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Broseley in Salop County England History and GeographyBROSELEY, a market town and parish in the franchise of WENLOCK, county of SALOP, 4 miles (E.) from Wenlock, 14 (S.E.) from Shrewsbury, and 144 (N.W.) from London, on the road from Worcester to Shrewsbury, containing 4814 inhabitants. This place, in ancient records called Burwardesley, probably derived that appellation from a family of the name of Burward, to which it belonged; or from its vicinity to the borough of Wenlock, within the liberties of which it is comprehended. Its extent and importance are owing to the numerous mines of coal and iron-stone abounding in the neighbourhood, whereby it became the resort of miners; and in proportion as the works proceeded, it increased in population and magnitude. The town is irregularly built, but is pleasantly situated on an eminence rising abruptly from the western bank of the river Severn, to which its eastern extremity extends, and from which its western extremity is nearly two miles distant; it consists principally of one long street, from which a few smaller streets branch off irregularly, leading to the different collieries and other works: the houses, in general built of brick and of mean appearance, are occasionally intermixed with some of more respectable character; and in detached situations are several handsome and spacious edifices: it is neither paved nor lighted, and the inhabitants are but scantily supplied with water, which in winter they bring from a well about half a mile eastward from the town, and in summer, from brooks at the distance of a mile and a half. The trade consists principally in mining operations; but from the exhausted state of the mines it is rapidly declining; there are numerous coal-pits, ironfoundries and furnaces: tobacco-pipes, bricks, and tiles, are made to a great extent. The fire bricks for building furnaces are in great repute, and, by means of the river Severn, are sent to various parts of the kingdom. The market is on Wednesday: the fairs are on the last Tuesday in April, and October 28th; they are chiefly pleasure fairs, though a considerable number of pigs is sold. The town is within the jurisdiction of the borough of Wenlock: four constables are appointed annually at the court leet of the lord of the manor. A court of requests, for the recovery of debts under forty shillings, is held under an act passed in the 22nd of George III., generally every alternate Wednesday: its jurisdiction extends over ';the parishes of Broseley, Benthall, Madeley, Barrow, Linley, Willey, Little Wenlock, and Dawley, and an extra-parochial place called Posnall, in the county of Salop.' The town-hall is a handsome brick building, in the centre of the town, supported on pillars and arches, the basement forms a spacious market-place; on the first story is a room wherein the courts and public meetings are held (used also as an assembly-room), and two smaller apartments, appropriated to the use of the Sunday school: there is a small prison attached to it, for the confinement of debtors, and for criminals previously to their committal by the borough magistrates. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Salop, and diocese of Hereford, rated in the king's books at £7. 18. 6½., and in the patronage of Lord Forester. The church, dedicated to St. Leonard, with the exception of the ancient tower, which is of stone, has been rebuilt of brick; something of its original character is preserved in the interior, in the octangular pillars and pointed arches which support the roof. A chapel dedicated to St. Mary, was built in 1759, by Mr. Francis Turner Blythe, in a part of the parish called Jackfield, at a considerable distance from the parish church: it is a neat brick building, with a square embattled tower crowned with pinnacles. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of William Yelverton Davenport, Esq., which at his decease becomes vested in the family of Blythe. There are two places of worship for Baptists, and one for Wesleyan Methodists. In 1750, John Barret, Esq., a native of this place, bequeathed £110 for charitable uses; this sum, augmented with a legacy of £100 by Mr. Richard Edwards, and several smaller sums, amounting in the whole to £380, was invested in the purchase of land, upon which the town-hall and other houses have been erected: after deducting the expense of keeping these in repair, the rents of the houses and of the standings in the market-place are distributed among the poor. There is a well, the water of which, formerly containing much inflammable gas, became ignited on the application of a lighted candle; but since the sinking of a coal-pit near the spot, it has entirely lost that peculiarity. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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