Along the Moors - Lilleshall

Monastic Origins

While the existence of the obelisk on Lilleshall Hill provides an imposing reminder of the success of Lord Stafford’s scheme in reviving the moorland economy, his accomplishments would not have been possible were it not for his all-encompassing ownership of the Weald Moors, the origins of which owe much to another striking edifice a mile south of Lilleshall village itself.

Lilleshall Abbey was founded between 1145 and 1148, when a colony of Arrouaisian canons, brought to England by the Bishop of Lincoln, arrived in the area from Dorchester. They originated from the Abbey of St Nicholas in Arrouaise, France, and were part of an expanding order characterised by strict discipline and self-sufficiency. The endowment of the Lilleshall estate, which comprised lands formerly belonging to St Alkmund’s church in Shrewsbury, would certainly have suited their purposes admirably and contained many acres of farmland and woodland, including large tracts of the Weald Moors. While successive abbots of Lilleshall spent much of the next century consolidating the foundation’s holdings, which also included a grange in the south of the moors at Cheswell and countless other properties across the country, the abbey spent much of its history stumbling from one financial crisis to another.