Barrow

is a small but pleasantly situated village and parish, in the Wenlock Franchise, two miles east from Much Wenlock, and two miles south-west from Broseley. The parish contains 2,989a. 0r. 39p. of land, the rateable value of which is £3,086. 6s. 1d. At the census in 1801 there were 479 inhabitants; 1831, 351; and in 1841 there were 85 houses and a population of 383 souls. Lord Forester and Sir Richard Acton, Bart., are the landowners. Willey Hall, a handsome mansion, is the occasional seat of Lord Forester. The lands in this parish abound with game, which is rigidly preserved. The Church is a venerable structure, dedicated to St. Giles, and consists of nave and chancel, with a turret, in which are two bells. The walls display many tabular monuments, and there is an antique font, with a capacious basin. On the south side of the church-yard is buried Tom Moody, the celebrated whipper-in to George Forester, Esq. The grave-stone is simply inscribed “Tom Moody, died 19th November, 1796.” The church was formerly an appendage to the Priory of Wenlock. The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to the rectory of Willey. The Rev. Henry Bridgeman is the incumbent.

The School and Almshouse.—John Slaney, merchant tailor of London, having, in his life-time, built in the parish of Barrow an almshouse for six poor aged men or women that had been ancient dwellers thereabout, and appointed six acres of ground to be laid out for their better relief and to the support of a school. He also directed an allowance of 1s. 4d. weekly to be made to each inmate, and every alternate year a good frieze gown to be given to each person, worth 13s. 4d., and hose and shoes to the value of 6s. 8d. Mr. Slaney also erected a school for the free teaching of twenty children, and ordained that a great part of the six acres of land above mentioned should be for the maintenance of the school; and he gave towards the maintenance of the schoolmaster £10 a-year for ever. For the performance of the said allowance he gave a rent charge of £30 per annum issuing out of his manor of Willey. And for the residue of his gift to make up the pensions of the said schoolhouse and almshouse, he charged his cousin, John Slaney, that he and his heirs and assignees should for ever pay the same as a rent charge out of his lands called the Hem, which lands he gave to his said cousin on his continuing the charities according to the conditions of his will. In this will Mr. Slaney is directed to keep the school and almshouse in continual repair, and to provide fuel. The premises thus conditionally devised became the property of John Stephens, Esq., who, in 1816, exchanged the lands with Cecil Weld Forester, Esq., lord of the manor of Willey, for lands situated near Barrow church. The almshouse having become much dilapidated, the said Cecil W. Forester, Esq., agreed to be at the expense of taking down and rebuilding the school and almshouse (at his own expense), and keeping the same in repair during the term of his natural life, and to find garments and coals, pursuant to the will of the founder. In pursuance of this arrangement, the almshouse was taken down, and a new one and a schoolhouse built on the lands which he had given in exchange. The yearly expenditure when the Charity Commissioners published their report was £33. 16s., of which the rent charge on the manor of Willey provides for £30; so that there remained for the annual charge upon the lands of Mr. Stephens £3. 16s., but which was then paid by Mr. Forester, besides the cost of twelve tons of coals. With respect to the terms of this exchange, it cannot escape observation that the £3. 16s. and the twelve tons of coals which are furnished by Mr. Forester, in pursuance of his agreement, and the expense that he may be at in repairs, are a part of the consideration that he was to give for the old schoolhouse and almshouse, and the land belonging to them; and not the annual supply which Mr. Stephens’s estates were charged by the will of Mr. Slaney to furnish. When the charity has received Mr. Forester’s supply, it has received nothing more than the stipulated equivalent for the old schoolhouse and almshouse premises. But before the exchange it was entitled to something more, namely, to the supply charged on Mr. Stephens’s estates. It must, therefore, continue still entitled to that supply since the exchange; unless the effect of the exchange has been to exonerate the estates of Mr. Stephens during the life of Mr. Forester at the expense of the charity. We think that such has not been the effect, but that Mr. Stephens’s estates are liable to make good to the charity the annual supply of £3. 16s. and twelve tons of coals yearly, and to continue that supply in future. The school teacher, in addition to the £10 prescribed by the will of Mr. Slaney, has the use of a schoolhouse, and about five acres of land attached to it, with the privilege of taking private scholars.

It appears from the parish books, that a sum of £9 poors’ stock, which had for many years been in the hands of successive parish officers, was applied in the year 1788 to the repairs of the church, as interest of which the sum of 10s. is distributed by the churchwardens at Christmas in fourpenny loaves among the poor of the parish.

Directory.—John Michael Howell, farmer, The Marsh; Thomas Instone, farmer, Swinney; Augusta Jones, schoolmistress; Robert Peake, farmer; William Thursfield, Esq., farmer and land agent to Lord Forester.