Madeley, Shropshire

Historical Description

Madeley, a small town, the head of a poor-law union and county court district, and a parish in Salop. The town stands 1 mile N of a bend of the river Severn, 2 miles E by N of Ironbridge, and 6 SE by S of Wellington, belonged anciently to Wenlock Abbey, and obtained the grant of a market under that abbey in the time of Henry II. It has a station (Madeley Court) on the Wellington and Craven Arms branch of the G.W.R., another (Madeley Market) on the Wellington and Coalport branch of the L. & N.W.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) The market went into disuse, but was revived about the middle of the 18th century, and a new market-house was then erected in Ironbridge. The Anstice Memorial Institute and Workmen's Club, erected in 1869, includes a reading-room and library and a large hall. The parish contains also Coalport, the town and ecclesiastical parish of Ironbridge, and the village and ecclesiastical parish of Coalbrookdale. It forms the Madeley ward of the municipal borough of Much Wen-lock. Acreage, 2841; population, 8177. The scenery, notwithstanding the presence of very extensive ironworks, is strikingly beautiful; and it derives features of interest from some works of art, particularly the famous iron bridge over the Severn. The substrata contain valuable deposits of coal, ironstone, and potters' clay. The ironworks of Madeley Wood and Madeley Court employ about 1500 persons, and the Coalport china works employ about 400. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, 4099. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford; net value, £296 with residence. The church was rebuilt in 1796, superseded a church of Norman date, is a stone edifice in the Grecian style with a tower, and contains a monument to Fletcher, author of " Checks to Antinomianism" and other works, who was vicar. The vicarages of Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale are separate benefices. There are Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, Primitive and New Connexion Methodist, and Wesleyan chapels. The workhouse is at Ironbridge.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Findmypast, in association with the Shropshire Archives have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Madeley

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Madeley from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Madeley-Market (All Saints))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Shropshire (Salop) is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Madeley are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Shropshire newspapers online:

• Shrewsbury Chronicle
• Wellington Journal
• Eddowes's Journal, and General Advertiser for Shropshire, and the Principality of Wales
• Ludlow Advertiser
• Salopian Journal

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Shropshire, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.