England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Madeley St Michael

The Parish

The parish of Madeley lies in eastern Shropshire roughly 15 miles southeast of the county town of Shrewsbury. Madeley sits roughly a mile west of the A442 road which links modern Telford with the market town of Bridgnorth. Madeley is a place much changed over the years, at the time of this transcript it was one of the small market towns of its county, offering a market, granted by Henry III, and the specialist services that such a central place would be able to support. Its rural hinterland would have been dominated by pastoral farming. All of this changed as Madeley went into its second life as the birthplace of Britain's industrial revolution, the iron-works of Coalbrookdale and the famous bridge constructed from their output at Ironbridge turned the area into a powerhouse. Industry flourished, as well as the coal mining and iron & steel fabrication, a porcelain works, rope & timber yards and mills prospered. All was facilitated by the navigable River Severn augmented by the construction of the Shropshire Canal which enabled transport of the coal needed to fuel this industry. In addition a branch line was constructed off the Birmingham to Shrewsbury line down Coalbrookdale to aid in the transport of coal and finished product. In more recent times Madeley has entered its third life as part of the Telford New Town development, a vast new conurbation stretching from Muxton in the north down to the Severn, a distance of almost 7 miles from north to south. In modern times the industry of Coalbrookdale & Ironbridge has faded leaving the area as an industrial heritage attraction drawing thousands of visitors every year to view the iron bridge and associated heritage museums. The Severn drains the parish eastwards and then south on a long journey to the sea reaching that through the Severn's Estuary. Madeley is sited at around 120 metres above the sea, some 90 metres above that iron bridge, the area is dominated by an isolated small peak of The Wrekin which tops out at 407 metres and sits some 5 miles northwest. Madeley parish was fairly typically sized for this area, covering close to 2,800 acres it would have supported a population growing from around 1,000 to over 7,000 by soon after the end of this transcript period, many more today, estimated at almost 18,000 today. In Domesday times Madeley was a much smaller place, a holding of Much Wenlock Abbey its assets totalled just 6 ploughs together with a stretch of woodland densely populated by 600 pigs.

The Church

St Michael's church sits within the original heart of Madeley's small market town on the southern side of Church Street. Like much of the town, however, St Michael is a product of the modern era, having been built to replace a medieval predecessor in the 1790s. The late 18th century is an unusual time for new church construction and St Michael was built in a neoclassical style rather than in classic medieval forms. Standing on a knoll of higher ground the church does, at least, follow the standard layout of nave, chancel and western tower, albeit from above the central portion makes an octagonal form. The chancel is a later and somewhat lamented addition of the early 20th century. Pevsner bemoans the unsympathetic style of that piece and its Venetian windows. Church Street has no street parking so a local car park is best sought and the church visited on foot. The local sandstone makes up the walls of the churchyard which is elevated slightly above road level with a short flight of steps leading in. The church sits within an extensive churchyard which has few obstacles for the photographer.