Shifnal

Though the Roman road, Watling Street, forms the present northern boundary of Shifnal parish, there is no evidence that the Romans lived in the immediate area of Shifnal. It seems that Shifnal was probably settled by the Saxons in the middle of the 7th century. In the later Saxon period Shifnal, or Idsall as it was then known, was an important ecclesiastical centre; its church was a minster with priests who would have travelled
round to the people of Kemberton, Sheriffhales, Ryton, Sutton Maddock, Stirchley and Dawley before they had churches of their own. The present large and beautiful church was built in the late 12th century on the site of this Saxon church and was added to in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

The Domesday Book of 1086 shows that Shifnal was a relatively prosperous and
well-populated community. In 1245 the lord of manor, Walter de Dunstanville, exploited this prosperity and obtained a market charter from Henry III. He added to the original settlement of Idsall along Church Street and around the church by laying out a long market street now called Broadway, Bradford Street and Park Street; this market street became known as Shifnal. Until the 18th century the names of Idsall to distinguish the
parish and manor and Shifnal to mean the market town were carefully used, but in the 18th and 19th centuries the town was sometimes called Idsall alias Shifnal and sometimes Shifnal alias Idsall. Eventually the name Idsall was dropped and is today only recalled in the name of Idsall School, the town's secondary school.

Although there is a little evidence that Shifnal was badly hit by the Black Death in the mid 14th century, it seems that the town and parish enjoyed a modest prosperity in the later Middle Ages and the 16th and 17th centuries.

In the second half of the 16th century Shifnal was the scene for an early technological venture when a blast furnace was established near the manor house. In 1591 there was a serious fire which destroyed many houses to the east of the brook. The roof of the church, which was at that time made of wooden shingles, was also burnt, but Old Idsall House nearby apparently escaped the fire. However, the surviving half-timbered buildings suggest that the damage caused by the fire was quickly made good.

Shifnal's real prosperity came at the end of the 18th century when it catered for the coaches and their passengers on the road from London to Shrewsbury and the Irish mail coaches on their way to Holyhead. In the early 19th century as many as eighteen coaches a day stopped in Shifnal to change horses and pick up and set down passengers. Two Shifnal inns, the Jerningham Arms and the Star (on the site of Odfellows) competed for this lucrative trade.

In 1849 the railway from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury was opened and the coaching trade, which was already in decline, disappeared almost overnight. The town sank back into its earlier role as a small market town serving the needs of the immediate area. This decline of the town was in great contrast to Priorslee in the western part of the parish where coal mining and iron working had been increasingly important from the late 18th century.

Priorslee increasingly looked towards the coal field rather than Shifnal, and this separation was formally acknowledged in 1898 when Priorslee became a separate civil parish. In Shifnal town itself the only significant industry was Edge's chain works which was, however, for many years of considerably more than local importance.

Shifnal saw little further change until the 1960s when the rapid growth of estates around the town was accompanied by the clearance of some of the older buildings in the centre, particularly those between Cheapside and Bradford Street where the car park is today. This area is now open as it would have been in the Middle Ages.

Shifnal has kept much of its character as a market town and it remains independent in spite of its nearness to Telford. Its shopping area, though small, caters for the everyday needs of the residents, and its many pubs and eating places draw in people from a wide area. Though not an obvious tourist attraction like Ludlow or Shrewsbury, Shifnal has had a long and interesting history and with its lively community is a popular place to
live.

Thanks are owed to Dr Sylvia Watts for writing this article

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