26 May 2026 Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England
Hot, busy day today, and I got in all of my steps. 6 stops along the way, including a castle, an abbey, 3 churches, and a battlefield.
Before I go any further, I have an apology to make. I should have outlined for you the difference between a Priory, an Abbey, and a Cathedral.
The simple answer to this question is that an abbey was an enclosed religious house of monks (or nuns, or canons who followed a monastic rule) which, in Benedictine tradition, should have at least 12 religious, headed by an abbot or abbess.
A priory was in some sense a lesser religious house headed by a prior or prioress (i.e. a rank below abbot or abbess).
There were four major religious orders that also had a say in what their Abbeys and Priories were called. Augustinian, Benedictine, Cistercian, and Cluniac.
In practice the position was rather more complicated, mainly because of variations in practice among the various monastic orders (and because monastic houses with the status of abbeys may have retained their title if their number of religious fell, which occurred in some English monasteries in the later Middle Ages). Priors were also deputies to abbots in the larger abbeys. In summary, abbeys were in principle bigger than priories, but much depended on the practice of the various orders.
Then there were Friaries. The heads of houses of friars (Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite, Austin) were generally termed priors, although their houses were known as friaries rather than priories (though the park where the surviving choir of the Franciscan friary in Chichester stands – the former castle, where the friars were given land in the bailey – is known as Priory Park).
A cathedral is a church that contains the cathedra (bishop's
seat), serving as the central church of a diocese. It is primarily a place of
Christian worship and often holds significant cultural and historical
importance in its community.
Sorry for the lesson. They can all be a bit confusing. For the purpose of my genealogy research, I lump all religious houses into one category, and that includes churchyards (cemeteries) and parish churches.
Shrewsbury is a city in Shropshire county, and it has a Cathedral and an Abbey. I asked a lady at one of the bookshops I went to today, and she just said that in Shrewsbury, the Cathedral is Catholic, and the Abbey is Protestant. Ok, now about what I saw, and some pictures.
The first place I went to was St Chad's Church. St Chads was originally built in the 8th Century A.D. Henry III had the church rebuilt during his reign (1216-1272). The new St Chads which stands today was completed in 1790.
I am not sure if I have any ancestors buried in this St Chads, but probably not. They would have been on the Old St Chads before it was destroyed and it's stones became the foundation of the New St Chads Church. The big reason I came to St Chads was a promise to my son, Jacob, the take a picture of a very important man's tombstone in the Churchyard of St Chads.
In all reality, this was originally a movie prop that was left in the Churchyard, but it has become a tourist site among those who follow the Best Christmas story ever told by Charles Dickens. This is from the 1984 movie adaption of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, starring George C Scott.
I wandered around Shrewsbury for while after St Chads. They have a great market hall that has a lot of food stands, a book store, and an open air market. I made my way down to the Shrewsbury Castle.
Roger de Montgomery II (1022-1094)
Joan Corbet (born 1261, married Owain ap Griffith, later became Owen de la Pole)
Owain ap Griffith
This is Laura's Tower at the Castle. Check out the river stone rock used to pave the walkway to the tower.
Next I visited St Marys Church in Shrewsbury. Many of the burials have been moved from inside the church to one of the town's cemeteries.
This church has gone through many renovations over the years. I was even shown a tombstone that was used in a later renovation to build a wall on a newer part of the church. Just focus on the flashlight beam to see engravings in the light gray stone.
My ancestors associated with this church were Frances Anne Baker, married to Captain Samuel Silas Jordan, one of the early settlers near Jamestown Virginia. When Frances died, within a year Samuel left for the New World, and did quite well for himself.
Another ancestor was Adam Beaman, who was born in 1570 and died in 1656. Not much is known about him.
While I was visiting the Church, I found a tomb for a Knight buried in a chapel just off to the right of the Altar. His name was Simon Leybourne, and he died in 1315. Using my genealogy software as a guide, I found that I am indeed related to him, but he is the son of my 29th Great Grandfather Robert de Leybourne, but not my direct ancestor, who was William de Leybourne, his brother. It's still cool to find little discoveries like that somewhere that you have never been to. Here's his effigy in the church.
Shrewsbury Abbey almost looks like it was built with bricks from a distance, but as you get closer, the stone is Red Sandstone. When Roger de Montgomery came to Shrewsbury, he laid his hands on the altar of a small wooden Anglo-Saxon church, and vowed to built an Abbey. That's how he came to be buried here. I have eight ancestors associated with this Abbey, mostly burials.
Other burials include Hugh de Talbot in 1075, William FitzAlan I in 1160, and Thomas de Corbet in 1274.
The last stop was to the Battlefield at Tewkesbury, where Henry Hotspur Percy challenged King Henry IV, and was defeated and killed. The battlefield itself is about 2 miles of farmland, but St Mary Magdalene's Church next to the battlefield was where the remains of the dead were taken before they were claimed and shipped off to their families.
Looking across what could have been part of the battlefield, you can see the church tower rising above the tree line.
There used to be the banners hanging in the church of those who fought in the battle, but now there are just momentos, picture boards, and descriptions of what went down. Still, it is a nice church, and its historical significance to English history can't be ignored. Here are a few of the things I saw in there.
I had a lot of ancestors who died at the battle of Shrewsbury, but am still going through all of the information I found to include those who fought and lived on King Henry IV's side as well. The dead include:
Sir Walter Blount, Henry Hotspur Percy, Robert Bruce II, 2nd Lord of Clackmannan, and Hugh Shirley.
