Place:Broseley, Shropshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

History

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

A settlement existed in 1086 and is listed as Bosle in the Domesday Book.

The town is located on the south bank of the Ironbridge Gorge and so shares much of the history of its better known, but more recent, neighbour, Ironbridge.

In 1600, the town of Broseley consisted of only 27 houses and was part of the Shirlett Royal Forest. The area was known for mining; some of the stone used to build Buildwas Abbey was taken from Broseley and there is evidence that wooden wagonways existed in Broseley in 1605, giving Broseley a serious claim to the oldest railways in Britain. The wagonways were almost certainly constructed for the transport of coal and clay and it was these resources that led to the huge expansion of the town during the Industrial Revolution.

Many of the developments celebrated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust's collection of preserved industrial heritage sites either started in Broseley or were connected to the town. Broseley was a centre for ironmaking, pottery and clay pipes (for drainage, not tobacco); the earliest recorded pipemaker was working in the town in 1590. The Broseley Pipeworks is one of the trust's ten museums, as is the Jackfield Tile Museum, which is situated in Jackfield, just northwest of the town.

John Wilkinson (1728-1808) constructed the world's first iron boat whilst living in the town, and the plans for the Iron Bridge were drawn up in Broseley. Abraham Darby I (1678-1717), who developed the process of smelting iron using coking coal, is buried here.

In the latter half of the 19th century the area suffered a decline, as industries moved elsewhere. This left a legacy of uncapped mineshafts, derelict buildings, abandoned quarries, spoil heaps and pit mounds.

In the last thirty years of the 20th century Broseley experienced a modern revival with the development of Telford across the River Severn. New estates were built to the east of Broseley centre, whilst many older properties were developed or renovated, but the town is still less populated now than it would have been 200 years ago, when population figures were over 5,000.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Broseley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"BROSELEY, a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict in Madeley [registration] district, Salop [or Shropshire]. The town stands on the river Severn, and on the Severn Valley railway, adjacent to Coalport station, 7½ miles SSE of Wellington. It extends away from the river a distance of 2 miles, in an irregularly built street, crossed at intervals by small lanes. It is surrounded by a mining district, in which coal and iron-stone are worked; it carries on manufactures of fire-bricks, tiles, and tobacco pipes; and it has a post office under Wellington, Salop, a banking office, two chief inns, a town hall, a parish church, four dissenting chapels, and endowed charities £20. The church is in the later English style; and was built in 1845, at a cost of £9,000; but has a fine square tower of a previous church. A weekly market is held on Wednesday; and fairs on 26 Jan., 29 May, and 28 Oct. A petroleum spring is in the neighbourhood; and an iron bridge, with one arch of 100½ feet in span, over the Severn, is 2¾ miles to the NNW.

"The parish comprises 1,912 acres. Real property: £8,791; of which £697 are in mines. Population: 4,724. Houses: 983. The property is not much divided. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Linley, in the diocese of Hereford. Value: £432. Patron: Lord Forester. The rectory of Jackfield is a separate charge."

Research Tips

• The historical short form for Shropshire was "Salop". This is quite often found in archive material.
• Shropshire Archives, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury SY1 2AQ
• Shropshire Family History Society.
• The GENUKI main page for Shropshire provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and there is also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then.
• GENUKI also provides transcriptions of parish registers for numerous parishes throughout Shropshire. These will be noted at the bottom of this list as time permits for the parishes involved. Each register is preceded by historical notes from the editor-transciber and other details than simply births, marriages and deaths that have been found in the individual books from the parishes. These registers probably only go up to 1812 when the proscribed style for registers across the country was altered.
• GENUKI lists under each parish further references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. (URLs for these other websites may not be up to date.)
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence in 1851 with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, Shropshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are similar pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions that existed pre-1974. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
• The two maps below indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.

• Map of Shropshire illustrating urban and rural districts in 1900 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. (Unfortunately the online copy of this map has pencil codings in each parish which make it difficult to see the orignal.)
• Map of Shropshire urban and rural districts in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time. Parish boundaries and settlements within parishes are shown. This is not a repeat of the first map. There were a number of changes to urban and rural district structure in the 1930s.

• A map of the ancient divisions named "hundreds" is to be found in A Vision of Britain through Time. Some of the hundreds were broken into separate sections with other hundreds in between.
• The website British History Online provides four volumes of the Victoria County History Series on Shropshire. Volume 2 covers the religious houses of the county; Volume 4 provides a history of agriculture across the county, and Volumes 10 and 11 deal with Munslow Hundred, the Borough of Wenlock and the Telford area (i.e., the northeastern part of the county). The rest of the county is not presently covered. References to individual parishes will be furnished as time permits.
• Victoria County History - Shropshire - Vol 10, pp 257-293 - Parish: Broseley. British History Online. University of London (London, 1998).
• A transcription of the Broseley parish registers is online and is provided through the auspices of GENUKI. The registers of the Birch Meadow Particular Baptist Chapel (1794-1835) are also available online.