Myddle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Myddle, also known as Middle and Medle is a small village in Shropshire, England about 10 miles north of Shrewsbury, in the parish of Myddle and Broughton, the country town of Shropshire Myddle. The 2001 census reported a population of 1,142 in the village.

There was also a book written about Myddle, called History of Myddle. Written in the early 18th century, Richard Gough (the author) descibes the town of Myddle and its ongoings, and uses the town as an study of Human Relations. The book has been called "the greatest insight into that group of people" ^[1], that group of people being the 'middle sort of people' in Early Modern England.

[edit] History

The village of Myddle was occupied by 1066, with a manor house for Earl Siward of York completed in the 1050s. ^[2]

By 1086, the year of the Doomsday Book under William the Conqueror, the manor house was occupied by Rainald the Sheriff. During the 12^th century, the Fitz Alan family of Clun occupied the manor house, with John Le Strange acquiring it around 1165.

In 1234, Myddle was the location of the signing of a treaty between King Henry III and Welsh Prince Llewellyn.

The Le Stranges' dynasty ended in 1580 due to the lack of male heirs to the estate, and Myddle passed to the Earl of Derby after he married Joan Le Strange. Their son, Thomas, became the second Earl of Derby.

Elizabeth 1 granted Thomas Barnston a licence to sell land in Myddle in 1596, and in 1600 1600 Sir Thomas Egerton purchased the village of Myddle. Egerton's son was elected by James I to become the first Earl of Bridgewater in 1579.

During the English Civil War in 1642, Charles I recruited 20 men from Myddle, with 14 killed ^[3].

Myddle suffered an earthquake in 1688, but continued to expand throughout the coming centuries, with butchers' shops, taverns, fishmongers and masons inhabiting the village by about 1850.

The manor house was destroyed and sold in pay the death duties of the third Earl Brownlow in 1924. However, it was later discovered that the grounds overlay a substantial gold mine and locals still joke about the misfortune of the third Earl!

In 1942, during the Second World War, an RAF Whitley bomber crashed in Myddle after taking off from nearby Sleap airfield.

[edit] Myddle Castle

A castle was constructed in Myddle between 1308 and 1310 by Lord John Le Strange as a stronghold against the Welsh after the family obtained a licence to convert the manor house into a castle.

The castle has stood empty since the 1500s, with one visitor to the village, John Leland, describing the castle as veri ruinus around 1540.

The castle collapsed during an earthquake in 1688. It was subsequently reconstructed but ironically demolished in 1976 to make way for a geology field centre.

The castle was repaired by John Hume Egerton in 1849 ^[4], who inscribed his name into a block in the castle's wall.

The castle is now a Grade Eight Listed Building and, since a portion collapsed in 1976, has been scheduled for repair.