The History of the Manor of Ruyton-of-the-Eleven-Towns, with those now published of the Manor of Sandford and Woolston and of the Township of Twyford, together makes up a complete history of the two Parishes of Ruyton in the Eleven Towns and of West Felton, though the different parts of that history necessarily terminate at the different dates at which the various chapters of it were published. The Manors were formerly the units of administration for all civil purposes; but from the time of the Reformation the ecclesiastical organisation has been found the most useful instrument of government, and the Parish has now entirely superseded the Manor. The civil Parishes of Ruyton and Felton are identical with the ecclesiastical ones, and are now the units of local government.

CHANTRY CHAPELS

IN

LUDLOW

BY HENRY T. WEYMAN, F.S.A.

CHURCH.

ALTHOUGH the Church of St. Lawrence, Ludlow, is of such great beauty and such splendid proportions, a wish is often expressed that it could be seen as it existed before the Reformation, with its beautiful colouring and frescoes, fine monuments and goodly array of Chantry Chapels with their altar furniture, plate, and decorations complete; with its exquisite glass (of which some remains to this day), its gorgeous images, and its great Rood. We may long to have seen the Church as it was in those days, though we should, most of us, greatly regret to see its then state replaced to-day. The fact is generally overlooked that the splendid proportions of the Church must have been much spoiled by its division into small Chapels which, though gorgeous in themselves, necessarily detracted from the general effect. Before the Reformation the choir was reserved for the priests and clergy, and the only part of the great church which was then available for general services (if there were any general services) was the eastern portion of the nave (or the middle aisle, as it is usually styled locally), from the gangway leading from the north to the south door to the pillars west of the pulpit and reading desk, a comparatively small space. The part west of the gangway was on a higher level than the rest of the nave and aisles, and this, as well as both aisles, was divided into small chapels.

Ludlow Church was undoubtedly one of great importance in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, but even to those to whom this is best known it will probably come as a surprise to learn that besides the high altar the Church contained certainly eighteen chantry altars, and probably one or two more. The late distinguished antiquary, Mr. Thomas Wright, in his notes to the Ludlow Churchwardens' accounts, stated that it would hardly be possible to identify Vol. IV., 3rd Series.

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the exact sites of the different chancels and chapels in the Church, and the late Mr. Penson thought that the only certain point was, that the Lady Chapel was on the south side of the Church. The writer has been able by the aid of materials which were not available to Mr. Wright, to ascertain, with tolerable certainty, the position of fifteen of the various Chancels and Altars, and has thought that it will be of interest to record the result of his investigations so that no information in regard to the most beautiful church in Shropshire may be lost.

The Church, no doubt, owes much to the Palmers' Gild, and it is worthy of record that as early as 1342 there were 10 chaplains attached to the Church, while in 1348 the number was increased to 16, William Pyrefeld, who died in that year, leaving money to the sixteen chaplains for masses in the Church of St. Lawrence. These chaplains were probably attached to the College, but they may have also been chantry priests.

There seems to be a prevalent idea that daily services in our churches are a modern innovation, but so far from this being the case, Churchyard writing in 1587 of Ludlow Church says in his Worthiness of Wales :—

“Three times a day in Church good service is,

At six of clock, at nine, and then at three,"

a custom which was continued, in summer at any rate, even to the end of the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries.

Chantries, it is needless to say, were endowments or foundations for the saying of masses and offering of prayers for the soul of the founder or of some other person, and the place in which the masses were to be said or sung was called a Chantry Chapel. It was an ordinary practice in the 15th century and the early part of the 16th for a testator anxious for his early release from the pains of purgatory to found or endow a chantry chapel, and to provide the remuneration for priests to say masses for his own soul and the souls of his family or friends. These chantry chapels were generally separated from the nave and aisles of the Church by open screen-work, sometimes of stone, as in the case of the beautiful chantry chapels in Tewkesbury Abbey, but more often of