Beckbury

is a parish and village in the Shiffnal Division of the Brimstree Hundred, comprising 1321a. 0r. 10p. of land, and situated six miles and a half N.E. from Bridgnorth, and four miles S. from Shiffnal. In 1801 there were 231 inhabitants; 1831, 307; and in 1841, 61 houses and 312 souls. Rateable value, £1,942. 9s. 8d. The principal landowners are C. H. Slaney, Esq., Walter Stubbs, Esq., Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esq., Dr. Windham, Dr. Fowler, and Mrs. Frances Horton.

The Church, dedicated to St. Milburgh, is built of red free-stone, and consists of nave and chancel, with a square tower, in which are three bells. In the chancel are several memorials, one of which remembers W. J. Yonge, Esq., of Caynton House, who died in 1825, aged 71 years; also of Captain William Horton, who died in 1844. There are also several memorials to various members of the Stubbs family and others, one of which (a slab of limestone) has the outlines of the figures of a male and a female, with smaller figures of ten children. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £5. 3s. 4d., in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor; incumbent, Rev. Henry Ralph Smythe. The tithes are commuted for £333, and the rector has 31a. 0r. 18p. of glebe land. Beckbury Hall is a commodious family mansion, of brick, the residence and property of Walter Stubbs, Esq., a considerable landowner in this parish.

Post Office—At Thomas Page’s. Letters arrive at 8 A.M., and are despatched at 4.45 P.M.

Directory.—Benjamin Adams, shoemaker; Thos. Baugh, beerhouse-keeper; Isaac Bradburn, draper and shopkeeper; Samuel Brown, farmer; Benjamin Corfield, farmer; George Hand, butcher; John Hand, carpenter; Thomas Hand, parish clerk and builder; William Hand, joiner; William Hampton, blacksmith; Thomas Page, shopkeeper and postmaster; William Poyner, butcher; John Richards, maltster and farmer; Rev. Walter Ralph Smythe, rector, The Rectory; Thomas Southall, beerhouse keeper; Samuel Thurstaus, farmer and maltster, Heath House; Walter Stubbs, Esq., Beckbury Hall; John Ward, Esq., R.N., Lower Hall; Richard Williams, shopkeeper; John Warren, tailor and draper; Benjamin Worrall, farmer, Snowdon Pool.