Along the Moors - Crudgington Green

Holy Origins

The River Strine At Crudgington Green (Right)

The scope for change on the Weald Moors was greatly assisted by the dissolution of the monasteries during the 1530s. Before that date there is little evidence of major disruption to the moorland habitat, much of which had been in monastic ownership since the 12th Century (Crudgington, Sleap and Kynnersley, for example, belonged to Shrewsbury Abbey, while Cherrington was in the possession of Wombridge Priory). Although some landowners began to offer tenants long leases on in return for clearing scrub, large parts of the moorlands were used for grazing of cattle and livestock by commoners from local townships, who enjoyed little or no restriction on their movements. However, by 1480 Peter of Eyton had begun to construct a huge drainage ditch (known as the Black Dyke) to separate his manor from the Rough Moor — a development which foreshadowed what would become a pre-occupation for many landowners in the 200 years that followed…

One of the first signs of change in the west of the moors came in 1570, when William Sheldon enclosed Crudgington Green, a narrow strip of pasture on the north bank of River Strine. Sheldon, the Lord of the Manor, leased ‘all of his waste or moor in Crudgington and Sleap’ to his father and brother, on the condition that they ‘do as much as they conveniently may’ towards draining it within seven years. While the agreement stipulated that his tenants should still be able to ‘enjoy their common pasture as usual’, the added proviso that, where this was not possible, they should each receive in separate plots ‘as much ground as shall countervail their common rights’ signified a clear challenge to the established order of intercommoning. Yet, such actions increasingly failed to satisfy many landowners or commoners in either regard.