbury, it was of classical style with three storeys and a
basement and divided by tall Corinthian pilasters. Its owner at the time of this
visit was Edward Cressett’s son, also named Edward, who was to become Bishop
of Llandaff in 1749 (Jonathan Humphries, Cound
Hall Past and Present, 1989). 15.
The mansion at Eyton was built by Sir Francis Newport of High Ercall in
1607. Its owner at the time of this visit was his great, great grandson, Thomas,
4th (and last Newport) Earl of Bradford. Following the destruction of most of
the building by fire, the Shrewsbury architect Thomas Famous Pritchard acquired
the banqueting house and converted it into a house for his own occupation in
1767-69 (Department of the Environment: List
of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest —Borough of
Shrewsbury and Atchain, Parish of Wroxeter~ 1986). 16.
This was not the section of Watling Street between Crackley Bank and
Shrewsbury tumpiked in 1726, but the route across the River Severn at Wroxeter
which was later turnpiked when the powers of the Watling Street Trustees were
extended in 1764 (4 Geo. ifi c, 70). It linked the main
road with Pitchford, Acton Burnell and Frodesley. There was no bridge at
Wroxeter at this time, but travellers obviously forded the Severn when
conditions allowed. The road ceased to be a turnpike route in 1829 (VC.H.
Shrops., vol. viii, 1965, pp. 15-16). 17.
The final stage of the travellers’ journey on 30 September 1735 was the
5 (not 2 1/2) miles to Shrewsbury,
They spent four nights at the Talbot, then an inn in Market Street just off the
Square and 4one of the chief posting establishments here in the days
of the stagecoaches’ (H.E. Forrest, The
Old Houses of Shrewsbury 1912, p49). Leaving Shrewsbury (‘the pleasantest
situated I ever saw’) on 4 October, the four companions travelled via Chester,
Manchester, Derby, Nottingham and Peterborough to Cambridge, where they arrived
on 19 October. 18.
The whole tour took almost 3 months to complete (28 July-19 October 1735). It cost a total of £232 12s. lOd. which included the
purchase of ‘three books and a map for the journey’, accommodation, letters
and washing. Commenting on this, the Rev. Cole concluded: At the end of the book is an account of the expenses for
the journey which for four gentlemen and probably two servants, at least one,
with their horses, at 10 shillings for each person a day, with money given to
see places, seems to be very reasonable and would not be so easy at this time
(1775)(MS. 5842, Brit. Lib.). ON
THE FOLLOWING PAGE A portion of John
Rocque ~c Map of Shropshire (1752), covering the area between Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock and clearly showing * the
main route between the two towns via
Morville and Muckley Cross (turnpiked in
1752) * the
route taken by the four travellers in 1735, via
Nordley (probably), Willey and Barrow * the
coal pits in the vicinity of Willey described in the passage (marked as small
lumps of coal to the south, north east and east of Broseley) * the
location of Willey Old Hall (the largest of the three buildings shown to the
north of the pool on the Linley Brook) * the
ironworks complex at Willey (shown immediately to the south-east of the pool,
with the word ‘Furnace’ printed to the right), in operation at the time of
the visit but not mentioned in the passage. Map
of Shropshire (1752), covering
the area between Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock
CANNON
IN THE GAMBIA By
Margaret Barrett
he
Gambia, West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has few
natural resources, and its only cash crop is literally peanuts. The country
itself is a strategic construct, and this has determined its linear
configuration (see map). It is seven miles wide (in places) for a distance of
292 miles along the Gambia river and the boundaries were supposedly determined
by the distance a cannon ball could be fired to north and south from the middle
of the river. Which
brings me to cannon. .
. nearly. To get to the cannon you
need first to catch the ferry from Banjul, the capital (Bathurst before
independence in 1965) to the opposite side of the mouth of the Gambia river,
Barra. If you’ve read anything about travel in Africa you’ll have some idea
of this ferry; oily, smelly, packed with people and produce. There is nowhere to
sit for what is a journey of about three quarters of an hour. Poverty spawns
lots of things, but not health and safety regulations. The
journey is worth it. Some distance from the dock is a fort. I don’t know the
date of the founding of this fort, or its purpose. From one person I heard that
slaves were held there prior to their shipment to America. From another that it
was built in the middle of the nineteenth century, and slaves were never taken
there. The Gambian who takes dalasi (the local currency—Ed.) in exchange for
unlocking the fort gate preferred the former explanation. Outside
the fort, and some distance away, near to the compound where this man lives with
his family, are the cannon. There are three of them, and they really are huge.
They’re still there by virtue of the fact that the Gambia has no iron smelting
facilities. Most Gambians are very poor, and everything is utilised. For
example, steel runway matting used by the British in World War II appears
throughout the country variously disguised as fence posts, smoked fIsh racks,
etc. These cannon are too heavy to shift and impossible for the Gambians to make
ploughshares of, so to speak. I
first discovered these cannon about 18 months ago when visiting my son, Aaron,
who was doing a year’s volunteered teaching in the Gambia. I didn’t have a
camera at the time and so the following photographs were taken when his brother
went to visit him two months later. I cannot therefore always be completely
confident about which markings belong to which cannon. I hope that this information will be of interest to the Wilkinson Society. I would be very grateful if members could throw any light on the origin of the cannon as well as on the history of the fort at Barra. WILLIAM
SOUTHORN & CO.
BROSELEY
::
::__ Shropshire Manufacturers
of Tobacco Pipes also Electrical Appliances and Garden Ornaments Established 1823 Tel.:
Ironbridge 3109 Diversification
at the pipeworks! This advertisement in the official guide to the Borough of
Wenlock published in the 1940s shows that Broseley’s traditional clay pipe
industry was feeling the cold wind of change. The works closed suddenly during
the ‘50s and the building and its contents were left as if in a time-warp. In
September the pipeworks came to life again as Broseley Pipe Museum, boasting 600
visitors during its first weekend. |
