The Manor of Myddle - A Brief History

Myddle is an extensive agricultural parish, eight miles north west of Shrewsbury. Presented below is a time line of events which occured during the last 1000 years. (Information gleaned mainly from an unpublished anonymous study of the village.)

Date
Description
Pre 1066
Seward held the manor (possible reference)
1086
Domesday book states that it was held by Rainald the Sheriff under Earl Roger. With church extant.
1100+
The Fitz Alan family of Clun
By 1165
John Le Strange acquired the manor under licence from the Fitz Alan family.
1234
Peace treaty signed in Myddle between King Henry III and Welsh Prince Llewellyn
1308
The Le Strange family obtained a licence to make a castle from their house in Myddle, as it was safer from the Welsh than their castles in Knockin and Ruyton
1570
Myddle Pools drained
About 1580
After 420 years as Lords of the Manor, the Le Stranges had no male issue. Joan Le Strange married Sir George Stanley and so Myddle belonged to the Earl of Derby. They had a son Thomas who became the second Earl of Derby
1596
Elizabeth 1 granted Thomas Barnston a licence to sell land in Myddle
1600
Sir Thomas Egerton bought Myddle. His son was elected by King James I to become the first Earl of Bridgewater.(1579 - 1649)
1617
Harmer Moss drained
1634
Building of the church tower started
1642
Recruitment of King Charles I army on Pym Hill. 20 men recruited from Myddle, 14 killed.
1688
Myddle castle fell down after an earthquake.
17thC
Myddle residents included Masons, Carpenters, shoemakers, coopers, blacksmiths and weavers.
1749
Myddle Church (Nave and Choir) rebuilt.
18thC
A tannery was operating in Myddle and a copper mine on Pym Hill supplied Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale.
1753 - 1823
John Egerton the seventh Earl of Bridgewater inherited vast sums of money from the Duke of Bridgewater (The Canal Duke) and left his own wealth to the son of the first Earl Brownlow, the grandson of his only married sister Lady Louise Egerton. In this way the manor of Myddle passed form the Bridgewater family to the Earls of Brownlow in the first half of the 19th century.
1797 to 1829
The eighth earl was Francis Henry Egerton Rector of Myddle. He was an absentee parson who spent the last 26 years of his life on the Continent.
Mid 19thC
Myddle residents included butcher, stone masons, saddler, rope maker, washerwomen, market women, dressmaker, wheelwright, carpenter, clockmaker and weaver.
1880's
A rectangular shaped brickworks was operating at Fenemere and a round one at Marton.
1924
The manor was broken up and sold in order to pay the death duties upon the demise of the third Earl Brownlow.
1942
A Whitley bomber crashed in the village after taking off from nearby Sleap airfield..