Cleobury Mortimer in 1841
Cleobury-Mortimer is situated in the hundred of Stottesden, on the little river Rea, and is about 30 miles south-east from Shrewsbury. The population of this parish in 1831 was 1,716, of which a very small portion is employed in agriculture. The town consists principally of one long street. The market is held on Thursday, and there are three yearly fairs. The only manufacture is a small one of paper. Twenty-one men, in 1831, were employed in coal-pits. The living is a vicarage, of the yearly value of £448. There is one infant-school, containing 32 children of both sexes. This school is supported partly by rent of land attached to it, by a private donation, and by £5 allowed by the trustees of the free-school. There is one daily free-school with 8o boys and 60 girls. It is supported by the income arising from two estates in the parish, with which the school is endowed.
The town owes its name to having formerly belonged to the family of Mortimer. A castle formerly stood here, erected by Hugh de Montgomery, which was destroyed in the reign of Henry II. The remains of a camp supposed to be of Danish origin are a little to the east of the school.
Robert Langeland, otherwise John Malverne, the author the ‘Visions of Pierce Plowman,’ a satire upon the clergy of the fourteenth century, is supposed to have been born here.
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