After the Norman invasion of 1066, the Anglo-Saxon countryside was divided up and passed out to important Norman Noblemen. They in turn granted land to various religious institutions, who would in turn pray for the souls of the donors and their families. One of the great Lords in this region was Girard de Tournai-sur-Dive. He had a daughter Sybil, who married the Lord Hamo Peverel, and they had a daughter Seburga. She married William de Hadley, and brought a dowry, and eventually an inheritance, of large amounts of north Shropshire. In 1130 William and Seburga granted land for the founding of The Priory of the Augustinian (or Black) Canons on their land, and it was later confirmed by William Fitz Alan, Seigneural Lord of Hadley. The Priory survived through to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and like the locals over succeeding centuries, it was small, relatively poor compared to the neighbouring great religious houses, but extremely tough and self reliant.

There is more information on these gifts in Rev Cartlidge's book, (see acknowledgements)

The benefactors' family survived through marriage. William and Seburga had three sons, Alan, William and Jordan. William II became Lord of High Ercall, whilst Alan succeeded his father in 1136, but only became Lord of Hadley when his mother died. He had a daughter Cecilia, who married Roger Corbett of Tasley, a relative of one of the most powerful families of north Shropshire, who still reside at Attingham Park near Shrewsbury. Alan died in 1194. Cecilia outlived Roger and was married again to Baldwin of Hodnet.

The name evolved into various forms, as written documentation was rarely used, and names were written phonetically. Thus de Hadley, Hadly, Hadeley, Atley, and Hatley are all possible corruptions.

Unfortunately these are the only surviving remains. There is a local myth about a tunnel connecting the Priory with Lilleshall Abbey, but this tunnel was covering William Reynold's canal from the local mines to the Donnington Wood canal.

In this 1901 map you can see the farm built on the site of the Priory, the Priory fishpond/millpond, the church, and the start of the canal to Donnington Wood. The rest of the map is here (its quite big). The pond fed a mill stream, which powered a corn mill, and an iron forge.

The Mill Stream today. Evidence for iron ore deposits close by is obvious from the colour of the water.	The Mill/Fish Pond today, now filled in.

Named after St Augustine of Hippo (@423), Augustinian Priories were not the strictest of monastic establishments. They existed to service the local population, and Augustinians founded many hospitals. The Canons, and Prior were allowed and expected to minister in appropriated local parish churches. It was not a luxurious life, but better than being a local peasant, and the Canons would have wanted to protect their rights to exist.

In 1187 Pope Urban III at Verona, passed a Papal Bull which gave statutory rights to Wombridge Priory. They were

The canons were also keen to assert their rights through the courts, and even though the Pope took the Priory under his personal protection, it did not have an easy time. The Suffolk Priory of Brissett occasionally claimed a superiority over it, but does not seem to have succeeded, although Episcopal Charters seem to have been repeatedly necessary for the confirmation of their rights.

On April 12th 1205 Pope Innocent III issued a Papal Bull to the Abbot of Shrewsbury, commanding him to protect the Priory of Wombridge from interference. Later that year on August 5th he issued a Bull with duplicate to the Prior of Much Wenlock, forbidding any Delegate of the Papal See to utter sentence of Interdict, Excommunication, or Suspension against the Fraternity of Wombridge, without special licence from the Pope himself.

In 1258 Bishop Roger de Molend confirmed their rights in the Church of Sutton Maddock, but he is careful to explain that it is only 'out of consideration for the devoutness of the Convent in religious observances, and out of compassion for its poverty', from which it would appear that its legal rights were not of the strongest, or that the Bishop was impressed with the strength of the opposition to the Priory's grip on the Church and Parish. There was a complaint in 1315 that the canons had removed two of the processional candles (expensive items) that they were bound to maintain in the chancel of the local church. Money was obviously tight, and their income scanty. The local people were not wealthy, or if they gave money it was to one of the larger religious institutions, such as Haughmond Abbey, Lilleshall Abbey, Buildwas Abbey and Much Wenlock Priory.

Haughmond Abbey (Augustinian)	Lilleshall Abbey (Augustinian)
Much Wenlock Priory (Cluniac)	Buildwas Abbey (Cistercian)

In 1316 Bishop Langton made a visit to the Priory, and was rather unhappy with what he found. In a letter which was subsequently written, he ordered that

On January 25th 1328 Pope John granted an Indulgence for the Church and New Chapel of St Mary and St Leonard at Wombridge. An Indulgence was a good investment, as it meant visitors, gifts and publicity.  He granted

The Priory survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII in 1535, by which time there were only the Prior and three or four Canons living in the Priory, and an inventory was made of all the assets, by William Proude, last Prior. Taken from the Valor Ecclesiasticus.

The Priory was surrendered into the hands of John Scudamore, Receiver of Suppressed Lands in the Counties of Shrewsbury and Herefordshire, with a statement similar to the above of income and outgoings. The commissioners made their own valuation, which differed from the Prior's by £12. The consent of the convent was given, though there were only three or four monks in residence, and one was very decrepit, namely William Coventry, who was awarded an unusually generous pension of £6 8s 4d. Perhaps they didn't think he would last very long.

King Henry VIII	Thomas Cromwell

Once the King, with his minister Thomas Cromwell, had claimed the Priory, it was leased for 21 years to William Abbott. However in 1539 the reversion of the lease was sold, along with the Abbey at Lilleshall to  James Leveson a wealthy wool trader from Wolverhampton. The family became the Earl Gowers, then Marquises of Stafford, and formed the Lilleshall Company. The family owned iron works and mines, and built the first canals in the area. Leveson sold the priory and its lands, but kept the mines, in the year of his death, 1547, to William Charlton, who had been the priory's chief steward at the time of the Dissolution.

It would appear that with the Priory land came the responsibility to pay the pensions of the canons. This is a letter from William Charlton to John Scudamore complaining that he was underfunded:

Thereafter it passed into the Apley estate, until the land was sold in 1901 by Sir Thomas Meyrick. The Priory's gatehouse became part of Wombridge Hall, and William Charlton lived there until his death in1567. The Priory church was used as a coach house by his widow, and after her death it was used as a cattle pound. In the 1690's the 'steeple', formerly a burial place, was used by the tenant as a cart house, and the buildings were gradually falling into ruins, and the stone used to build Apley Castle. In the 18th century the Lady chapel was shored up and used for divine worship, but it eventually blew down in a gale.

Stones from the Priory re-used in an 18th century building	Wombridge Farm, demolished in 1976