Exploring some Shropshire Welsh Marches towns

Shropshire has so many little towns & villages & I know the South Shropshire ones of my great great grandfather quite well as I visit them frequently. 

However, on a beautiful Sunday, we packed a light picnic lunch & headed to the villages near Shrewsbury. along the Welsh Marches that we don't know too well, even though they are closer. Hubby photographs local churches & adds them to his enormous contribution on google maps so he is always keen to share local history widely. That will be our legacy one day ... 

St Peter's Church in Myddle has a Doomsday plaque - the community is recorded in the Doomsday Book 1086.

It also has a list of Rectors  from 1086 (Priest  not recorded) and then from 1232 the Rectors are listed due to impressive record keeping. Their names will always be remembered because they are written & openly shared like this. 

I love to pick up the 'Short History of ... ' booklets in churches & this one mentioned a Ducking stool so I doubled back to take note of it. 

Ducking stools are rare - and this one is connected to a local pond where women were publicly humiliated or ducked. 

The stools were technical devices which formed part of the wider method of law enforcement through social humiliation. A common alternative was a court order to recite one's crimes or sins after Mass or in the market place on market day or informal action such as a Skimmington ride. They were usually of local manufacture with no standard design. Most were simply chairs into which the offender could be tied and exposed at her door or the site of her offence. Some were on wheels like a tumbrel that could be dragged around the parish. Some were put on poles so that they could be plunged into water, hence "ducking" stool.

It is sobering to see it on display in a church, a place one associates with compassion. 

Ruyton X1 towns is an unusual collection of 11 parishes (hence the name) It contains the remnants of a medieval castle too. 

Mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ruitone, the village acquired its unusual compound name in the twelfth century when a castle was built, and it became the major manor of eleven local townships. The earliest occurrence of the inclusion of the Roman numeral for eleven in the name is stated to be 1379

Once again, it is mentioned in the Doomsday Book. The church has a Lych Gate from 1888, erected in memory of the Vicars two sons who died within a year of each other. An ancient Yew tree stands next to it. 

The Church Tower has an impressive gargoyle on it & a plaque noting that the seats in the church are free, unreserved so an indication that all are welcome. 

How lovely it all looked against bright blue skies with wispy clouds. 

Can you see the horned devil in the bottom left? Someone had a vivid imagination. 

Heavy studded doors to the church & another set to the entrance. The stained glass windows cast their colours across the space & somehow they seemed brighter in the sunlight. 

Some views of the town & across the Shropshire hills  ... 

There are some stone remains of the castle & they frame the church well, a reminder of the long history of these towns & how they were fought over in the Marches border wars. 

St John the Baptist Parish church is fascinating with its raised bell tower platform in the church, the 12th century Norman Arches & a rather graphic medieval carving of a horned head, said to represent the Devil on an arch next to some pews.  

There is also the remnant of a 13th century stone coffin found during earlier excavations in 1892. The East window, known as the Hunt Window was painted in Munich in 1855 & it shows the children being blessed. The figures of the 2 girls were reproduced from portraits of them. Rev George Hunt commissioned them in memory of his children who died between 1831-1832. 

The town of Ruyton X1 has an unusual War Memorial set in stone along the road. 

The parish's WWI war memorial is an 8 ft (2.4 m) carved cave within the sandstone cliff of the Brownhill. Located beside the road leading out of the village towards Baschurch, it is unique to Shropshire. It was conceived by the London architect Stanley Vaughan after a visit to Ruyton, and created by local father-and-son stonemasons Warwick and Len Edwards. The benches within the arch and the cross are all carved out of the rock. The memorial was unveiled in October 1920. The names of fallen from both the First and Second World Wars are listed on plaques within the archway. A third plaque, to an Alfred Rogers, was added in 2007 after he had been omitted from an earlier plaque

It has the names of the towns war dead from both World Wars. 

St Martin's church of Little Ness is a red sandstone church set in tranquil countryside nearby. A service had just ended & we were given access to this modest by beautiful space by 3 church wardens who filled us in on the connection to the Darby family of Coalbrookdale / Ironbridge. 

St Martin’s was built on a mound in the 12th century as a chapel to Baschurch. It consists of a nave and chancel within one roof, with a bellcote at the west end. The circular font is Norman, as is the south doorway and there are some patterned mediaeval tiles in the chancel. There are war memorial windows to two men killed in World War I, Leonard Arthur (killed 1914), and Lieutenant Maurice Darby (killed at Battle of Neuve Chapelle 1915). The latter is buried in the churchyard, one of a few Englishmen killed at the Western Front whose bodies were repatriated.

It is a beautiful space, one that feels spiritual & welcoming, the window to Maurice Darby is a beautiful one to remember a son who died on a battlefield far from home. Opposite the window is another to an uncle. Maurice was killed & his uncle who was serving at the same time, with help, recovered his body & repatriated it. This was unusual & controversial because only 6 bodies were repatriated, the rest are all buried in exactly the same graves across Europe - no distinction given to rank at all because the ethos is they all died serving their country. The Darby graves by the door to the church are a link to local history & their contribution to the communities. 

 To the side of the church is a large ancient mound or barrow. It has been suggested it marks the resting place of the Cumbrian Prince Kyndylan who died in battle in the 6th century. However, this is only conjecture. 

We had our picnic lunch in the shade of the lane by the church with frothy white cow parsley & vivid yellow rape seed as companions.  

Our final stop was All Saint's Church, Baschurch. The church is mentioned in the Doomsday Book & in February1188 & again in March 1198. The acclaimed Engineer Thomas Telford had a hand in its restoration & it is an important example of his earlier work. 

According to an ancient Welsh poem, the church may be the resting place of Cynddylan, a 7th century prince of Powys. There is an ancient earthwork nearby called the Berth.

The church tower is c13 with 4 bells that are at least 400 years old. 

There are two 18 century sundials on the wall & are discernible in the stonework with a central hole for the peg. These would have been important when country folk did not have timepieces. 

The yew tree near the east end of the church is thought be between 500 - 800 years old & is held together with a metal band.  

I hope you have found out countryside history & pursuits interesting - we enjoyed the 1000 years of history across these ancient places.  Thank you for stopping by & spending time. 

Dee