In 1827 this curious edifice was, through the laudable exertions and entirely at the expense of the Rev. W. G. Rowland, the liberal donor of the beautiful east window, thoroughly and judiciously repaired, and happily rescued from that ruin and decay to which its previous neglected condition was fast hastening. [Picture: Interior of St. Giles’s Church] The primitive rude and massive oak benches in the nave were subsequently removed, and replaced with new ones. A new pulpit, reading-pew, and altar-screen, of oak, beautifully carved and in unison with the architecture, were added, and the whole building fitted up for divine service by the pious munificence of the late Rev. Richard Scott, B.D. Divine Service, which had previously been celebrated only on two Sunday evenings in the year, has, since June 1836, been regularly offered up every Sunday. In the church-yard is a large stone with a cavity on the upper side, (doubtless the base and socket of the cross) termed “the PEST BASIN,” which tradition states to have been used during the time of the plague for holding water, in which, to avoid the spread of the disease, the towns-people deposited their money in their bargains for provisions with the country-folk. A portion of the head of this cross was discovered under the west wall of the church during the repairs in 1852. It is now placed in the north aisle, and displays sculptures of the Crucifixion, St. Giles, Virgin and Child, and St. Michael. [Picture: “Pest-Basin,” in St. Giles’s Churchyard] Our town has been many times visited with those severe scourges of Heaven, the dreadful pestilential diseases of the sweating sickness and the plague. The former desolated the town in the reign of Edward III. in 1349, and again in that of Henry VII., in the years 1485 and 1551; and the latter raged here with frightful fury in the years 1537, 1575, 1630, 1632, and 1634. In the years 1832 and 1849, also, many of the inhabitants fell victims to the cholera. For the support of the Hospital of Lepers, Henry II. granted thirty shillings yearly out of the rent of the County of Salop, and a handful of two hands of every sack of corn, and a handful of one hand of every sack of flour, exposed for sale in Shrewsbury market. Henry III. also in 1232 gave them a horse-load of wood, daily, from his wood of Lythwood.