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Along the Moors - Lilleshall
The Levesons Take Over
Although the unwieldy nature of Lilleshall’s extensive estates may have contributed to the foundation’s sense of perpetual indebtedness, many of its problems seem to have arisen from a chronic lack of central administration. Frequent grants of corrodies to monastic staff and servants alike also proved to be a major drain on resources. John of Garmston, for instance, who was appointed as Thresher on the Home Grange in 1347, received, in addition to his wages, a chamber in the abbey precinct where he was also permitted daily supplies of ale and food. Such arrangements seem to have been quite commonplace at the abbey and, in many instances, appear to have continued even after the beneficiaries were too old or infirm to work. Grants to former abbots could also prove costly and, in the case of John of Chetwynd, who resigned the post in 1330, spectacularly so! One year after receiving a generous corrody (which included the income of two of the abbey’s manors and two churches — as a clothing allowance!) he quarrelled with his successor and attacked Lilleshall by force, making off with its goods and forcing the King to place keepers in the abbey precinct!
Despite some success in reigning in the excesses of its monastic officials, Lilleshall continued in insolvency until suppression in October 1538, when the Abbot and his ten canons were relieved of their duties by the Crown and each given a pension and gifts of varying values. A year later, the estate was sold to Sir James Leveson, a Merchant of the Staple from South Staffordshire, who purchased nearby Wombridge Priory at the same time, adding further properties in the area to his portfolio in the ensuing years. Although successive generations of his family, who acquired the Gower name through marriage, attempted agricultural improvements on the moors, nothing could have prepared the area for the scale of the upheaval which occurred at the beginning of the 19th Century.