CHURCHES.
There were medieval chapels at
Great Dawley and Malinslee and perhaps at Little
Dawley. Only the first, which had come to be
considered a parish church by the 16th century,
was recorded in documentary sources. New churches were built at Malinslee and Little Dawley to
cater for the rapid population growth of the early
19th century, and the ancient parish was consequently divided into three ecclesiastical districts
in the 1840s. In 1975 the three parishes were
combined with Stirchley and Lawley to form the
new parish of Central Telford.
Architectural evidence and reference to a priest
of Dawley in 1186-7 suggest that there was a
chapel at Great Dawley before the end of the 12th
century. The lords of Great Dawley manor presented to the living as to a parish church in the
mid 13th century, but the advowson of Dawley
'chapel' was confirmed by them to Walter of
Dunstanville, patron of the mother church of
Shifnal, in 1256. (fn. 14) Thereafter until the 16th century it was considered to be a chapel in Shifnal
parish (fn. 15) and, as such, was appropriated to Battlefield college in 1410. (fn. 16) The connexion with
Shifnal ceased after 1563 when the rectory and
church of Dawley were leased from the Crown. (fn. 17)
The living was a curacy, from 1792 called
perpetual, (fn. 18) until it became a vicarage in 1866. (fn. 19)
After the dissolution of Battlefield college in
1548 Dawley was a royal donative. (fn. 20) The rectory
was acquired by John Watson (d. 1606) and
thereafter the impropriator seems to have been
responsible for providing a minister. (fn. 21) In 1655
William Pierrepont and Sir John Corbet, both
staunch Parliamentarians, (fn. 22) were named as
patrons, (fn. 23) the rectory having been sequestrated. (fn. 24)
After the Restoration patronage was again exercised by the impropriators, who also held the
advowson of Stirchley. From 1715 curates were
normally licensed to the cure but there was no
formal presentation and institution until the living
became a vicarage. (fn. 25) In 1878 Andrew Phillips
conveyed the advowson of Dawley to the bishop
of Lichfield, (fn. 26) who held it until the living was
absorbed into Central Telford parish in 1975. (fn. 27)
The living was a poor one until augmented in
the late 18th and early 19th century. In 1639 the
impropriator paid the curate a stipend of 20 marks
(£13 6s. 8d.) (fn. 28) and by the early 18th century the
curate was said to have c. £12 yearly, (fn. 29) made up of
a modus of £6 6s. 8d. for tithes in Malinslee, a
payment of £4 10s. from the impropriator in lieu
of the tithe of hay in Great and Little Dawley, and
small tithes valued at c. £1. (fn. 30) The impropriator
John Revell (d. 1729) left the curate an additional
£5 yearly, charged on land at Hadley. (fn. 31) In 1756
the living was further augmented by Rebecca
Walthall's legacy towards obtaining Queen Anne's
Bounty. (fn. 32) By 1832 the living was worth £154 16s.
8d., of which £104 came from interest on augmentations from Queen Anne's Bounty and
parliamentary grants made between 1779 and
1825. (fn. 33) Further augmentations between 1837 and
1878 (fn. 34) increased the living's gross annual value to
£302 in 1903. (fn. 35)
The great tithes, a tithe barn on the south side
of the churchyard, (fn. 36) and c. 25 a. of glebe scattered
in Great Dawley township belonged to the
impropriator. (fn. 37) So did the parsonage to the east of
the churchyard, which was described in 1851 as
an old timber-framed building fit for demolition. (fn. 38)
There was no curate's residence until 1838 when a
house was built at Brandlee. (fn. 39)
The names of two mid 13th-century incumbents are known. One of them, Peter of Radnor,
archdeacon of Salop, was said to have been parson
until his death c. 1279. (fn. 40) The late 16th and early
17th century was marked by short incumbencies, (fn. 41)
often those of young men who left for more
lucrative livings. (fn. 42) Complaints of laxity were made
against Thomas Patmore, recorded as curate
1635-9. (fn. 43) The living was temporarily made more
attractive in 1647 when Francis Watson, the
impropriator, gave the church an annuity of £56
in settlement of his fine for delinquency. (fn. 44) From c.
1665 Dawley was generally served by the rectors
of Stirchley, (fn. 45) who often employed assistant curates at Dawley. Robert Bromhall, an elderly
man, was licensed as deacon there in 1697 and
also served Wombridge. (fn. 46) Edward Fosbrooke, recorded as curate 1730-63, (fn. 47) was rector of Stirchley
1758-75. John Rogers, curate 1772 (or earlier) to
1792, also held Shifnal and Stirchley livings. He
employed an assistant curate, who lived at Stirchley and did duty there and at Dawley. In 1772
there was one Sunday service, with additional
prayers in Lent and on some holy days, and
communion, taken by 20-30, four times a year. (fn. 48)
Dawley was held with Stirchley until 1832.
By the late 18th century the increased population had far outgrown the capacity of the old
church: it was noted in 1799 that many parishioners went to church at Wellington or Madeley. (fn. 49) In
1805 St. Leonard's, a new church with 795
sittings, was built on the borders of Malinslee and
Great Dawley townships, a site more convenient
than that of the old church for the growing
industrial population of Old Park, Dawley Bank,
and Dawley Green. The old church was closed
except for burials, and the intention was that St.
Leonard's would thenceforth be the sole parish
church. (fn. 50) Pressure from some parishioners for the
reopening of the old church was felt by 1810 (fn. 51) and
services were resumed there c. 1818, St.
Leonard's becoming merely a chapel of ease until
it was assigned a district chapelry in 1843. (fn. 52)
Assistant curates, who lived in the parish, were
employed in the 1820s and 1830s, and the number
of Sunday services at Great Dawley increased
from one in 1824 to two in the 1830s, and three in
1843. Communion was given seven times a year
by 1832. (fn. 53)
After the separation of Malinslee chapelry in
1843 and Little Dawley parish in 1844 (fn. 54) the old
church was rebuilt, and the new church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, served the central
built-up area of Great Dawley township. (fn. 55) On
Census Sunday 1851 morning service there was
attended by 160 adults, that in the afternoon by
80, and evening service by 370. (fn. 56)
In 1872, during the incumbency of R. C.
Wanstall (1870-88), an Evangelical who was concerned to reach his parish's large labouring
population, (fn. 57) a small brick mission chapel was
opened at Hinkshay. (fn. 58) It closed c. 1969 (fn. 59) and the
building was used in 1980 as a social club for the
adjacent Ever-Ready factory.
The ancient parish church, whose dedication
has not been traced, (fn. 60) stood a little south-east of
the church of the HOLY TRINITY, which replaced it. Only the 12th-century font and several
18th-century monumental inscriptions survive
from the former building. (fn. 61) The old church (fn. 62) was a
small stone building consisting of chancel, nave
with south porch, and west tower. Nave and
chancel were probably 12th-century. In the early
14th century a doorway and window were inserted
into the south wall of the chancel. The tower was
added, and windows inserted in the south wall of
the nave, in the late 14th and 15th century. In
1716 five new bells were acquired, (fn. 63) and a west
gallery was inserted in 1720, perhaps when the
brick porch was added. The church suffered
badly from mining subsidence in the late 18th and
early 19th century, and massive brick buttresses
were built to support it after 1786 and before
1824, probably in 1819 when the church was
repaired after being reopened. (fn. 64) In 1826 the parish
meeting rejected the possibility of replacing the
church by a new building on a site that would be
free from subsidence. (fn. 65) A new south gallery was
built and a small vestry added in 1838.
Holy Trinity church, designed by Harvey
Eginton of Worcester, (fn. 66) replaced the old church in
1845. (fn. 67) It is of sandstone, in the Perpendicular
style, and consists of a chancel with north vestry,
aisled nave with west gallery, west tower, and
south porch, which was converted into a baptistery in 1883. (fn. 68)
Among the fittings, most of which were moved
to St. Leonard's c. 1805 but later returned to
Great Dawley, (fn. 69) were the bells, a medieval silver
paten remodelled c. 1582, and a chalice of 1746. (fn. 70)
The registers begin in 1666 and are complete,
except for baptisms 1840-2 and burials 1835-42,
which were entered in volumes later used by St.
Leonard's church, Malinslee. (fn. 71)
The churchyard, confined on the south and east
by the roads to Little Dawley and Dawley Green,
had become crowded with graves by 1824, despite
the provision of extra land for burials at St.
Leonard's church in 1805. (fn. 72) The consecrated area
was extended by a total of over 2 a. in 1834, (fn. 73)
c.
1843, (fn. 74) 1890, (fn. 75) 1940, (fn. 76) and 1954. (fn. 77)
Malinslee had a separate chapel in the 12th
century and was then presumably in Shifnal
parish, (fn. 78) but Malinslee was subsequently considered part of Dawley parish and was served by the
incumbents of Dawley until St. Leonard's, built
in 1805, was allotted a district chapelry in 1843.
The medieval chapel, an isolated building a little
east of Spout House, (fn. 79) was a small sandstone
structure c. 15 metres long, consisting of chancel
and nave divided by a stone screen; it has been
dated to c. 1150. (fn. 80) In 1909 the ruin was bought by
Edward Parry, vicar of Malinslee, who proposed
to restore it as a place of worship to designs by W.
A. Webb. (fn. 81) The scheme came to nothing and the
chapel was taken down to make way for Telford
town centre, and the stones stored, by Telford
development corporation in 1971. (fn. 82)
In 1805 the church of ST. LEONARD was built
on the south-west edge of Malinslee township by I.
H. Browne, owner of Malinslee, and Thomas
Gisborne, with money left for charitable purposes
by Browne's great-grandfather Isaac Hawkins. (fn. 83)
Although intended to replace Dawley old church,
St. Leonard's remained a chapel of ease until 1843
when it was assigned a district chapelry covering
Malinslee township and Dawley Bank. (fn. 84) The
benefice was in the gift of the vicar of Dawley
Magna. The living was abolished in 1975 when
Malinslee became part of the new parish of
Central Telford. (fn. 85)
In the 1830s the income of the assistant curate
who served St. Leonard's was c. £105, of which
£50 came from pew rents and £55 from the
subscriptions of the major landowners and
industrialists. (fn. 86) After becoming a separate benefice the living was augmented by grants from
Queen Anne's Bounty in 1845-6 and 1855 (fn. 87) and
other grants in 1867 and 1879. (fn. 88) By 1884 those
augmentations produced £243 16s. 10d. yearly,
while pew rents and fees were worth only £15. (fn. 89) In
1897 and 1903 the annual income was further
increased by c. £25 by the purchase of a glebe
cottage and c. 2½ a. of land. (fn. 90) The cottage was sold
in 1961. (fn. 91)
A vicarage immediately north of the church was
provided in the 1840s; (fn. 92) it was demolished in
1975. (fn. 93)
St. Leonard's served as the parish church from
1805, but the old church was reopened c. 1818
and St. Leonard's became a chapel of ease for the
northern parts of the parish. In 1824 there was
one Sunday service at St. Leonard's. By 1829
most of the duty was done by an assistant curate
who lived at Dawley Green and there were two
services with sermons each Sunday. Communion
services increased from five a year in 1824 to seven
in the 1830s. (fn. 94) After Malinslee became a separate
benefice the church's activity increased. The new
parish's population was large and scattered and
the vicars of Malinslee frequently employed curates in the late 19th and early 20th century. (fn. 95) In
1851 a mission room in a building at Old Park was
licensed. (fn. 96) It may have been the forerunner of
Malinslee Institute, built 1859, (fn. 97) in which weekday services were held in the 1880s. (fn. 98) The Institute was converted into an infant school in 1898. (fn. 99)
A second mission room, on the south side of the
churchyard, was built in 1883 as a result of a
mission to combat drunkenness in the Dawley
Bank area, led by the Revd. Gilbert James of
Burton-upon-Trent in 1882. The room later
served as a church hall until it was demolished in
1974. (fn. 1) The parish's longest-serving vicar was Edward Parry (1895-1935), a forceful character who
influenced many aspects of parish life. In the
1890s he was the moving force behind the foundation of Malinslee Institute infant school and in the
1920s attempted the reclamation of pit mounds
for playing fields and gardens and built several
houses using unemployed labour. (fn. 2)
St. Leonard's church is an octagonal building
of local sandstone with a west tower. (fn. 3) It closely
resembles Thomas Telford's Madeley church
(1794) in design (fn. 4) and was built in 1805 by John
Simpson, who did much local work for Telford; (fn. 5)
it is not, however, certain whether Telford was
directly involved in scaling down his Madeley
design for Malinslee. (fn. 6) Internally the church was
galleried and originally had nearly 800 sittings.
An extra 200 seats were provided by extending the
galleries in the 1830s. (fn. 7) and further internal modifications were made in 1901. (fn. 8) In 1975-6 a major
internal reorganization took place to enable the
church to be used for social purposes; a kitchen
and lavatories were provided and the galleries
made into separate rooms by the erection of glass
screens. (fn. 9)
Bells, plate, and registers were removed from
Dawley old church to St. Leonard's but were
returned when the old church reopened c. 1818.
William Botfield gave a new set of plate to St.
Leonard's in 1833 (fn. 10) and four bells in 1839; (fn. 11) the
latter were replaced by a set of six bells in 1887. (fn. 12)
The registers, which begin in 1835, are complete.
They contain baptisms and burials for the whole
of Dawley parish until 1843. (fn. 13)
An early 18th-century tradition that there was
formerly a chapel at Little Dawley, (fn. 14) and mention
of a house there called the 'old chapel' in 1631, (fn. 15)
suggest that there was an early chapel in the
township. It may have been a medieval stone
building demolished in 1911, (fn. 16) which was then
known as the 'old manor house'. (fn. 17) In 1844 Little
Dawley township and the Horsehay area were
constituted a separate parish, (fn. 18) and the church of
ST. LUKE was built at Doseley next year. (fn. 19) The
living, in the gift of the Crown and the bishop of
Lichfield alternately, was endowed with £150 a
year by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on its
creation. (fn. 20) It was augmented four times between
1889 and 1913. (fn. 21) A parsonage was built north-west
of the church in 1845 and enlarged in 1899; (fn. 22) it
was sold in 1974. (fn. 23)
St. Luke's was designed by R. Griffiths of
Broseley. (fn. 24) It is of red and pale grey brick with
sandstone dressings and consists of apsidal sanctuary with north vestry, nave with south porch of
timber and brick, and a western bell turret of
stone, containing one bell. Architectural details
are Norman in style. (fn. 25) A Sunday school was built
between the church and vicarage in 1912; a
timber lych-gate to the churchyard was built in
1920; and the graveyard was extended north-east
of the church in 1932. (fn. 26) The registers begin in
1845 and are complete. (fn. 27) On the creation of
Central Telford parish in 1975 St. Luke's was
made redundant; it was sold in 1980.
Patronage of the three Dawley livings was
suspended when they fell vacant in 1964-5 (fn. 28) and
in 1975 they were combined with Lawley and
Stirchley to form the new parish of Central
Telford, served by a team ministry. The right to
present the team rector was vested in a patronage
board, which presented every first, second, and
fourth turn, the Crown presenting at the third
turn. (fn. 29) The three 19th-century vicarages in Dawley were replaced by a rectory, containing a small
meeting room, at the new Hollinswood housing
estate in 1976, (fn. 30) and by new vicarages at Chiltern
Gardens, Dawley, c. 1977, and adjacent to St.
Leonard's church, Malinslee, in 1980. (fn. 31) The parish was divided into four pastoral districts, centred on churches at Dawley (Holy Trinity), Stirchley (All Saints), town centre (St. Leonard),
and Lawley (St. John). Each member of the team
ministry, consisting of the rector and three vicars,
was responsible for a district. (fn. 32)