Shropshire by McNeill, John; New, Elizabeth;

Short description:

This book considers the shift in the regional administrative centre from Wroxeter to Shrewsbury, the powerful evidence for investment in the material fabric of the middle Welsh March, particularly between the late 11th and 13th centuries, and Shropshire’s great monastic hinterland.

Long description:

Shropshire: Art, Architecture and Archaeology from Roman Wroxeter to the Sixteenth Century considers the shift in the regional administrative centre from Wroxeter to Shrewsbury, the powerful evidence for investment in the material fabric of the middle Welsh March, particularly between the late 11th and 13th centuries, and Shropshire’s great monastic hinterland.

Chapters cover Shropshire from many different angles, encompassing wide-ranging case studies that address architecture, figure-sculpture, and stained glass, as well as questions of liturgy, religion, and castle life. Topics include reappraisals of the 19th- and 20th-century excavations of Wroxeter, Laurence of Ludlow’s involvement in the building of Stokesay Castle, and Shrewsbury Castle, as well as a study of anchorite cells attached to Shropshire parish churches. There is new evidence for the deployment of water features and gardens around late medieval castles; evaluations of Haughmond Abbey, Wenlock Priory, and the Abbot’s Lodging at Buildwas; and a reconstruction of the late medieval glazing scheme at St Bartholomew’s Tong. Also investigated are the recently recovered 15th-century seal matrix of Shrewsbury, Romanesque sculptural workshop practice, and the enigmatic alabaster panels at St Mary’s, Shrewsbury.

Shropshire: Art, Architecture and Archaeology from Roman Wroxeter to the Sixteenth Century updates and enlarges our knowledge of the middle Welsh March and is for medieval archaeologists and historians.

Table of Contents:

List of figures; Abbreviations; Notes on Contributors; Preface; 1 Charles Roach Smith and Thomas Wright at Wroxeter; 2 Shropshire in an Age of Transition; 3 Shrewsbury Castle; 4 The Patronage of Earl Roger and Countess Adelais: Much Wenlock Priory, Shrewsbury Abbey and Quatford College c. 1070 – c. 1094/1102; 5 The Monastic Buildings at Wenlock Priory c. 1080 – c. 1300; 6 The Abbot’s Lodging and Infirmary Complex at Buildwas Abbey: A Window on Cistercian Abbatial Accommodation; 7 The Figure-Sculpture of Haughmond Abbey; 8 Anchorites, Antiquarians, and Archaeology: The Material Remains of Shropshire Anchorites in Parish Churches; 9 The Grinshill Connection: A Group of Romanesque Fonts in North Shropshire and West Staffordshire; 10 Crocus-blossom, Shuttlecock or Ice Cream Cornet?  The Peculiar Distribution of a late-twelfth-century Architectural Ornament; 11 Landscapes of Lordship in Late Medieval Shropshire; 12 Concepts and Realities: the South Tower and Wider Complex at Stokesay Castle; 13 A Topographical Seal? The 15th-Century Seal and Seal-Matrix of the Town of Shrewsbury; 14 Three Alabaster Panels at Saint Mary’s, Shrewsbury; 15 A Monument ‘what myn executors thinke best for me’: The Commemoration of Arthur Vernon (d.1517) at Tong; 16 ‘…To barter an earthly treasure for a heavenly, and the changes of the moment for enduring happiness’: The Early 15th-Century Stained Glass of St Bartholomew’s, Tong; Index.