Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway | Page 7

Quatford is Eardington, celebrated for the manufacture
of iron for guns, wire, and horse nails; and parochially and manorially
combined with Eardington is the More, the ancient tenure of which
indicates the manufacture of iron here at a very early period. By it the
tenant was required to appear yearly in the Exchequer, with a hazel rod
of a year's growth, and two knives, the treasurer and barons being
present. The tenant was to attempt to sever the rod with one of the
knives, the other knife was to do the same work at one stroke, and then
be given up to the king's chamberlain; a custom which was continued

until recently.

BRIDGNORTH
[Bridgnorth: 19.jpg]
Population, 6,569.
Market day--Saturday. Fairs--January 20th, February 17th, May 1st,
June 9th, July 14th, August 18th, September 15th, October 29th,
December 28th.
Principal Hotel--The Crown, for which, as well as for the Swan, the
Raven, and the George, see Advertisements.
The station, at the southern termination of the tunnel, is a chaste
building of freestone, and forms an additional ornament to the town. It
occupies a position from which its two divisions come pleasantly into
view, the Low Town lying peacefully in the valley by the Severn, the
High Town dotting the terraced sides, and crowning the bold
impending rocks that give it, in the eyes of travellers, such an eastern
aspect. Caverned in the hill, at many stages from its foot, and reached
by winding walks, are picturesque holes and habitations--happily now
no longer used, excepting in very few instances indeed--where the first
settlers crowded when the ruthless Dane perched himself like a
famished eagle on the rocks of Quatford down below. In the foreground
are the time-worn relics of its two castles, to which the little colony was
indebted for protection from fierce and threatening foes. The one
opposite is Pampudding Hill, a smooth, grassy mound, on which the
daughter of the great Alfred, Queen Ethelfleda, built a fortress.
According to Florence of Worcester, what we now call Bridgnorth was
then Brycge. In his time, as in that of Leland, who so well described its
position, the Severn ran nearer to the frowning cliffs on which the town
is built than at present.
The discriminating eye of the outlawed Belesme was not slow to
perceive the advantages nature had given to the place, when he sought

to raise a fortress that should shield him from the wrath of his royal
master, and he removed the materials, it is said, of his house at
Quatbrigia--a bridge having, it is supposed, succeeded the ford--to
Brycge, afterwards Bridgnorth, or the bridge north of the one at
Quatford. Florence of Worcester says: "Earl Robert carried on the
works night and day, exciting Welshmen to the speedy performance of
his wishes by awarding them horses, lands, asses, and all sorts of gifts."
With such aids, and advantages of site, the Norman earl erected a castle
that held out three weeks against a large force marshalled by Henry,
who, as an old Saxon chronicle states, came here "with all his army" to
besiege it. It stood a second siege when Hugh de Mortimer espoused
the cause of Stephen, and was attacked by Henry II., whose life was
saved by the zeal of an attendant, who received a well-aimed arrow
intended for the king. It was taken by the confederate barons, and
retaken by Edward II., who afterwards marched to Shrewsbury, where
the proud Mortimers humbled themselves and sued for mercy. It served
not only as a garrison and a prison, but, from its position on the frontier
of Wales, very often as a royal residence. King John came with a
splendid retinue, of which the bishops of Lincoln and Hereford, the
earls of Essex, Pembroke, Chester, Salisbury, Hereford, and Warwick
formed part; upon which occasion the entertainment is said to have cost,
for the three days it lasted, a sum equal to 2,000 pounds of modern
currency. Prince Edward was a visitor after the battle of Evesham; and
the second Edward too--the first time at the head of his army, the
second, as a fugitive, crossing the Severn in a small boat at nightfall.
Henry IV. was here:
"On Wednesday next, Harry, thou shall set forward; On Tuesday, we
ourselves will march. Our meeting is Bridgnorth; and, Harry, you Shall
march through Gloucester; by which account Our general forces at
Bridgnorth shall meet."
Charles I. arrived here from Shrewsbury, October, 1642, when he
remained three days and gave expression to the eulogium, which
townsmen quote for the benefit of strangers, respecting the beauty of
the castle walk. It was garrisoned for this unfortunate monarch, too, in
the struggle which cost him his head, upon which occasion the town

was stormed by three divisions of the Parliamentary army, March, 1646.
The fight