History of Site Ownership
History of the Windmill Site

Eyton R. W. ‘Antiquities of Shropshire (1861) estimated the Domesday area of Wenlock manors as 74 1/4 hides (6000 – 9000 acres) producing an income of about £50 a year. The priory estate comprised seven manors.

The prior’s position as lord of the manor, and landlord, received annual Temporal Revenue comprising manorial dues, court receipts and rents - the water mills were a major source of this annual rent income.

The water mills, therefore, forerunners of windmills were a significant and integral parts of socio-economic development of each manor and it’s local community, consequently the water mills have been given a brief reference in this document.

Records refer to four water mills, including the one at Bradley, operating in and around the township of Much Wenlock, they were considered to be the most significant secular buildings and the lord’s interests were safeguarded in the Courts.

Mumford W F, in his publication ‘Wenlock In The Middle Ages’ (1977) highlights a selection of Court proceedings relating to their up-keep.

The relationship between the Prior, as landlord, and his tenants was not always harmonious. D C Cox, in his book ‘The Customs of Much Wenlock, 1247’, relates to a royal writ secured by the 8 freemen and 39 burgesses, “who hold their freeholds of the prior of Wenlock, against their lord the prior of Wenlock, for extorting unlawful tolls”.

Various references have been made to the mills and their location. The Downs Mill – situated approximately 1 km north of the monastery - VCH 431-2 identifies Downs Mill with The Grene Mill (1550) and VCH 432 gives an account of Farley Mill, which became two mills in the 18th century: it was closed by 1953.

The mill at Bradley, known as Sampsons Mylne (1550-1) and Mairs or Mayrs mill in 1550 stood on Farley Brook near Lawleyscross.

There was also another Mayres mill in Much Wenlock for the township.~
Ref; The Place-Names of Shropshire, Margaret Gelling & the late H D G Foxall (prt Three)

The demesne mill of 1536-7, according to VCH 431, stood on the Great Pool, retained by a dam on a tributary of Farley Brook in The Pool Dam field identified on Foxall’s map of 1848 at location (146) as being a meadow owned by Sir Watkin Williams Wynne and occupied by John Davies.

Field patterns and their location in Wenlock township, based on old estate surveys and the tithe awards, are shown in graphic form in Foxall’s maps of 1847.

The field names reflect both the physical nature of the ground and, since they are linked to significant shapes and assemblages of parcels of land, the history of the agricultural practices by which the community has maintained itself for a thousand years or more.
Ref; The Foreword by Dr MargaretGelling-“Shropshire Field-Names” H.D.G. Foxall

The 1639 record, see below, indicates that ‘Windmillhill Field’ was in the ownership of the Lawley family. The windmill hill field shown on Foxall’s 1847 map of Wenlock, plot 259, is recorded as a 17 acre plot of pasture land and plot (261) ‘Field adjoining Windmill Hill’ as 8 acres of arable land.

The Foxall tithe apportionment records reveal the Windmill structure covers a base of 5 1/2 yds square (area of 30 1/4 sq yds or 1 perch), under the ownership of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn and occupied by William Jeffreys.

It is not yet clear whether or not the windmill hill was included in the 1770 estate valuation by John Probert and whether it was a subject of the 1777 Inclosure Act.

Examination of Estate Accounts Records covering the period of the Lawleys, the Berties and the Gage families may provide the information sought.

Whilst the greater awareness of the history of the priory estate subsequent to the dissolution reveals ownership of the parcel of land identified as windmill hill, the date of tower construction has not yet to be identified.

Mumford provides an interesting comprehensive review of the Priory’s history throughout the Middle Ages, however, concentration here is on the post-1395 period, which covers the transfer of ownership from the Prior and through successive local landlords.

Selected extracts from Mumford’s publication are presented below.

1066 – Much Wenlock belonged to the church of St Milburga and passed to the successor, the Cluniac Priory before 1086 then surrendered to the Crown in 1540.

Mumford in the section entitled ‘The Priory Buildings Today’ makes reference to the location of the windmill tower on the estate;

“over the wall at the very end (of the Lady Chapel) is a view of the Shropshire countryside as the Cluniac Monks saw it; out of sight round the corner to the left is the now disused mill; on the right can be seen the Downs Farm, so named in Mediaeval records and on modern maps”.

1291 – 1535 Statements of assessed priory income, Temporal and Spiritual, over this period are presented by Mumford (p48).

The Temporal income includes profits from the watermills

1326 – The ‘Wenlock family had now become prominent.

Richard de Wenlock’s son William de Wenlock of Wenlock (d 1392) became a priest and ultimately canon of St Paul’s London.

Joan the daughter of Richard married Nicholas Wyvell

It is believed that Wyvell gave extensive property (84 acres) in Wenlock to father-in-law Richard who ultimately passed it to William the priest who, it is believed, demised it to Wenlock priory.

1377 - Roger Wynel (Wyvell) (d 1397) the nephew of William de Wenlock, alias Wyvell became prior sometime in the period 1377 – 1388.

1395 – Wenlock priory was freed from the French connection and the annual contribution reverted to Henry V.

1415 – Thomas Lawley, the first Lawley to be mentioned in Wenlock documents witnessed, along with Thomas Wyvell, a grant of land.

At a date after 1415 the marriage of John Lawley and Agnes Wyvell united the properties of two great local families.

The Lawley family was now second only to the priory in local affairs.

1448 – Wyvell’s grandson, in the male line, John Wenlock of Houghton Conquest, Lord Wenlock (dsp* Tewkesbury 04.05.1471) owned the estate when it comprised 16 messuages and 80a.
ref; ; www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ll/lawley01.htm ( pp 1 of 4)

• dsp – died Sine Prole (without offspring)

1462 – The Prior of La Charite’ nominated local man, Roger Wenlock as Prior of Wenlock, who a few years later shared in the foundation of the Borough.

1468 - The Borough Charter was granted.

1471 – On the death of Sir John Wenlock the estate passed to kinsman and heir Thomas Lawley (fl 1477).

The estate subsequently descended to Thomas’s great-grandson, Richard of Spoonhill.(d ?).
ref; www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ll/lawley01.htm ( pp 2 of 4)

1482 - Following a succession of priors La Charite’ nominated Richard (Syngar) Singer (Wenlock) (d May 1521), who belonged to a local family, as prior for “he was well-disposed towards the recently chartered borough”.

Singer and the monks of Wenlock petitioned Rome to cut the last links with the parent house.

1486 - Mumford records that “…. as prior (1486 – 1521) Richard Singer “is best known for his great building projects”.

Two men were identified (in his building work), namely, William Corvehill – a skilled architect and craftsman in masonry, along with other crafts – and Clement Mason – mentioned years later in the Vicar’s church diary as “a mason and servant in mason craft to Prior Richard Singer.

William Corvehill, (later Sir William) became a Priest (1546 – 76) and is recognised as the man who made the bells that were placed in Holy Trinity Church when the priory closed in 1540.
Ref; www.phoenixmasonry.org/arcane-schools/part-5.html

1494 - The charter of Pope Alexander V1, dated October 4 exempted the monks of Wenlock from jurisdiction of the Abbot of Cluny and the Prior of La Charite’ and gave the convent the right to elect their own prior.

1520 ‘s – Richard Lawley was tenant of the “demesne tenements and land within and outside the town”, paying 19s. 9d rent. He bought water mills and lands in Bourton and Callaughton for £616 and he and his brother Thomas acquired Monkhopton and Monkhall.

1532 - The rise of the Bertie family had begun - Thomas Bertie (d 1555) – ‘Mr Bert’ - was a mason in the building trade,

“… which flourished primarily because the dissolution of the monasteries released vast amounts of building material for the ‘new men’ to use”.
ref: www.tudorplace.com.ar/BERTIE.htm

He became the master mason for Henry V111’s coastal defences and was also responsible for maintaining the fabric of Winchester Cathedral.

The Bertie family comprised seven distinct lines namely, Bertie of Abingdon; Ancaster; Bersted; Kesteven; Lindsey; Uffington and Weston.

They had returned from France in the middle of the 12 century

1540 – The advowson of the vicarage descended with the rectory, passing to the Crown.

“On the eve of the dissolution, many abbeys are found selling their advowsons to friends and relatives (and sometimes) a resident curate was appointed, at a low stipend, to attend to the spiritual needs of a parish”
Ref; Archives Vol. Vii No3 The Journal of The British Records Association p31

1545 –Agostini Agostino (or Augustin de Augustinis – Mumford p83) the royal physician purchased, from the Crown, the house and site of Wenlock Priory, its buildings, orchards, fields (named in the grant) and the woods of Shirlett, Farley and Homer. These woods comprised 845 acres and the arable pasture and meadow totalled 450 acres: there was in addition a water mill.

Later in the same year he sold the Priory site and demesne land to Thomas Lawley (d ?), the (older / younger) brother of Richard of Spoonhill for the sum of £1609. 6s. 8d.
ref; www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/ll/lawley01.htm ( pp 2 of 4)

1550 - The demesne mill stood on the Great Pool that was retained by a dam on a tributary of Farley Brook in the field to the east of the priory referred to as The Pool Dam. (see also 1639 below re. Paper mill & Pouledamme)
Ref: Gelling & Foxall

1552/3 – Richard Bertie (b c1517, d 1582) MP, son of Thomas Bertie of Bersted, married Catherine Willoughby, 12th Baroness of Eresby and Duchess of Suffolk (b 1519, d 1580)- her 2nd marriage - daughter of William Willoughby, 10th Baron Willoughby of Eresby and courtier of King Henry VIII.Richard had been a member of her household.

1571 – The house passed from Thomas Lawley’s widow Beatrice Hinton (daughter of Griffin Hinton) to his son Sir Thomas Lawley of Wenlock (d 22.02.1621) who married Elizabeth Newport (daughter of Sir Richard Newport of High Ercall) and the house became known as the Abbey – regarded as Much Wenlock manor house.

1588 - The Bertie of Ancaster deposits for 5 – 26th April, under ‘Works and Buildings Accounts’, reveal the family involvement in windmill construction; “to digging stone from ‘the Valdey’ (site of Vaudey Abbey) and to work on the new brewhouse and the new windmill at Grimsthorpe”.
Ref; Historical Manuscripts Commission (H.M.C). Anc. Pp. 476-7; Anc. 7a/8c and e

1590 – The Crown sold the advowson of the vicarage to Henry Bromley.

1600 – Sir Thomas Lawley and brother Robert bought the manor from the Crown. They also bought almost the whole estate of the former service of Our Lady in the parish church.

1614 – Sir Thomas, now with sole possession, was succeeded by his son Sir Edward Lawley Knt. of Wenlock, co. Salop (d 1623) along with the rectorial tithes of Much Wenlock township of 1590.

Sir Edward was married to Susan Fisher (daughter of Sir Thomas Fisher, Bart of Islington) and had a daughter Ursula (bef. 1612, d 1681)

1616 – Sir Thomas Lawley’s wife - Henry Bromley’s cousin - was passed the advowson and tithes.

1631 – The Lawley connection with the town ended when Ursula, the daughter of Sir Edward Lawley and his wife Susan married Sir Roger Bertie KB (d 1654).

The Priory was transferred to Henry Bertie.

The borough obtained a new charter. It was not to prejudice the Much Wenlock manorial leet (Sir Roger Bertie’s Liberties).

1639 – Morrtgage by Release: for £1600: Dame Ursula Bertye (nee Lawley) to Thomas Lawley of Twickenham esq. - Site of Greate Wenlock Priory.

Consisting; Lands in Much Wenlock with 2 pastures lying northeastward between the Priory House and Paper Mill. Mentions meadow called Pouledamme, pasture called Cutlers Yard, Two Sandhills and ‘the connyes there or upon’; meadows called Broad Meadowe (2), Bellhole, Mill Meadowe, the Broad Meadowe and Pinfold Meadowe; Pasture ground called Newe Leasowe, Lercroft, Hether Downes and Upper part of Ruffe Downs; mills called the Paper Mill and 2 corne mills; Pasture called Upper and Lower Wallmers, New Leasowe and Pinfold Pasture, Further Downes, Bradley Meadowe, Waltonhill Pasture and Ruff Downes, Avenors Croft, Calve Croft; Messuages (dwelling houses with outbuildings and land assigned to their use); 102ac. In Windmillhill Field, Edgefield and Shinewhead Furlonge; 24ac. in Bradley Furlonge and Knightstreetfield; 34ac. in Southfield. (Tenants named).
(DDFA/x1/26/17 University of Hull, Brynmor Jones Library)

1641 – The Baronetcy of Lawley, of Spoonhill in the County of Shropshire, was created in the Baronetcy of England on 16th August

1646 – Ursula Lawley’s 2nd marriage was to Sir George Penruddock Knt. (b c1604 d 1664). Their daughter Elizabeth Penruddock (d 1693) married Joseph Gage of Sherborne Castle, son of Sir Thomas Gage, 2nd Bart. (d 1654). George Penruddocke, the Lady of the Manor’s husband, settled the corn tithes of Much Wenlock township on the living, augmenting it by £40
N.L.W., Wynnstay, box 56/110 & S.R.O 3898/Ti of 1839 TSAS

1651 – Sir George Penruddock, Knt. was lord of Much Wenlock and Sir Francis Lawley (b 1630, d 1696) of Canwell Priory, 2nd Bart of Spoonhill MP for Wenlock, Shropshire (1659/60 & 1661/79) was lord of Bourton, Callaughton, Hopton and Monk Hall.

The Lawley’s proceeded, thereafter, to ‘lease for 3 lives’ some of their property in and around Much Wenlock.

1655 – Oct. 17th The following entry in the Much Wenlock Parish Register may have some relevance regarding the construction of the tower, “ John Reynolds als. Mason. Gent. One of the Bayliffes peares of their town and liberties. Bur’d” in-so-much that John Reynolds was responsible for the survey of the manor that was used when Sir John Wynn purchased the estate from Viscount Gage in 1714.

Could John Reynolds have been employed initially by the Berties’, who themselves were professional stonemasons, to help build the mill during the period 1622 – 1647?

The Bertie family had both the knowledge and experience to perform the task as witnessed from the ‘Site History ‘above – reference to Grimsthorpe windmill.

1681- Ursula Penruddock (nee Lawley) died; the Wenlock estate transferred from the Lawley family to the son of her 1st marriage, Robert Bertie (dsp –without child-1699).
Ref; www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/bb4ae/bertie1.htm - pp4 of 5.

1698/9 – Robert Bertie left the Manor for Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage Bt (b before 1702, d 1754), son of Joseph Gage of Sherborne Castle and Elizabeth Penruddock (d 1693) daughter of Ursula Lawley & Sir George Penrruddock.Thomas married (1717) Benedicta Maria Theresa Hall (d 1749), daughter of Henry Benedict Hall and Frances Fortesque.

In 1720 King George I named him, “Baron Gage of Castlebar in the County of Mayo, and Viscount Gage of Castle Island in the County of Kerry of the Kingdom of Ireland.” He remarried in 1750 to Jane Godfrey, a Gloucestershire heiress.
Ref; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/thomas_gage

1699 - Following the death of Robert Bertie the manorial estate ‘tenancies at will’ (Agreement between tenant and landlord – not transferable) were substituted for expiring leases.

1714 – Viscount Gage sold the manor to Sir John Wynn of Gwydir 5th Bart. (b 1628, d 1719) - a kinsman of the Berties - who married Jane Evans (daughter of Eyton Evans of Watstay).

The manorial estate then comprised meadow land (1/6th of all agricultural land) and permanent pasture, including Westwood Common (one half of all agricultural land).

1719 – Sir John Wynn of Gwydir left the manor to his cousin Sir Watkin Williams Wynn of Wynnstay (2nd bt 1740, d 1749), having added the surname Wynn.

Watkin Williams Wynn began to offer Chattel Leases – (if leasehold land was dispossessed it could be recovered); many were made in the late 1720’s and some presumably lasted until the 1820’s.

1727 – The Will of Sir Robert Lawley, Probate 1780, outlined the leasing of his land. The document provides brief details of acreage assigned to members of the family but does not specify where the land is situated.
Ref; Forester papers 1224/3/665

1745 – The parcel of land known as Almoner’s Croft & Barn was bought by Thomas Mare after having passed from the Crown in 1576 through a succession of owners. Thomas Mare held land near the Abbey known as Almoners Croft along with the barn from 1745 to 1790.

Was this the same Mare family referred to earlier?
Ref: British History-Online

1764 – Two great landowner families merged when Sir Robert Lawley 5th Baronet of Spoonhill (b 1736, d 1793), who‘s family had held lands in Shropshire since 1471, married Jane Thompson (b 1743, d 1816) – the sister of Beilby Thompson of Escrick, Yorkshire - and heiress to the Escrick estates south of the City of York.
Ref; www. angeltowns.com/town/peerage

The family seat was at Canwell Hall, Canwell, Staffordshire, built by Sir Francis Lawley 2nd Baronet (c 1630, d 1696).

Sir Robert rebuilt the house in grand Georgian style to a design by architect James Wyatt.

1769 – Plans existed to reduce the number of farms (on the estate) in expectation of the Much Wenlock Inclosure Act.

Though our, (the Trust), historical records covering the period 1730 – 1875 relating specifically to the Windmill Hill site and windmill are presently limited, the following transcript may, however, be indicative of the period as estate ownership now appears to be stabilizing!

Being a period of relative prosperity for British agriculture the population growth, stimulated locally by industrialization, and almost a quarter of a century of war (1793 – 1815) increased the domestic demand for food and ultimately raised prices, rents and land values to unprecedented levels – inclosure was stimulated.

The process was one of enclosing (with hedges, ditches, fences etc.) open lands that had formerly been subject to common rights.

Farmers found it difficult to introduce farming innovations on scatter strips of land subject to such rights. Between 1730’s and 1830’s enclosure was authorised by individual Acts of Parliament, as well as through the earlier formal and informal agreements of landowners. Although enclosures promoted modern farming methods, the reduction and elimination of common rights was devastating for many small - holders and wage workers.

“At about 1770 John Probert valued Sir Watkin Williams Wynn’s Much Wenlock estate and recommended a reorganisation of the farms that included enlargement of the biggest ones.

He also advised a cautious canvas of the other freeholders about the desirability of enclosing Westwood common by Act, under which, the inconveniently interspersed freeholders of Williams Wynn and others could be consolidated; that part of the programme, however, was not achieved until 1814.

Inclosures, however, unrecorded by the Clerk of the Peace, were by no means confined to the war years: for instance the only record of the disappearance of Farley Common (58a inclosed 1818), in Much Wenlock, is a private deed.
(SRO 1681 box 144 deed of 1818).

Extensive commons remained until the early 19th century, and some were never inclosed (Ibid. 256).

Over the period 1790 – 1803 records note that agricultural wages in the county increased by 67%, an increase that was much smaller than the rise in prices.

The wild fluctuation in corn prices during 1790’s stimulated profiteering by farmers and millers, and the poor bore the brunt of it – 6d or 9d worth of wheat went up to 2s 6d.
ref; Domesday Book 1750 – 1875. British History Vol. x

1790 – Thomas Mare’s son-in-law, Col. (later Gen.) Dudley Ackland sold his estate to Geo. Forester.
Ref; Forester papers 1224/7/6

1808 – As a result of the Inclosure Act the Wynn estate holdings over 25a fell from sixteen in 1714 to nine which increased greatly in size.

1831 – The Baronetcy of Lawley (1641) merged with the second creation of Baron Wenlock, which title became extinct in 1834.

1839 – The Baronetcy of Lawley (1831) merged with the third creation of Baron Wenlock.

1848 – Lord Forester now owned 194a of land in Much Wenlock but by 1858 he acquired a further 827a, over half of the manorial estate, from Sir Watkin Williams Wynne by agreement with J M Gaskell, who was buying the lordship of the manor and the rest of the estate.

Much of the Forester estate in Much Wenlock was sold in the 20th century
ref; British history online Vol. X

1858 - The manor ceased descending within the William Wynn baronetcy when it was bought by Sir Watkin’s niece’s husband James Milnes Gaskell (d 1873) of Thornes House (Yorks. W.R).

The Abbey had become a decayed farmhouse but James Milnes Gaskell, who was followed by his son Charles G. Milnes Gaskell (d 1919) - who married Lady Catherine Wallop, daughter of the Earl of Portsmouth - restored it as a gentleman’s country house.

Mary, the daughter of Charles and Lady Catherine Milnes Gaskell (d 1935) married General HDO Ward and inherited the Wenlock estate.
(Evelyn, the son of Charles and Lady Catherine inherited their Wakefield estate).

1932 - Both the Barony and the Baronetcy of Lawley became extinct.

1953 - Mary Ward left the estate ‘in trust’ to the four sons of her niece Mary Milnes Gaskell (b 1906 – d 1999) – the daughter of Evelyn Milnes Gaskell and Lady Constance Knox - who married Lewis Motley.

1983 – Louis de Wet and his wife Gabrielle Drake purchased the Abbey from the Motley family.

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