Astley Abbots, Shropshire Family History Guide
Astley Abbots is an Ancient Parish in the county of Shropshire.
Alternative names: Astley Abbotts
Parish church: St Calixtus
Parish registers begin: 1561
Nonconformists include:
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Bridgnorth St Leonard
- Willey
- Bridgnorth St Mary Magdalen
- Tasley
- Linley
- Stockton
- Barrow
- Worfield
- Morville
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
ASTLEY-ABBOTS, a parish in Bridgnorth district, Salop; on the river Severn, and on the Severn Valley railway, 1½ mile S of Linley r. station, and 2½ N of Bridgnorth. Post Town, Bridgnorth. Acres, 3,228. Real property, £4,716. Pop., 668. Houses, 137. The property is divided among a few. Astley-Abbots House is the seat of T. Whitmore, Esq. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value, not reported. Patron, W. A. Warwick, Esq. The church is Saxon, in tolerable condition; and has some ancient monuments. Charities, £11.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851
Astley (Abbots), a parish in the hund. of Stottesden, union of Bridgnorth, Salop; 2 miles north from Bridgnorth, and within the parliamentary boundary of that borough. Living, a perpetual curacy, not in charge, in the archd. of Salop and dio. of Lichfield. Patron, in 1829, T. Whitmore, Esq. The great and small tithes of Morville and Astley- Abbots, the property of the lay-impropriator and incumbent of Astley-Abbots, commuted in 1773. Here is a school for poor children with a small endowment, bequeathed, in 1805, by Mrs C. Philips. Pop., in 1801, 740; in 1831, 666. Houses 135. Acres 3,330. A. P. £3,571. Poor rates, in 1837, £323.
Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.
Astley Abbotts Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850
Astley-Abbotts, 2 miles N. Bridgenorth. P. 657
Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.
Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845
Astley Abbots, a parish, in the union of Bridgnorth, hundred of Stottesden, S. division of Salop, 2 miles (N.) from Bridgnorth ; containing 657 inhabitants. This parish, which comprises about 3200 acres, is intersected by the road from Bridgnorth to Broseley, and by the river Severn. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of T. Whitmore, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for rent-charges amounting to £255. 15., and there are 51 1/2 acres of rectorial glebe. The church, which is in the later English style, was rebuilt in 1638; the chancel is of modern date. A parochial school was endowed by Mrs. C. Phillips in 1805, with £300 in the three per cent. consols.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.
Astley Abbots Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824
Astley Abbots. A parish in the Chelmarsh division of the hundred of Stottesden, a curacy, in the diocese of Hereford, the deanery of Stottesden, and archdeaconry of Salop. 138 houses, 664 inhabitants. 2 ¼ miles north-west by north of Bridgnorth.
Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Poll Books
Astley Abbotts, Poll Book 1865
Below are the names of those that voted in the election of July 1865 between Col. The Hon. P. E. Herbert, Sir Baldwin Leighton, Bart., and R. Jasper More, Esq.
Poll Book of the Election, July 1865 for the Southern Division of Shropshire.
Bridgnorth Polling District
Astley Abbots, Parish of
457 Bowen John
458 Bowen John, jun.
459 Matthews William
460 Matthews Valentine
461 Morris William, see 443
* Painter Edward, to Vote at Shiffnal
462 Painter George
463 Stephens John
464 Tranter George
465 Wing Rev. John
466 Yapp Thomas, dead
467 Yardley Henry
Directories
Astley Abbotts – Cassey Directory of Shropshire 1871
Astley Abbotts is a parish and village, included in the parliamentary borough of Bridgnorth, two and a half miles north from Bridgnorth, adjoining the parish of Saint Leonard’s, Bridgnorth, in the Southern division of the county, Chelmarsh division of Stottesden hundred, Bridgnorth union, and diocese of Hereford, situated on the Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury turnpike road, and is bounded by the Severn, and the Tasley and Linley streams. The church of St. Calixtus is a stone building in the Norman style, built in 1138. has been almost entirely rebuilt – the chancel in 1633, and the nave and steeple in the year 1857 – in the Decorated Gothic style. The living is a rectory, yearly value about £250, with residence, and 70 acres of glebe land, in the gift of W. A. Warwick, Esq. There is a Parochial school for boys and girls, with a very small endowment, but chiefly supported by voluntary contributions. Charities: John Huxley, Esq., in the year 1714, gave by his will a rent charge of 20s. per annum, to be distributed among twenty poor widows. A sum of £20, supposed to have been left by one Littlehales, was lent to a person named Bache, of Bridgnorth, and afterwards to William Bourne, a baker, of the same place, who used to send a monthly supply of bread to the amount of the interest. Shortly before the Charity Commissioners published their report Mr. Bourne became bankrupt, and the parish officers had not applied to prove this debt, from an idea that they had not the means of substantiating the claim. Mrs. Catherine Phillips, by will, 1815, gave to the incumbent and churchwardens of Astley Abbotts the sum of £300 stock in the three per cent. consols, in trust, to pay out of the yearly dividends the sum of 20s. among twenty poor widows on St. Thomas’s day, and the remainder to some proper person for teaching poor children to read and write, and for bringing them to church every Sunday in an orderly manner. Stanley Hall is a handsome castellated red brick building, with a picturesque and extensive park, the seat of Sir Henry Thomas Tyrwhitt, Bart. W. O. Foster, Esq., is lord of the manor; and Sir Henry Thomas Tyrwhitt, Bart., John Stephens, Esq., and Lord Forester are the chief landowners. The soil is marl and clay; the subsoil is clay and sandstone. The population in 1861 was 668, and the area is 3,137 acres; gross estimated rental, £4,963; rateable value, £4,640.
Letters through Bridgnorth.
Darby Mrs. Stanley hall
Homfray Frederick, esq., Cross Lane head
Homfray Henry Edmund, esq., Canton bank
Pritchard Mrs
Wing Rev. John, B.A., Rectory
Baldwin William, Fox and Hounds, and pump maker, Linley brook
Bentley Ann, farmer
Bowen John, maltster and farmer, Dunvall
Clutton Wm., butcher, Nordley common
Colebatch John, farmer, Holly bush
Colebatch Mary, farmer, Great Binnal
Cox John, farmer
Davies Joseph, beer retailer and grocer, Dunvall
Embrey William, farmer, Road farm
Fazey Henry, wheelwright
Gretton John, miller and farmer, Frogg mill
Hall Thomas, beer retailer and wheelwright, Nordley
Jarratt John, farm bailiff to Mr. Thos. Nock
Jones John, farmer, Weaver’s coppice
Matthews William, Wheelwright, Canton bank
Pearce Thomas, farmer and miller, &c., at Wenlock
Roberts Mary, farmer, Severn hall
Stanyer Hiram, farmer, Nordley
Todd Joseph, farmer, Little Binnal
Tones Thomas, farmer, Cross Lane head
Wase John, farmer, Park farm
Yardley Henry, shoe maker, Cross Lane head
Yardley John, blacksmith
Yardley Wm., shopkeeper, Cross Lane head
Source: Edward Cassey & Co’s, History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire 1871
Administration
- County: Shropshire
- Civil Registration District: Bridgnorth
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
- Diocese: Hereford
- Rural Deanery: Stottesdon
- Poor Law Union: Bridgnorth
- Hundred: Stottesdon
- Province: Canterbury