ISSN 0143-5175 Shropshire History and Archaeology Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society (incorporating the Shropshire Parish Register Society) VOLUME LXXXIX edited by D. T. W. Price SHREWSBURY 2014 (ISSUED IN 2015) © Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society. Produced and printed by 4word Ltd., Bristol COUNCIL AND OFFICERS 1 APRIL 2015 President SIR NEIL COSSONS, O.B.E., M.A., F.S.A. Vice-Presidents ERNIE JENKS MADGE MORAN, F.S.A. M. UNA REES, B.A., PH.D. B. S. TRINDER, M.A., PH.D., F.S.A. Elected Members NIGEL BAKER, B.A., PH.D., F.S.A., M.I.F.A. MARY F. MCKENZIE, M.A., M.AR.AD. NEIL CLARKE, B.A. MARTIN SPEIGHT, B.A., PH.D. ROBERT CROMARTY, B.A. ROGER WHITE, B.A., PH.D., F.S.A., M.I.F.A. HUGH HANNAFORD, M.I.F.A. ANDYWIGLEY, B.SC., M.A., PH.D., F.S.A., P.C.H.E. W. F. HODGES Chairman JAMES LawsON, M.A., Westcott Farm, Habberley, Shrewsbury SY5 0SQ Hon. Secretary and Hon. Publications Secretary G. C. BAUGH, M.A., F.S.A., Glebe House, Vicarage Road, Shrewsbury SY3 9EZ Hon. Treasurer FRANCESCA BUMPUS, M.A., PH.D., 9 Alexandra Avenue, Meole Brace, Shrewsbury SY3 9HT Hon. Membership Secretary PENNY WARD, M.A., M.I.F.A., 1 Crewe Street, Shrewsbury SY3 9QF Hon. Editor THE REVD. CANON D. T. W. PRICE, M.A., F.S.A., F.R.HIST.S. 57 Kynaston Drive, Wem, Shrewsbury SY4 5DE Hon. Editor of the Newsletter SHELAGH HAMPTON, M.A., B.PHIL., 7 Elstree Close, Meole Brace, Shrewsbury SY3 9QF Joint Hon. Meetings Secretaries DAVID POYNER, M.A., PH.D., 136 Hoo Road, Kidderminster DY10 1LP DAVID PANNETT, B.A., Merton, Shepherds Lane, Bicton, Shrewsbury SY3 8BT The Council is not responsible for any statement made, or opinion expressed, in the Transactions of the Society CONTENTS From Minster to Priory: St. Milburga’s, Wenlock, by Rose Lagram-Taylor . 1 A Study of ‘Radman Villages’ Recorded in Domesday Book in Western Shropshire, by Mary Atkin . 15 Alveley Revisited: A Note on Patronage, by John Hunt . 27 ‘Hopton Quarter’: A Time Team Evaluation at Hopton Castle, by Naomi Brennan . 37 Plas Beddowe(n): The Mansion of Owain’s Grave, by Christopher Jobson . 45 ‘Talbot’s Tomb’ Revisited, by Barry Langston . 49 ‘Not a Silver but a Golden Talent’: The Life of the Reverend Francis Tallents, by Janice Cox . 57 The Life and Times of William Lawley, Former Secretary of the Wenlock Olympian Society: The Revaluation of a Victorian Criminal Lunatic, by Timothy Peters, Joanne Smith and Gwen Adshead . 71 Note Hearth Tax 1672: Part of Pimhill Hundred, by Janice Cox . 83 Report Shropshire Archives Report for 2014, by Mary McKenzie . 89 Book Reviews Anthea Toft, Beneath Safer Skies: a Child Evacuee in Shropshire, by Patricia Theobold . 92 W. A. Champion and A. T. Thacker (eds.), Victoria County History of Shropshire: Volume VI, Part 1, Shrewsbury: General History and Topography, by Roger White . 92 Obituaries Margaret Joy Gelling (1924–2009) and Hugh Denis George Foxall (1911–1989) . 94 Sylvia Watts (1934–2014) . 97 Front Cover: Wenlock Priory, South Side of the Chapter House (J. C. Anderson, Shropshire: its Early History and Antiquities, 1874) NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Gwen Adshead is a distinguished forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at Gresham College. Until recently she was a consultant at Broadmore High Secure Hospital and is currently consultant forensic psychiatrist at Ravenswood House, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. She has published some 100 academic papers and co-edited five books about psychotherapy and forensic psychiatry. Mary Atkin read Geography at Liverpool University and later gained an MPhil degree at Leeds University. After teaching in many schools she became a lecturer at Chorley College of Education. She has published very widely on medieval landscape, roads and tracks, settlement patterns and place names, and now lives in Ludlow. George Baugh was Editor of the Victoria County History of Shropshire. He is Hon. Secretary and Hon. Publications Secretary of this Society. Naomi Brennan, a graduate of Sheffield University, is a field archaeologist and heritage consultant with Wessex Archaeology, where she has worked on and directed a range of sites from prehistoric monuments to iron foundries, beginning at Heathrow Terminal 5. Since 2005 she has worked on over 40 programmes in Channel 4’s Time Team series. Ralph Collingwood was a freshwater biologist with the Water Research Centre, who became interested in local history after he retired. He is a frequent contributor to these Transactions. Janice Cox, formerly a librarian, taught genealogy and family history for about twenty years on moving to Shropshire. During those years she developed a particular interest in the history of religious dissent in late 17th century Shrewsbury and Shropshire. She is a regular contributor to these Transactions. John Hunt is a medievalist, working primarily on regional history and archaeology, medieval lordship and community, and cultural history, in England and France between the 10th and 14th centuries. Dr. Hunt is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of History, Birmingham University, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society. Medieval patronage and sculpture is one area of particular interest. Christopher Jobson taught at Adams’ Grammar School, Newport, where he was also archivist, and Ellesmere College. He tutored local history courses for North Shropshire College, and he has carried out extensive historical research in the Ellesmere and Welshampton area. Rose Lagram-Taylor was born in Shropshire. She was awarded a first class degree in History at King’s College, London, and then gained a Master’s degree with distinction in Medieval History at Exeter College, Oxford. She has recently begun to train for the Bar at the Middle Temple. Barry Langston is an independent scholar with a particular interest in Shakespeare and the historical context of the plays. His work has appeared in Notes & Queries, Wiltshire Studies and Shakespeare Survey. Timothy Peters completed the MA in Industrial Archaeology at the Ironbridge Institute after a career in academic medicine and clinical research. Professor Peters is currently based at the Ironbridge Institute and the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port. His current research interests are in canal history and early modern medical history, including the application of cognitive archaeological methodology to historical figures. Joanne Smith is Registrar in the Library and Archives of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, where in collaboration with distinguished colleagues, including John Powell and Paul Bedford, she has researched various historical aspects of the local area, including buildings, structures and staff of the Ironbridge Gorge World Historical Site. NOTES FOR CONTRIBUTORS All contributions should be submitted on CD. A hard copy should also be provided. The author should, where necessary, provide a list of illustration captions and table titles, including acknowledgements and copyright where applicable. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for the use of copyright materials. In archaeological reports English Heritage guidelines may be followed, including Harvard (author date) style. If this is adopted the bibliographical reports should follow the examples below: Biddle, M., 1978: Winchester Studies. Carver, M. O. H., 1978: ‘Early Shrewsbury: an archaeological definition in 1975’, Trans. Shrops. Archaeol. Soc., 59, pt. iii. Other contributors should employ endnote citations following the examples below: D. Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, iii, 1959, 489–90. PRO: E302/1/5-6. VCH Salop, I, 337. C. D. Gilbert, ‘Clubmen in South West Shropshire 1644–45’, Trans. Shrops. Archaeol. Soc., LXVIII, 1993, 95. Contributions should be sent to The Editor, 57 Kynaston Drive, Wem, Shrewsbury SY4 5DE. Telephone 01939-234777 Electronic mail: [email protected] SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS FOR SALE Transactions vols. 59 (2)−59 (3) ............................................................ .£3 60 .............................................................................. £2.50 61 .............................................................................. £6 63 .............................................................................. £2 64 .............................................................................. £4 66−71 ........................................................................ £6 73 .............................................................................. £5 74−79 ........................................................................ £12 80 .............................................................................. £15 81–87 ........................................................................ £10 H. D. G. Foxall, Shropshire Field-Names (1980) ...................... £5 D. and R. Cromarty, The Wealth of Shrewsbury in the Early Fourteenth Century (1993) .................................... £10 The Cartulary of Lilleshall Abbey, edited by U. Rees (1997) ........................................................... £10 Shrewsbury Abbey: Studies in the Archaeology and History of an Urban Abbey, edited by N. Baker (2002) ............ £10 Greenwood’s Map of the County