- Main
-
Related Webpages
- Reconstruction and interactive maps of Shrewsbury c1630
- Charlton Hall, Shoplatch, Shrewsbury
- Jones's Mansion, Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury
- Jones's Mansion, Church St, Shrewsbury
- Sherer's Mansion Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury
- Topography of Tudor Shrewsbury in depth
- Drapers' or St Mary's Almshouses, Shrewsbury
- St Chad's Almshouses, Shrewsbury
- Vaughan's Mansion, College Hill, Shrewsbury
- Owen's Mansion, High Street, Shrewsbury
- Thornes's Place, School Gardens, Shrewsbury
- Lloyd's Mansion, High Street, Shrewsbury
- Bellstone Hall, Shrewsbury
- St Giles' Almshouses, Shrewsbury
- Prynce's Mansion, Monkmoor Road, Shrewsbury
- Thornes's Hall, Castle Street, Shrewsbury
- Bennet's Hall, Pride Hill, Shrewsbury
- Tudor and Stuart Shrewsbury: An interactive map resource for schools
To expand and collapse the navigation please click on the headings
Go to other Related Subject areas
Rich and Poor in Tudor Shrewsbury
Wealth & Poverty
William Eakin and his son stole a hatchet from St. John's Hill near where these cottages stood.
The rich became richer and the poor poorer in Tudor Shrewsbury for a number of reasons.
There were twice as many people to feed by 1640 as there had been a hundred years earlier.
Poor harvests led to higher prices and a rise in crime. William Eakine and his son were brought before the Sessions Court for stealing and trying to sell an axe to buy food. The jury took pity on him and he avoided being hanged.
Lots of farm workers became beggars in the town when sheep farming became popular, as fewer people were needed for this than for growing crops. Shrewsbury found it difficult to cope with them but after several attempts set up a House of Correction in 1632 on the site of Thornes's Place to punish beggars and tramps but also unmarried parents.
Merchants like Robert Ireland, who built this mansion, made themselves rich through the woollen cloth trade.
It was not all gloom; Shrewsbury had become one of the richest towns in England by 1636 and this is shown by the large numbers of rich Tudor merchant’s houses, which survive in the town even today.
Education & apprenticeships
The fine buildings of Shrewsbury School were mostly built in the period 1590-1630.
Apart from merchants, lawyers and some better off craftsmen most people in Tudor Shrewsbury couldn’t read or write. Those lucky enough to do so started at ‘Petty’ School, where they would be taught by well-educated housewives. They would then go on to grammar school. By the 1580’s Shrewsbury School may have been the largest grammar school in England, with nearly 400 pupils. Most came from outside Shrewsbury. The school day was twice as long as today and discipline was very strict.
Thomas Phillips would probably have learnt his trade as an apprentice in Butcher Row. (Image courtesy of Shrewsbury Museums Service and www.darwincountry.org)
The children, mainly boys, of poorer families learnt a trade by becoming Apprentices. Thomas Phillips was apprenticed to his father, a butcher, and had to sign an agreement called an indenture in which he promised to keep his father’s secrets, to play no dice or cards and he would not go into an alehouse without his father, or have a girlfriend.