Shifnal Shropshire Family History Guide

Shifnal is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Shropshire.

Alternative names: Shiffnal, Shiffnall, Idsall

Other places in the parish include: Aston, Coppice Green, Crackleybank, Grindle, Hatton, Haughton, Hem, Innage, Oakengates, Payne’s Lane, Priorslee, Woodside, Hatton, and Ryton.

Parish church:

Parish registers begin: 1678

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Parishes adjacent to Shifnal

Historical Descriptions

Shifnal

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

SHIFFNAL, a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a division, in Salop. The town stands on the Shrewsbury and Birmingham railway, at the junction of a branch-line to Madeley, 17 miles E by S of Shrewsbury: was anciently called Idesall or Idsal; belonged to Morcar the Saxon; passed to successively the Dunstanvilles, the Badlesmeres, the Bohuns, the Mortimers, and the Talbots; stood originally to the W of its church, but suffered entire destruction by fire toward the end of the 15th century; was afterwards rebuilt on its present site; consists chiefly of a single street; is a seat of petty sessions and a polling place; and has a head post-office, a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, a hotel, public baths, an ancient cruciform church with central tower, three dissenting chapels, a mechanics’ institute, two endowed schools with £19 and £10 a year, a workhouse, and charities £50. A weekly market is held on Tuesday; fairs are held on the first Monday of April, 5 Aug., and 23 Nov.; and industry is carried on in foundries, rolling and slitting mills, blast furnaces, paper mills, and coal and iron mines. The physician Beddoes, who died in 1808, was a native. Pop. of the town in 1861, 2,046. Houses, 423.

The parish includes Priors-Lee chapelry and two townships, and comprises 11,441 acres. Real property, £48,706; of which £25,972 are in ironworks, and £73 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 5,617; in 1861, 5,923. Houses, 1,150. The manor belongs to Lord Stafford. Haughton Hall, Aston Hall, Hatton Grange, and Deeker Hill are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £450. Patron, the Rev. J. Brooke. The vicarage of Priors-Lee is a separate benefice. The sub-district contains four parishes and a part. Acres, 23,542. Pop., 7,849. Houses, 1,556. The district includes also Albrighton sub-district, and comprises 46,053 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £4,873. Pop. in 1851, 11,483; in 1861, 11,994. Houses, 2,376. Marriages in 1863, 101; births, 441, of which 34 were illegitimate; deaths, 271, of which 91were at ages under 5 years, and 8 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,083; births, 3,329; deaths, 2,149. The places of worship, in 1851, were 15 of the Church of England, with 4,700 sittings; 1 of Independents, with 400 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 314 s.; 3 of Wesleyans, with 648 s.; 1 of New Connexion Methodists, with 150 s.; and 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 30 s. The schools were 15 public day schools, with 790 scholars; 17 private day schools, with 369 s.; and 15 Sunday schools, with 1,193 s. The division is mainly identical with the district, and forms part of Brimstree hundred. Acres, 33,489. Pop. in 1851, 9,657. Houses, 1,854.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Idsall commonly Shiffnal. A market town and parish in the Shiffnal division of the hundred of Brimstry, a vicarage in charge, in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, the deanery of Newport, and archdeaconry of Salop. 856 houses, 4,411 inhabitants. Market on Friday; Fairs, 1st Monday in April, August 5, November 23. 18 miles south-east by east of Shrewsbury, 143 north-west of London.

Shiffnal was anciently called Idsall. It is a small town, near the boarders of Staffordshire, in the direct road from London to Shrewsbury and Holyhead. With the exception of its parish church, which is a large and interesting cruciform building, it contains little that is worthy of particular remark. Under the square central tower of the church, there were formerly four semi-circular arches, which have been transformed into elegant painted ones. On the north side, the choir has ancient, round headed windows, with Saxon mouldings. There is a fine altar, and tombs of the family of Briggs. An inscription in this church informs us that William Wakely was baptized at Idsall, or Shiffnal, May 1, 1591, and was buried at Asbaston, November 28, 1714, his age being upwards of 124; that he had lived in the reigns of eight Kings and Queens, viz., Elizabeth, James the first, Charles the first, Charles the second, James the second, William and Mary, Anne, and George the first. Attached to the south aisle is a chantry. The roof of the nave, of oak, which is said to be richly carved, has been of late entirely obscured by a plaister ceiling. In 1810, the whole church was fitted up at considerable expense.

Shiffnal is the native place of Dr. Thomas Beddoes, a man justly eminent as well for his medical skill as for his general literary talent. He was born in the year 1754, or 1755, and was educated at the free school at Bridgnorth.