Chetton Parish History
At the time the Doomsday book was compiled Countess (Lady) Godiva & her husband Leofric owned the land at Chetton. It reads that there were villagers, 6 slaves, 2 female slaves, 1 priest, 1 reeve (administrative official), 1 league of woodland, 1 mill.
Chetton was not the only manor in Shropshire where Godiva had an interest. The Chapelry of Loughton was annexed to the Rectory of Chetton. The Stately Hall of Loughton was one of her husband Earl Leofric's residences.
As the years passed derivations of the name Chetton evolved from Catinton / Ceatintonia in 1066, Chedinton in 1204, Cheddinton in 1223, Chetyton in 1255, Chetington in 1283, Chetidone in 1289 and finally Chetton in present day.
In 1086, Earl Roger the Norman of Shrewsbury was tenant in chief and held the manor. He granted one-third of the titles to his collegiate Church at Quatford.
Following the Norman Earls, Chetton, with Great Berwick near Shrewsbury, was granted by the crown, to one William de Goram. He left a daughter and heiress, Damietta, wife of Ranulf de Broc - before 1166. He was a great Royal favourite of Henry 11 and an enemy of Thomas a Becket. He died in 1187, leaving 5 daughters. There appears to have been a dispute amongst his heirs and after a protracted litigation, Sibill de Broc was acknowledged Lady of Chetton.
In 1253, she granted Chetton Mill, to the Nuns of Brewed. (Brewood). Upon her death, much of the land was divided between nephews and neices, a third being retained by the crown. This was granted to Robert Corbett of Chaddesley, as a reward for faithful service. By 1270 he was dead, not before he had acquired the whole of the manor of Chetton. He became Robert Corbet, Lord of Chetington.
Quote:" The manor passed through several hands after Corbet. John Talbot, Richard Leggett, Sir John Cowper.
John Cowper had made Christiana daughter and co-heir of Sir John Stepleton and wife of Robert Cressett of Upton Cressett, his heir. But Cressett's title to Chetton was disputed by John Talbot, 2nd Earl Shrewsbury and not until Talbot fell in battle in 1460, could Cressett make his claim.
In 1464, he called together a group of ecclesiastics and laymen of repute to his little Church at Upton (Cressett) to decide the matter. In the course of the enquiry, it appeared that Sir John Cowper had solemnly notified Christiana to be his heir, by publicly taking her by the hand in Chetton Church and calling the congregation present to witness the event. Asked as to the Earl's claim, the Rector took a solemn oath, with hand upon breast, that the said Earl had no claim whatsoever.
The assembly decided in favor of Cressett who was declared to hold the manor of Chetton by free gift of the said Rector.
By 1623, the old manor lands had been divided into estates and became freehold, ie:Holicote, Walsbatch, The Down, Eudon Burnell.
St Giles Church
The core of the St Giles church dates back to the 13th Century, of which the south door and chancel remain. The nave was rebuilt in 1788.
The tower was built in 1828-30 by John Smalman, replacing an earlier tower. Restoration by Thomas Gordon in 1891-92 included re-fenestration of the nave, and replacing the chancel east window, with glass by Lavers & Westlake.
The church was restored in 1981 when a west gallery was taken down.
Sources:
D.C. Cox, Sir Stephen Glynne's Church Notes for Shropshire, 1997, p 22.
J. Newman and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, 2006, pp 197-98.
St Giles Church, Chetton, church guide
There was a spring or Holy well at Chetton. It is not known whether it had any special dedication to St Giles, but the waters were supposed to possess a healing virtue for cripples and weakly persons. The last person dipped in the well was Mary Anne Jones, in 1817. She subsequently died in 1830, aged 24.
Records from 1897 state: The well is now quite dry and hardly discernible. It lies a few yards below the spring now used by the villagers, west of the Church. In quite recent times, one of the villagers used it to bathe his eyes there, yearly!
The older generation of today, still recall fetching their water from a well near the old Rectory. Rev Southwell eventually fitted a proper hand pump.
The Holy Well of Chetton
Chetton Poor House
We are not sure when Chetton Poor House was established, but we have minutes taken from meetings held in the Church Vestry from the 1820's to 1830's.
These are held at Shropshire Archives & make fascinating & poignant reading.
Mr Vickers the Rector was always present at these meetings, along with Mrs Purton from Faintree Hall, who was a benefactor.
The Poor House was roughly situated in a building to the south east of the Church (now demolished) The Almshouses were situated on land the opposite side to Faintree Hall & it is now a private home.
Extract from 12/2/1829 - There were_2 men in the house, 5 women & 12 children.
In 1831 there were 25 people.
Meals - breakfast milk & broth, supper the same or bread & cheese. Meat three times a week, other days potatoes & dumplings.
The Old Methodist Chapel
Known as the Primitive Methodist Chapel, it was built between 1904 - 1906.
Feeling that there was a need for such a building in the area, several farmers and tradesmen joined together to purchase a piece of land nearby.
Travelling from Bridgnorth, this was situated on the left hand side, past the Down Inn. (approx 200 yards from the telephone kiosk).
Mr. James Millington one of the trustees, helped to transport the bricks to build it.
It became a thriving place of worship. In the early 1920s, the Chapel was still well supported. Mrs. Flossie Teague was one of the organists.
During the war years services dwindled and it fell into disuse. Then, in the late 1940s, early 1950s, Mrs. Thackeray and Mrs. Bason asked Mr.Geoff Whitney, who had attended services there as a child, if he would take the Harvest Festival. He agreed, and from then on the Chapel experienced a revival.
Mr. Whitney would drive up to Chetton village in his van and collect the children for Sunday School. He would then return them and collect the older generation for a service.
In the mid fifties, building inspectors deemed the Chapel to be unsafe for public use and no more services were held.
An Anecdote on the Late Chapel
As told by Reg Bradford
The Chapel went out of use in the mid 1950's and was offered for sale in 1959, by private treaty / auction. The sale was handled by Mr.Fred Millington, Roy's grandfather.
The highest bid received was of £100 from Reg Bradford, who at that time was living in Bill Yardley's cottage, Broomfield, The Down. He was keen to convert it to a private house and received a quote from local builder Mr Jones, of Shilbrooke, for £700 to complete the work. Reg then contacted the owner of the adjacent land to buy enough land to install a septic tank, unfortunately the request was refused, and Reg had to withdraw his bid. The chapel had mens and ladies toilets, but these were of the Elsan variety.
The Chapel was then purchased by Frank Head, who at the time was an agent for Norshore, supplying animal feed, fish meal and fertilizer. These products were stored in the chapel building in large quantities, so much so that some of the roof trusses were removed to allow higher stacking.
The loadings on the walls in conjunction with the removal of the trusses proved terminal for the roof, which buckled. The building was quite obviously unsafe and was vacated after two or three years.
Being considered uneconomic to renovate, the building was demolished soon afterwards (probably around 1964/1965).