Diary Dates The newsletter of the Friends of Shropshire Archives, Wednesday 25 May 2016 Tuesday 5 July 2016 ARCHIVES Visit to Acton Round Hall Old Oswestry Hill Fort followed by SHROPSHIRE gateway to the history of Shropshire and Telford Built in 1714 by Smith of Warwick for the Actons of the Town Museum and Archives in the Morville, Acton Round Hall is listed Grade I, as a fine Guildhall example of architecture from the Queen Anne period. Discover 3000 years of history, from Bronze Age It contains a fascinating personal collection and is beginnings to World War One practice trenches surrounded by beautiful gardens. and learn about the hill fort's special wildlife. 2.30pm Acton Round Hall, Bridgnorth, WV16 6XG Oswestry Guildhall dates from 1893 and replaced Cost: £15 including refreshments the old Guildhall which was declared unsound and demolished. Sunday 26 June 2016 2pm Oswestry, SY11 1HT Cost: £10 including refreshments Wem History Day A day event celebrating the history of Wem in Wednesday 10 August 2016 association with The Victoria County History 10am-4pm Wem Town Hall, High Street, Wem, SY4 5DG Visit to Weston Park Cost: £15 with lunch, £10 without lunch The tour includes the Victorian Library and the stunning Dining Room, which houses 10.30am Why Wem? Richard Hoyle, The Victoria impressive paintings including works by Sir County History in Shropshire. Anthony Van Dyck. 11.45am The landscape and townscape of Wem in 2.30pm Weston-under-Lizard, Shifnal, TF11 8LE 1631 and the 18-19th centuries, James Bowen Cost £14 (refreshments excluded, cafe at venue) 1.15pm Walking tours arranged by Wem Civic Society and displays. There are three options: (a) The Pubs and Brewery, (b) The High Street, (c) The Church Saturday 15 October 2016 3pm The Women of Wem and a few Musketeers: The Shropshire History Day Civil War battle for Wem of October 1643, 10.30am Shirehall, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ND Wenlock Abbey Jonathan Worton Cost: Free event. A Shropshire County House and the Milnes Gaskel family ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The newsletter of the Friends of Page 2 News Extra... Shropshire Archives is edited by Andrew Pattison and designed by Nat Stevenson, Shropshire Archives’ Image Services. Do you have any stories to tell about There are three issues per year, paid for by the Friends. The Shrewsbury Bridges Shropshire’s history or have any news contents are provided by friends and well-wishers. If you would about Shropshire Archives? If you have, like to join the contributors, please contact the editor at the Page 6 the editor is waiting to hear from you address below. now. The contact details are below and DISCLAIMER: We have made every effort to ensure that the information in this publication is correct at the time of printing. A Shropshire Country photographs are always welcome. We cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. Gentleman at The Front Contact... For further details or to pass on your comments, please contact: Page 8 Catherine Milnes Gaskell, 18 August 1880. Reproduced with permission from a private collection Shropshire Archives, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury, SY1 2AQ • Tel: 0345 6789096 Email: [email protected] • Website: www.shropshirearchives.org.uk Number 85 . Spring/Summer 2016 Price £2.00 (free to Members) Wenlock These archives, private and public, supplies in Much Wenlock and in with a bevelled lid, medieval tiles, Charles’s refusal of a peerage, provided the solid, indispensable basis industrial Wakefield. He was one ancient coins and a free standing and the astonishing discovery Abbey from which I constructed the narrative of of the first people to campaign Romanesque lavatorium, unique of the quasi-disinheritance of my book and brought to life the stones of for a National Health Service and in Britain. Wenlock Abbey also Lady Catherine’s only son Evelyn. 1857-1919: the medieval monastery in the Victorian the treatment of tuberculosis; the attracted large groups of inquisitive The curtain falls in 1919 in the and Edwardian periods in the time sanatorium at Shirlett was due to clergymen, naturalists, geologists aftermath of World War I and its frame of 1857 to 1919. It was a buzzing, his efforts. The ruins adjoining the and architects, some from as far effects on Evelyn, with the death A Shropshire Country House cultural hub in the sleepy little market prior’s lodging were a paradise away as Russia and Tasmania. of Charles Milnes Gaskell and the and the Milnes Gaskell Family town of Much Wenlock and a magnet for archaeologists and historians much-delayed marriage of his only pulling in a kaleidoscope of talent. The as excavations revealed a burial In the concluding pages of the daughter Mary to Brigadier General he discovery of an story begins with the purchase by James ground with skeletons, a coffin book, more drama unfolds with HDO Ward. n unpublished cache of Milnes Gaskell, MP for the borough of Feature documents rescued from Wenlock between 1832 and 1868, of the Wenlock Abbey marked much neglected and vandalised Wenlock Wenlock Abbey 1857-1919: A Shropshire Country House and the Milnes the starting point for what Abbey (as it is known) in 1857. He and Gaskell Family, by Cynthia Gamble, is published by Ellingham Press, 2015, becameT my recent book Wenlock his wife Mary, née Williams-Wynn, of the price £18.99. It is available at WH Smith and Waterstones in Shrewsbury; Dr Cynthia Gamble, Abbey 1857-1919: A Shropshire Country famous landowning family with a seat at Wenlock Books, Wenlock Museum and English Heritage Priory shop in Honorary Research Fellow, House and the Milnes Gaskell Family at Wynnstay, set about transforming Much Wenlock. University of Exeter (2015). The immediate task was to their acquisition into a splendid manor make an inventory of the materials house. Their eldest son, Charles, who under general headings such as letters, inherited the property in 1873, continued Opposite page, above left: Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell, 18 August 1880. Reproduced with photographs, sketches, notebooks and to restore the medieval buildings. After permission from a private collection. Opposite page, bottom left: South transept of Wenlock Abbey, other documents. The letters required a turbulent, secret love affair with Lady c.1850. Detail from Shropshire Archives ref: PR/4/33. most attention. First of all, deciphering Mary Hervey who jilted her fiancé after the handwriting was far from easy. A their engagement was announced — I system was devised with codes, based discovered this stunning story among the on the names of sender and addressee unpublished correspondence — Charles and dates, so that each letter could married Lady Catherine Wallop, the ur committee recently articles about research at Shropshire Archives, and is a be identified and then entered into alluring daughter of the 5th Earl of From the met representatives useful marketing tool. We also have an active website a computer. Another major task was Portsmouth on her twentieth birthday, 7 Ofrom the Archive Service on which we post our events and booking forms, transcribing the entire contents of the December 1876. Lady Catherine, a keen Chair Accreditation Panel of The present a gallery of past events, and an invitation to Visitors’ Book — names of guests who horticulturist, created a unique set of National Archives as part of join. were invited to Wenlock Abbey — that gardens, including two topiaries. Their Jill Ming Shropshire Archives’ application commenced on 10 November 1863 with Wenlock home became a fashionable for accredited status. They Another aspect of our work that is particular to the signature of Maria Marchioness salon with distinguished visitors, wanted to find out about the Friends’ activities and the committee is our participation in networking of Ailesbury. Important historical including F. T. Palgrave, Henry James, how we work with Shropshire Archives. I thought events with Friends of other archives in order to notebooks were also transcribed. Thomas and Emma Hardy, Henry and perhaps you would like to know as well. share ideas and experiences and benefit from each Marian Adams, Henry Morton Stanley other’s knowledge. Committee member Sheila Black Shropshire Archives cares for many (of ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’ fame), We provide support to Shropshire Archives in many represents the Friends of Shropshire Archives at the private archives, sometimes deposited intrepid explorer Isabella Bishop and ways: through volunteering, fund-raising, providing West Midlands Archive Forum and has provided us with accompanying, restrictive Henry Irving’s highly eccentric friend funding for purchases such as documents and with useful input from her visits to other archives as conditions. I had the privilege of being Hamilton Aïdé, to name but a few. equipment that benefits all users of the Archives. We well as sharing our experiences and ideas with other permitted access to one of these for also promote the Archives through hosting events groups. Sheila reports that we are the largest Friends the preparation of my book. I had first Charles Milnes Gaskell, steeped in such as our summer visits, local history days and group in the West Midlands with our 190 members, to obtain special written authorisation the Arts and Crafts Movement, and occasional lectures. We try to distribute these events which is very encouraging. We also have a member of from the donor, the Trustees of the Willey much inspired by John Ruskin, William around the county so that people do not always Shropshire Family History Society, Christine Abrams, Estates, and then had to make a payment Morris and Philip Webb, was a pioneer have to travel to Shrewsbury to participate. As our on our committee who provides liaison between our and submit the text of my book for in conservation and sensitive restoration secretary Sue Cleaves pointed out, all the major towns two groups.