WOMBRIDGE: Geographical and Historical information from the year 1831.

"WOMBRIDGE, a parish in the Wellington division of the hundred of BRADFORD (South), county of SALOP, 5 miles (E.) from Wellington, containing I860 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of William Charlton, Esq., as lord of the manor, endowed with £ 800 royal bounty, and £1200 parliamentary grant. The church, dedt- cated to St. Mary and St. Leonard, has lately received an addition of three hundred sittings, of which two hundred and ninety-five are free, the Incorporated Society for the enlargement of churches and chapels having granted £"270 towards defraying the expense. The Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and Marquis of Stafford's, canals form a junction in this parish, which is intersected by the old Watling-street and the great Holyhead road, also by several railways communicating with the extensive coal and iron mines at Ketley and in the neighbourhood, which have been worked for centuries; but the most considerable iron-works were established here in 1818. At Oaken Gates a small customary market is held. There are slight remains near the church of a priory of Black canons, founded in the reign of Henry I., by William Fitz-Alan, which at the dissolution had a revenue of-£72. 15. 8."

[Transcribed information from A Topographical Dictionary of England - Samuel Lewis - 1831](unless otherwise stated)

[Description(s) transcribed by Mel Lockie ©2015]