Some of the incidents in the records relating to the church are curious. Forms were first furnished for the worshippers in 1537. Prior to that there were neither seats nor benches. The floors were strewn with flowers and sweet herbs, upon which the people prostrated themselves. Among the items of expenditure are some interesting entries. In 1553 it cost 4s. to ring in honour of Queen Mary being proclaimed, and in the same year 4s. for “setting up an altar before Sir Adam Mytton’s grave.” The repairing of chapels seems to have been an inexpensive affair: for we are told that “our Lady’s chapel was mended,” and a “paschal taper” bought for 4s.; while in 1554 the enormous sum of 2s. 6d. was paid for “making an altar in our Lady’s chapel,” and 3s. 5d. for “making Trinity altar.” With a firm adhesion to Protestantism and a stern condemnation of all appearance of Romanism it was ordered on May 12th, 1584, that three superstitious images and inscriptions in the north window be taken down by the churchwardens. In September of the same year it was ordered that the stone altar should be removed, “having been sometimes used to idolatry.” The spire, too, has a history of incidents. In 1572 it was blown aside by the wind; in 1663 the cock was replaced by a new one and the steeple repaired at the cost of £72; in 1665 and again in 1686 the cock was blown down; in 1690 it was damaged by an earthquake; in 1739 the cock suffered again: in 1754 the spire was shattered by a violent hurricane; and in 1756 the part re-built in 1754 was blown on one side, and once more re-built. The mishap of 1739 one Thomas Cadman undertook to repair. Cadman who is described by Hutton as a “man of spirit and grisle,” succeeded in taking down and re-setting the cock on the summit of the spire. In celebration of his success he determined upon performing some exploits on a rope which he fixed from the top of the spire to a tree in the Gay Meadow, Abbey Foregate, on the other side of the Severn. The adventure was a fatal one. In sliding along he fell near the Water Lane Gate; and for the information of an unappreciative posterity and the gratification of the curious this inscription was placed on the wall over his grave by his admiring survivors:— _Let this small monument record the name_ _Of Cadman_, _and to future times proclaim_ _How by an attempt to fly from this high spire_, _Across the Sabrine stream_, _he did acquire_ _His fatal end_: ’_Twas not for leant of skill_ _Or courage to perform the task he fell_, _No_! _No_! _a faulty cord being drawn too tight_ _Hurried his soul on high_, _to take her flight_, _Which bid the body here beneath_, “_Good night_.” [Picture: Shrewsbury, with the English and Coleham bridges] Opposite the front of St. Mary’s Church are the DRAPERS’ ALMSHOUSES,