Old St. Chad's Church - The Story of a Sudden Building Collapse in Shrewsbury 1780s

Old St. Chad's Church Clock Chimes Struck at 4 am - WHAT HAPPENED THEN?

This is one of a series of videos about Shrewsbury Local History Events, and it took place in the 1780s.

Watch our video below for the answer, but don't forget to return afterwards to SCROLL DOWN this page for the full article.

A local stonemason was employed by the churchwardens of the Old Saint Chad's Church to mend some alarmingly large cracks that had appeared in the church.

As it was nearly midsummer he started work at 4am, and went to the sexton’s house nearby to collect the key.

While he did so the church clock struck 4:00.

The heavy movement, caused a vibration which was the final straw for the tottering structure, and, he, and two chimney sweeps working nearby noticed that the tower "suddenly opened".

It stood for a moment, as it were, suspended on the balance, and FELL; as it sunk, a cloud of dust rose so high, that for a while it concealed every surrounding object.

When the dust fell-away the whole area was spread with masses of stone, lead and timber, they lay in confused heaps, mingled with the shattered remains of pews, monuments, bells, and fragments of the gilded pipes and the framework of the noble organ.

The north side of the church had gone, while the whole of the south side of the tower hung in the air, with portions of its beams threatening destruction to any who would dare approach them,’ a contemporary wrote.

Furthermore, this need not have happened if the church authorities had listened to the advice, which was given previously by the young Thomas Telford, to start his recommended repairs, urgently.

In this capacity as County Surveyor he had previously been asked by the churchwardens of St Chad’s Church to report on some rather alarming cracks that had appeared in the building.

Telford had presented his report, ending with the words, “I think, Gentlemen, that if you have any other business to discuss, you would be wise to continue your meeting elsewhere, since this church may fall down on our heads at any moment.”

However the churchwardens chose to ignore the advice of the young Scotsman, and had employed that local stonemason alone to remedy the defects.

After much debate, the new St Chad’s Church was built near the Quarry, which stands to this day, but contrary to what you would expect Telford was not asked for advice on that.

Not that it mattered to him, because the fear of other medieval churches collapsing into oblivion, gave Telford lots of work, and he designed and oversaw the building of several new churches, in Shropshire at that time.

Attribution: Image of Old St. Chad's Church is by Richard Symonds (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

English Civil War and the Dramatic Seizure of Shrewsbury - Part 18

English Civil War -  Dramatic Seizure of Shrewsbury - Part 18 of the Story of Shropshire - The English Civil War 1642 to 1645

See Note 1 for attribution

The year of 1642 brought the horrors of the English Civil Wars, in which the Parliamentarians (led by men like Essex, Fairfax, and Cromwell) rebelled against King Charles I, whose government they considered to be arbitrary and oppressive.

Shrewsbury, like most of Shropshire apart from Wem, was strongly Royalist.

Watch our video below, but don't forget to come back here, after watching the video SCROLL ON DOWN THIS PAGE and tell us what you think, by commenting!

King Charles I visited the town in 1642, and Prince Rupert arrived and stayed for a few weeks in 1644. while Charles was there he recruited men for the disastrous campaign which later led to a Royalist defeat, in the famous battle of Marston Moor.

To prepare for any Parliamentary attack, the townspeople built additional fortifications which ran across the northern end of the town. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any evidence of those walls still existing today.

These included a fortified wall, and a ditch which reached from the Castle all the way to the western loop of the River Severn, and another wall and ditch which should have reached all the way to the eastern loop.

Unfortunately, it didn't - and the gap was filled by nothing stronger than a few feet of wooden palisade.

Learning of this weakness from their spies early in 1645, the Parliamentarians at Wem entrusted Lieutenant-Colonel William Reinking with a force of twelve hundred men and instructed him to seize Shrewsbury.

Setting out from Wem by the light of the moon, on the evening of Tuesday 21 February, Reinking and his followers are said to have reached Shrewsbury at about 4 O'clock on Wednesday morning.

The main body of some eight hundred horsemen halted to the north of Castle Foregate, while the other four hundred dismounted, and made their way across the fields towards the wooden palisade by the river.

Reinking had brought carpenters with saws and axes to cut down the palisade, but when they arrived he was afraid that the noise of breaking down these fences would wake them, and alert the garrison to their presence.

So he launched a small boat on the River Severn, loaded it up with men, and told them to row it up-river and land inside the defences. However, the current in the river that day, was apparently too strong for them.

Twice they tried and failed to by-pass the defences in this manner; and then they were seen by a royalist sentry, who gave the alarm. They realised that, at that point, it was too late to worry about making a noise. So, Reinking and five of his men rushed immediately to the palisade, and broke it down.

That allowed the infantry to rush through the gap.

One group of fifty are said to have used ladders which they had brought with them to scale over the town wall where it ran along the riverside. Once through they dashed across the town to open the northern gateway.

But, Sir Michael Earnley led a small sortie from the Castle, in an attempt to prevent them from reaching the gateway. In the melee that took place his men were swept aside, and he himself was seriously wounded.

So it was, a few minutes later, the gateway had been captured. The drawbridge was let down, and eight hundred Parliamentarian cavalry were rode into the town virtually unopposed.

Meanwhile Reinking, at the head of the other three hundred and fifty men, who had streamed through the gap in the palisade, went forward to St. Mary's Watergate. In those days a tower and sentry point was attached to the Gate.

However, the guards, both at that location, and at another fort higher up the lane (where it was crossed by the town walls), were traitors.

A pre-agreed password was given by the invaders, and the guards immediately opened the gates. This allowed the Parliamentarian infantry to stream into the town.

They reached the street between the castle and the town, just as the cavalry came up.

Reinking was given a horse once again, and led an attack upon the 'Court of the Main Guard', which stood on the site of the present market square.

This was overcome after a short struggle in which it is said that Reinking had his horse killed under him.

Most of the royalist officers were taken in their beds.

That ends the story for us here.

Miraculously, the total loss on both sides was only seven men and one captain, and the Roundheads had gained the town.

Text based upon The Story of Shrewsbury, by Richard Graves, Hardwick House, Ellesmere 1993.

Charles I image: By Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1641 - 1641) Details of artist on Google Art Project - BQHR9te2WWtyOA at Google Cultural Institute , Public Domain, Link