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Cleobury-Mortimer in Salop County England History and GeographyCLEOBURY-MORTIMER, a market town and parish, in the hundred of STOTTESDEN, county of SALOP, 32 miles (S.S.E.) from Shrewsbury, and 137 (N.W.) from London, on the road to Ludlow, containing 1602 inhabitants. The name of this place is derived from its situation in a district abounding with clay, and from the Saxon word byrig, a town; the adjunet, by which it is distinguished from North Cleobury, in the same county, is taken from its ancient possessor, Ralph de Mortimer, who held it at the time of the general survey. Hugh de Mortimer, his son, built a castle here, but having revolted in favour of the heir of Stephen, he fortified it against Henry II., who with a powerful army besieged and entirely demolished it. During the war between Henry III. and the barons, Cleobury suffered greatly from the incursions of the Welch, who at that time made frequent irruptions into this part of the country. The town is situated on an eminence rising gradually from the western bank of the river Rea, over which is a neat stone bridge: it consists principally of one long street, in which are many good houses, and the mutilated remains of an old cross; but it is neither paved nor lighted: the inhabitants are plentifully supplied with excellent water, from a spring rising in the Brown Clee Hills, and falling into a capacious basin in the lower part of the town. The trade is rapidly declining; formerly there were very extensive iron-works, but there are now only two forges: a few of the inhabitants are employed in the manufacture of paper, for which there are two mills. On the Clee Hills, about three miles west of the town, are extensive collieries producing excellent coal; and on the higher part of them is a remarkably fine, though not extensive, vein of cannel coal, of which many beautiful specimens have been worked into snuff-boxes and ornaments of various kinds. The market, granted to Sir Fras. Lacon in 1614, is held on Wednesday: the fairs are, April 21st, Trinity-Monday, and October 27th. A constable is annually appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor, held in April. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Salop, and diocese of Hereford, rated in the king's books at £13, and in the patronage of William Lacon Childe, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure, with a plain square tower, surmounted by an octagonal spire of wood, considerably curved from the perpendicular. There are two places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists; and a Roman Catholic chapel is attached to Mawley Hall, the mansion of Sir Edward Blount, within a mile of the town. The free school was founded pursuant to the will of Sir Lacon William Childe, Knt., dated in 1714, whereby he bequeathed the residue of his personal estate, after the death of his wife, for its endowment: by a decree of the court of Exchequer, in 1735, a plot of ground was purchased in 1739, on which the buildings were erected; the surplus of the endowment was vested in land, which, with property in the funds, (of which £1000 in the three per cents. was given in 1810, by Mr. John Winwood, of Bristol, formerly a scholar on the foundation,) produces about £450 per annum: the management is vested in ten trustees. The master, who is appointed by W. L. Childe, Esq., as representative of the founder, has £60, and an usher £40 per annum: the boys are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic: a mistress is also appointed by the trustees, with a salary of £20 per annum, for teaching girls. The income is about £450 per annum: the present number of scholars is two hundred: thirty boys and forty girls are annually clothed, and a fee is occasionally given for apprenticing the boys on their leaving the school. Adjoining the town are a large school-room and dwelling-house, with a garden and a piece of waste ground attached, unoccupied and hastening to decay; the premises were built by subscription, about 1727, for a free grammar school, but the institution has long since been dissolved, owing to the want of a permanent fund for its support. To the east of the free school are the remains of a Danish encampment; and within the distance of a mile and a half, were the three castles of Cleobury, Toot, and Wall-town, of all which there is not a vestige remaining. Robert Langford, author of the Visions of Pierce Plowman, a satirical poem on the clergy of the fourteenth century, was a native of this town. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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