• 308 WHITCHURCH. SHROPSHIRE. (KELLY's GRINDLEY BROOK• • Billington John Hy. Ltd. coal mers Groome Samuel, smith Pocketts Ann (Mrs.), Horse & Jockey Oheoshire, Shropshire & North Wales Hanmer William, The Canal tavern P.H Supply Association (head office, Hassall Charles, farmer Prince J ane & CarQline (Misses), shop­ Nantwich), millers & corn mers Higgins Thomas, farmer, Brook house keepers Garnett James, wheelwright Lewis Joseph Conway, farmer Wood James, lockkeeper HINT ON. Ethe1ston Edmnnd Peel-, Hint·on hall I Lewis John, farmer, The Fields l Vernon Jn. farmer, Hinton Old hall WIRSWALL. Bowler Samuel, The Mount Thorn Waiter, Wirswall hall Joyce John N. frmr. Wickstead farm Ethelston Herbert W. Wickstead hall BillingtOswestry to Ellesmere, 2! miles east-by-north from the with projecting gables, built towards the end of the reign former town, 17 north from Shrewsbury and St west ()f Queen Elizabeth; it is about half-way between Oswes­ from Ellesmere, in the Western division of the county, try and Whittington, and is approached by a fine avenue; upper division of the hundred of Oswestry, Oswestry the entra.nce hall, which is wainscoted and orna.mented incorporation, county court district and petty sessional with carved oak, has in the centre a massive oak table, division, rural deanery of Oswestry, archdeaconry ot dated 1581, the triver Perry measures 20 feet in length, 4 feet in width and z! inches and the Shropshire Union canal pass through the parish. in thickne·ss; several of the apartments contain antique There is a station here on the Great Western railway oak furniture, elaborately carved, and decorated ceilings; from Shrewsbury to Chester; and one on the Carnbrian on the west side of the hall is the chapel. The chief at­ railway, both close to the village. The church of St. traction here is the ancient and now ruined castle, sup­ John the Baptist, erected in 1747, and rebuilt in 1804 posed to have been first built in the year 843 by a British at a cost of £1,soo, is a plain structure of brick, con- chieftain, whose descendants possessed it till the Con­ sisting of chancel with north aisle, nave, vestry and a quest, when it was given to Peverel, the founder of the western rower containing 6 bells: in rgo8 the north family of Peverels of the Peak, by whom it was rebuilt; aisle of the chancel was converted into a side chapel : in the reign of Henry II. it was restored to the family of the stained east window is a memorial to Constance Peverel, in the person of Sir William Peverel, whose Charlotte Crofon, d. 1B6o; and there are other memorial daughter Malet brought it as her dower to her husband, windows to Joseph Venables Lovett, d. 1866, and Mar- Gwarine de Meer, and their son, Sir Fulk Fitz-Gwarine, garet. his wife, d. 1851; Thomas Lovett, d. 1863; one and his descendants Wakefield obtained the place in default of payment by him; William 1888-97• who died .August uth, 1897: the chancel was Alhany,cmez t~mongst the number, was, by the joint consent in great part rebuilt and a north chancel aisle added and approbation of the rest, put in sole possession of it, in 1861: the church was· further restored in 1884, and by the marriage of his great grand-daughter with when the vestry was added and a new organ introduced, Thomas Lloyd esq. of Aston, Whittington castle passed and again in 1894, when the greater part of the fabric into the hands of that family, and is now the property was renovated, at a cost of £2,ooo: on the roadside, of Major-Gen. Sir Francis Lloyd K.C.B., C.V.O., D.S.O., opposite the church, stands a handsome memorial cross J.P. of .Aston. The castle, before its demolition, was of Portland stone, about ten feet in height, also erected strongly fortified with five round towers, each 49 feet in r8go8 as a memorial to the Bishop. The register in diameter and 100 feet in height, and the walls were dates from the year 1591. The living is a rectory, net 12 feet in thickness; about the year 1760 the. eastern yearly value £503, includ'ing 42 acres of glebe, with tower fell into the moat, and some years afterwards one residence, in the gift of Major-Gen. Sir Francis Lloyd of the northern towers and the western wall were K.C.B., C.V.O., D.S.O. of .Aston Hall, and held since taken down to repair the road leading from Whittington 1896 by the Rev. Edward Pell Edmonds M.A. of Uni- to Halston bridge; in r8og a smaller tower was likewise versity College, Oxford, rural dean of Oswestry, and taken down to repair the exterior gateway; the towers surrogate. The Congregational chapel was erected in of the gate-house are still entire, and some portions 1897·8, and has 150 sittings; there is also a Congrega- of the ancient building have been modernised and used tional chapel at PREESHENLLE, on the St. Martin's as a village club and reading room; the ancient fosses road, erected in 1831, seating zoo persons, and there and entrenchments may yet be very visibly traced to are also Primitive Methodist and Wesleyan chapels. a considerable distance westward of the castle. In the The Whittington charities amount t