Such was Madeley in the olden time, when men were goods and chattels, subject to the rapacity and oppression of their owners, when laws were enacted by which to kill wild animals was a crime equal in enormity to killing human beings, and punished with the same rigour; when the right to hunt was in the hands of kings and those holding tenure to whom they thought proper to delegate it. The park, to which the modern names of Park, Rough Park, and Park Street, now apply—names that serve to recall former features of the surface—was enclosed from the forest, mentioned in the above extract. Its origin was this; November 28th, 1283, King Edward (1st) being petitioned that it would not be detrimental to his forest of Mount Gilbert if the Prior and Convent of Wenlock should enclose their Wood of Madeley (though within the limits of the forest) with a ditch, and fence, (haia) and make a park there—allowed them to do so. The same park is alluded to in a valuation taken 1390; together with one at Oxenbold, which—including the meadows—was said to be scarcely sufficient to maintain the live stock of the Priory. The Prior, who appears to have built houses within the boundary of the forest, in 1259 was ordered to pull them down; but having offered a fine to the king a charter was granted the following year, stating that, “for £100 now paid the Prior and Convent may have the houses in peace, although within the forest.” The Court House, formerly surrounded by this park, and near to the station now called by its name—on the Great Western line—is an exceedingly interesting building, and one claiming the attention of the visitor. The present structure is in the Elizabethan style of architecture; but the grounds present traces of earlier buildings. In the years 1167, 1224, 1250, and again in 1255, mention is made of the Madeley Manor. In 1379 the estimated value of pleas and perquisites of the court is entered at two shillings.