JOURNAL OF THE WILKINSON SOCIETY,   No. 1, 1973

Broseley Local History Society Journal No 1 1973

 

THE JOURNAL OF THE WILKINSON SOCIETY, No. 1, 1973
THE WILKINSON SOCIETY
NOTES AND NEWS
The Collection of Broseley and Wilkinson Relics
The Journal
KING OF THE IRONMASTERS by Wayne Turner
THE BROSELEY HOME OF JOHN WILKINSON by Ralph Pee
THE HISTORY OF THE BROSELEY AREA: SELECTED EXTRACTS (I – THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES) by Neil Clarke

Editor  N.J. Clarke

THE WILKINSON SOCIETY

The Society was formed in 1972 to meet the need for an organisation to preserve the material and documentary evidence of Broseley's industrial past. Since an important part in this industrial past was played by John Wilkinson, who lived for a time at the Lawns, it was decided that the organisation should be known as the Wilkinson Society.
The aims of the Society are :

  1. to act as custodian of any relevant material and information and to make such material and information available to interested individuals and organisations;
  1. to promote any relevant preservation activity and to assist individuals or organisations in such activity there deemed appropriate;
  1. to provide a link with the community of Broseley for individuals or organisations undertaking local historical research.

Any available material will be added to the existing collection of Broseley and Wilkinson relics at the Lawns, Broseley. This collection is open to the public on the second Saturday of every month and by appointment.
Administration of the Society is by an annually elected committee. Membership is open to anyone interested in the Society's aims and activities. These activities include illustrated lectures, social evenings, researching and exhibiting the Collection, field-trips and coach-tours. Members are kept informed bar a Newsletter, and an annual Journal presents articles on the history of the Broseley area, John Wilkinson and industrial archaeology in general.

NOTES AND NEWS

A preliminary meeting was held in July 1972 and at the first general meeting of the Wilkinson Society on August 2nd a committee was elected :
President: J. Dugdale, Esq.
Chairman : M. Sylvester Esq.
Secretary: C. Hardwick, Esq.
Treasurer : D. Mason, Esq.
Curator: R. Pee, Esq.
Committee Members : Messrs. Clarke and Cragge.
Since then there; have bean six committee meetings, two general meetings
(Oct. 27th - a talk by Barrie Trinder on john Wilkinson in Shropshire; and
March 9th 1973 - a slide show by Ron Miles on the Severn Gorge);
and a coach-tour of Wilkinson sites in the Wrexham area, organised by Wayne Turner (May 26th ).
The first A. G.>M. is planned for Thursday October 4th at ‘The Lawns’
The Society has been responsible for erecting a notice-board on the site of the New Willey ironworks, with the kind permission of Lord Forester.

The Collection of Broseley and Wilkinson Relics

Material is constantly being added to the collection at the Lawns. Mr.Pee is listing all the exhibits and contributors, and details will appear in the next issue of the Journal.

The Journal

It is hoped that the Journal will make a modest contribution to research on the history of the Broseley area, John Wilkinson and industrial archaeology in general. In this issue, Wayne Turner, who is currently working on a biography of John Wilkinson, gives an outline survey of the great man's life and work and Ralph Pee, founder member of the Society and resident at ‘The Lawns’, takes us round Wilkinson's Broseley home. One issue raised is the date Wilkinson took up residence there: both writers suggest 1763, the year of his second marriage.
In his recent book, "The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire's (Phillimore, Chichester), Barrie Trinder states:
'Wilkinson made one of his several homes in Broseley. He leased land from Thomas Stephens in 1778 on which he built a new house which he occupied until 1800" (;.39).
In this issue of the Journal there is also the first of a series of selected extracts on the history of the Broseley area.
Contributions to future issues of the Journal would be welcome, and should be seat to the Editor, N.J. Clarke, Cranleigh, Little Wenlock, Telford. (Tel: Malinslee 4135)

KING OF THE IRONMASTERS by Wayne Turner King of the Ironmasters

THE BROSELEY HOME OF JOHN WILKINSON by Ralph Pee

THE HISTORY OF THE BROSELEY AREA: SELECTED EXTRACTS (I – THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES) by Neil Clarke

The following account is from "Shropshire: its Early History and Antiquities',' by John Corbot Anderson, first published in 1864 and re-published in 1972 by E. J. Morton of Didsbury (pp. 64-65)
'It is conjectured that the following entry in Domesday refers to Broseley:
'The samie Helgot holds Bosle. Gethne held it, and was a free Man. Here is i hide geldable. The land is (capable of employing) ii ox-teams. In demesne is one (team), and (there are) iiii serfs, and iiii boors, and i radman, with i team. In King Edward's time (the manor) was worth 16s. ld., now 12s. He (Helgot) found it waste.’
Of Helgot’s successors not a trace remains.
It is presumed, that the discerning Henry I bestowed the lordship of Broseley upon Warin de Metz, of Lorraine, from whose it is thought descended in after times many lords of Broseley, yet it is conjecture. Certain it is, however, that the Fitz Warins, de Burwardsley’s d'Eyton's, de Covene's and the de Pychford's, all, at one time or another, had an interest in the Manor of Broseley, beneath whome again held undertenants .
Broseley Church was subject to the mother church of St. Milburg, at Wenlock, within the bounds of whose vast Saxon parish it stood. The date of the foundation of Broseley Church is unknown. In token of its affiliation, and probably as a condition of its origin, the Incumbent was taxed with an annual pension of 2s. payable at the feast of St. Nicholas, to the mother church. No cure of souls went with new foundation, whose Incumbent was usually beneficed elsewhere.
In 1291, the church of Burewardsleye, in the deanery of Wenlock, was valued at £6.13s.4d. per ann.           In 1341, the parish was assessed only 42s. to the ninth, for the growing corn had been destroyed by tempest, a large portion of the parish, owing to the poverty of the. tenants, lay uncultivated, etc. In 1535, this preferment was valued at 8.5s.8d. per ann. less 7s.2do for synodals.
Early Incumbent - William, Parson of Burwardesleg, about 1230.'
N. J. CLARKE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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