Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway Part 4

The Severn Valley Railway affords a very interesting approach to the old Salopian capital, by bringing before the traveller its striking features, its singular situation, and its most pleasing aspect. On one side are groups of villa-looking residences, the little church of St. Giles, the column raised to Lord Hill, and the Abbey Church and buildings. On the other is the town, with its spires and towers and red-stone castle rising from an eminence above the river. The station occupies a narrow isthmus of the latter within the precincts of the castle, and is a handsome structure, of the Gothic style of architecture. The castle was built by the first Earl of Shrewsbury, who obtained so many favours of a like kind from the Conqueror. Among portions which the old Norman masons raised, is the inner gateway, through which, it is said, the last Norman earl, in token of submission, carried the keys to Henry I. From its position upon a troubled frontier, it changed masters many times, and suffered much from the attacks of a.s.sailants. It was fortified by William Fitz-Alan when he espoused the cause of the Empress Maude; and in favour of Henry IV., in his quarrel with the Earl of Northumberland, when the Shrewsbury abbot went forth from its gates to offer pardon to Hotspur, on condition that he would lay down his arms; and it was taken by storm by the Parliamentary army in 1644. It now belongs to the Duke of Cleveland, and has been converted into a dwelling-house, the present drawing-room having been the guard chamber in the reign of Charles. To the right of the castle gates is the Royal Grammar School, founded in 1551 by King Edward VI., and subsequently endowed with exhibitions, fellowships, and scholarships connected with Oxford and Cambridge, to the number of twenty- six. A little higher is the Chapel of St. Nicholas, an old Norman structure, which belonged to the outer court of the castle, but is now used as a coach-house and stable.

[Shrewsbury: 43.jpg]

Close by is a highly ornamental timber gateway, erected in 1620, leading to the Council House, the temporary residence, during feudal times, of the Lords President of the Marches. Continuing along this street, we pa.s.s the Raven Hotel, recently rebuilt at a cost of nearly 20,000 pounds.

It was here George Farquhar wrote his comedy of the "Recruiting Officer,"

which he dedicated to "All friends round the Wrekin." Descending Pride Hill, the eye rests upon a number of rare old specimens of domestic architecture, which, like those in High Street and others, were the homes of the ancient burghers; mansions here and there of more pretension are also to be seen, mingling an air of antiquity with one of comfort. The town is rich in specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, and possesses some very handsome churches. Of the four whose towers and spires are seen within the circle of the Severn, St. Mary's is the most interesting.

Its site is 100 feet above the river, and its tall and graceful spire is a landmark seen for many miles. The lower portion of the tower, the nave, transepts, and doorway, are of the 12th century, whilst other portions are of the 15th and 16th. The interior, with its cl.u.s.tered columns, decorated capitals, moulded arches, and its oak-panelled ceiling, ornamented with foliage, has a fine effect; added to which, the exquisitely-sculptured pulpit, given in memory of a former minister, and the still more recently erected screen, in memory of another, with numerous mural monuments, in stone and marble, are of peculiar interest.

The windows are of stained gla.s.s, some being very ancient, and most of them elaborately and beautifully painted, and highly deserving of attention.

Near to St. Mary's are the churches of St. Alkmund and St. Julian, the former indebted for its foundation to the piety of Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred; the latter, also of Saxon origin, to Henry IV., who in 1410, attached it to his new foundation of Battlefield College, raised in memory "of the b.l.o.o.d.y rout that gave to Harry's brow a wreath--to Hotspur's heart a grave."

The old collegiate church of St. Chad, founded, it is supposed, soon after the subjugation of the country by Offa, and transformed, as tradition alleges, out of one of the palaces of the Kings of Powis, is now a ruin. The modern one, dedicated to the same saint, of whom there is an ancient carved figure in the vestry, is now the fashionable church of the town.

The Abbey Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, built upon the site of a Saxon one of wood, with the abbey ruins and the famous old stone pulpit of the refectory, should also be visited.

In the centre of the Market Square still stands the old Market House, erected in 1595 by the corporation. It has a statue of Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV., in an embattled niche in front, and a surcoat, with armorial bearings, moved from the tower of the old Welsh Bridge; also the arms of the town, sculptured in relief.

In the immediate neighbourhood of these relics of antiquity is the recently-erected statue to the great Lord Clive, the Townhall, the Working Man's Hall, the Music Hall, the public news-room, and a group of other handsome buildings. A pa.s.sage near the Music Hall leads to the Museum of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society, which no visitor with time on his hands should neglect to visit.

In addition to objects of natural history, it contains others of interest obtained from Wroxeter, and is open daily from ten to four to visitors upon payment of twopence. Portions of the town walls, erected in the reign of Henry III., with one of the ancient towers, are still standing, and form a pleasant walk. But the grand promenade is the Quarry Avenue, which, with Kingsland on the opposite side, is the common property of the inhabitants. The former is a sloping piece of meadow land, intersected by limes, whose intertwining branches make a fretted archway of living green, whilst the latter is the spot where the trade pageant, called Shrewsbury Show, is held. In addition to objects of interest which we have enumerated, our readers will find materials for observation and study for themselves; as a further aid to which, we would commend them to "Sandford's Guide to Shrewsbury."

APPENDIX.

GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT.

We glanced in pa.s.sing at some few features which could scarcely fail to attract the attention of the tourist, and a brief notice only of others will be needed for the geologist. In ascending the river we descend, geologically speaking, from an upper to a lower series of rocks, which rocks, in many instances, are covered over by fluviatile and marine deposits of sand and gravel, containing sh.e.l.ls of fish inhabiting our modern seas. These show how recently the sea must have retired from a surface so covered with its remains; whilst their position low down in the valley, and but a little way above the present bed of the Severn, proves how much more recently the arm of the sea, known as the Severn Sraits, must have been succeeded by the river. The best places for collecting these remains along the railway will be found to be in embankments and cuttings near Buildwas and Coalbrookdale, the latter having yielded as many as twenty-two distinct species. In cuttings along the railway, and in their immediate vicinity, will also be found sections of rocks, from the variegated marls of the New Red Sandstone, of the Mesozoic, to the silurians, of the Palaeozoic, or Primary Formations. The coal measures of Coalbrookdale, with their alternating beds of coal, clay, and iron ore, are rich in specimens of the fauna and flora of the carboniferous age; the best places for discovering them being the spoil banks of the mines, where shale, and ironstone nodules, will be found the most productive. One of the richest beds yielding fossils is the Penneystone, which may be seen on the surface near Coalbrookdale and Ketley; remains of the Megalicthys, Gyracanthus, and Holoptychus being occasionally found there, whilst Conularias, Nautili, Spirifers aviculus, Bellerophons, and others are numerous. The sand rock overlying it contains Calamites, Lepidodendrons, Ulodendrons, Sigillarias, &c., &c.

Benthall Edge and Lincoln Hill yield characteristic fossils of the Wenlock limestone and Wenlock shales in great numbers and variety, corals being most abundant. Between the Severn and the Acton Burnell hills fossils of the Caradoc may be found in drift, in old walls by the wayside, and in strata dipping praidly beneath the Wenlock shales.

BOTANY OF THE DISTRICT.

In shallow portions of the Severn, we have several varieties of the River Crowfoot (_Ranunculus fluitans_), which, with their long slender stems and pure white blossoms, form a conspicuous feature; also the Canadian Water-weed (_Anacharis alsinastrum_), which has found its way as high up as Shrewsbury. In marshy flats bordering on the river, are found the Yellow Flag (_Iris pseud-acorus_), the Water-dock, (_Rumex Hydrolapathum_), the Water Drop-wort, Soap-wort, Frog-bit-water-lily, and the creeping Yellow Cress; whilst the little Lily of the Valley, the Giant Bell-flower, the Spreading Bell-flower, the rare Reed Fescue-gra.s.s, and the tall, handsome Fox-glove, which,

"On fair Flora's hand is worn,"

adorn the woods along the slopes.

Other plants are found as follows:--

Ranunculus parviflorus (Small-flowered Crowfoot) . . . Stagborough.

Cardamine impatiens (Narrow-leaved Bittercress) . . . Stagborough.

Poterium sanguisorba . . . Stagborough.

Campanula latifolia . . . Owton and Stagborough.

Campanula patula . . . Owton and Stagborough.

Vinca minor (Lesser Periwinkle) . . . Arley Wood and Stagborough.

Heleborus foetidus (Stinking h.e.l.lebore) . . . Farlow.

Geranium phseum (Dusky Crane's-bill) . . . Farlow.

Rhamnus catharticus (Common Buckthorn) . . . Farlow.

Prunus padus (Bird Cherry) . . . Farlow.

Geum rivale . . . Farlow.

Artemisia Absinthium (Common Wormwood) . . . Farlow.

Artemisia campestris . . . Farlow.

Habenaria viridis . . . Farlow.

Lathraea squamaria . . . Ribbesford Wood.

Orobanche minor . . . Ribbesford Wood.

Mentha piperita (Peppermint) . . . Near Horshill, Ribbesford.

Thymus serpyllum and T. glandulosus . . . Near Horshill, Ribbesford.

Calamintha Nepeta and officinalis . . . About Ribbesford.

Daphne Laureola (Spurge Laurel) . . . About Ribbesford.

f.a.gus sylvatioa (Common Beech) . . . About Ribbesford.

Paris quadrifolia . . . About Ribbesford.

Cardamine amara (Bitter Ladies' Smock) . . . Blackstone.

Cerastium arvense (Field Chick-weed) . . . Blackstone.

Hyperic.u.m montanum (Mountain St. John's-wort) . . . Blackstone.

Sedum dasyphyllum . . . Blackstone.

Viola canina (Dog's Violet) . . . Hartlebury Common.