The earliest written notice which can be referred to respecting St. Leonard’s, though it implies the pre-existence of the Church, cannot itself be ascribed to an older period than the middle of the thirteenth century. It occurs in a legal document, and is as follows:—“Roger, son of Richard Irish, (Hybernensis) sells to Walter Palmer, for 6s., a rent of 6d., issuing from certain field-land without the cemetery of Saint Leonard, which land William Sholton held of the Vendor, by the same rent.” (_Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. 1, p. 341._) It is also ascertained from existing documents, that two chantries, or side chapels, were set up in Saint Leonard’s; the one in the time of Edward II, the other in the time of Edward III. This latter was founded by William de la Hulle, who “assigns his messuage in Bridgnorth, (lying between the conduit and a tenement belonging to Richard Brown) also thirty acres of land, and sixty shillings there, to three chaplains, who were to pray daily in the Church of Saint Leonard’s, for the souls of his father and mother, and for his own soul, and those of his two wives and children.“ (_Dukes’ Antiquities_, XXXVII.) I cannot but think that there still exists in Saint Leonard’s Church some remains of one of these ancient chapels. In the south wall of the nave there may be seen a Piscina, about six feet above the level of the present floor: the height of it proves that the wall, in which it is placed, formed part of a former structure, the floor of which must have stood a good deal higher than the present one, for the usual height of a Piscina from the ground was about two or three feet. A Piscina also, it is to be noticed, was an appendage to an altar, and was never built but in connection with one; so that there must have been an altar, and consequently a chapel, in this part of Saint Leonard’s Church, of which the present south wall formed a part; and we have no reason for supposing this to be any other than that attached to the parish Church, in the reign of Edward II, or Edward III. [Illustration] John Leland represents Saint Leonard’s Church in his time (A.D. 1536) as one of great beauty, and there can be no doubt that originally it was a large and magnificent building; for as late as the year 1645, when Symonds, an officer in Charles’s army, visited Bridgnorth, it was still “a noble structure,” ornamented with painted windows. He has given a sketch of the figures on several of these. One of them, here given, was that of an ancient Knight in armour, with his sword girded on his right thigh, and his cross-shield painted beside him. It is supposed to be Adam de Molineux,[24] who lived in the reign of King Henry III.