Nooks and Corners of ShropshireTimmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
History
Nooks and Corners of Shropshire
Timmins, H. Thornhill (Henry Thornhill)
Shropshire (England) -- Description and travel
In the thirteenth century, a certain Henry de Wengham, besides being
Rector of Worfield, Alveley, Kirkham and Preston, was Bishop of London,
Dean of St. Martin's, and ditto of Tettenhall; a notable instance of
pluralism.
Two miles due north of Worfield lies the village of Badger, best known
for its celebrated Dingle, a deep, rocky, richly wooded ravine, down
which a small tributary makes its way to the Worf. In Badger church are
to be seen some well executed monuments to the Cheneys and the Brownes,
by Flaxman, Chantrey and others. Isaac Hawkins Browne was a poetaster of
some little celebrity in the last century.
Beckbury, with its fine parish church, dedicated to St. Milburga, lies
away up the vale of Worf. From Badger we make our way to Chesterton,
where are the remains of a prehistoric encampment, half surrounded by
the Stretford brook. From these names, and other local circumstances, it
appears probable the Romans had a station hereabouts. There are traces,
in some neighbouring cottages, of what looks like a desecrated
fifteenth-century chapel.
[Illustration: Ludstone. Shropshire.]
Proceeding on our travels, we traverse Rudge Heath; and presently after
come to Ludstone, a stately old moated manor-house, built by one of the
Whitmores about the year 1607, probably on the site of an earlier house.
It is a charming abode, well preserved, yet not over-restored; its
Jacobean gables and balconies wreathed in ivy and Virginian creeper; and
its antique, pleasantly formal gardens encircled by the moat, where
amidst the water-lilies we get an inverted replica of the old mansion.
Passing near Danford, or Daneford,--a suggestive name--we descend a lane
hewn deep in the sandstone rock, cross a bridge over a stream, and so
win on to Claverley, 'quite a place,' as our American cousins say, and
the largest village in this part of the county.
[Illustration: Claverley.]
Midway along the street we come to the parish church, a spacious
sandstone structure of various periods, crowned by a tall embattled
tower. Unlike its neighbour at Worfield, Claverley church remains
entirely innocent of restoration, and, from the antiquarian point of
view, contrasts favourably with that somewhat spick-and-span edifice.
Overlooking the churchyard, where the gravestones crowd 'thick as
Autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa,' rises the remarkably fine old
half-timbered house seen in profile in our sketch. This is doubtless the
subject of an ancient deed whereby, in 1659, one Richard Dovey
bequeathed certain tenements, 'over and adjoining to the churchyard
Gates,' on condition that a poor man be paid 'for waking sleepers in
church, and driving out Doggs during divine serviss.' The office has
lapsed; but whether on account of the rousing character of the sermons
in these latter days, history recordeth not.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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