Chapel Lawn and Redlake Valley

Description

These extracts from the Clun Valley Parochial Magazine for St. Mary’s Church, Chapel Lawn, at the time a chapel of ease to Clun Church, provide a fascinating glimpse into 19th century rural life in the Redlake Valley on the border of England and Wales. The introduction of the magazine must have been very welcome. It not only provided important information about forthcoming church, school, and other social events, but it also enabled people to read news from neighbouring parishes and the wider world. We must be indebted to the Rev. Charles Warner whose initials are at the end of the introduction to the first issue. It is through his personal efforts, plus encouragement from Rev. Preb. Jellicorse of Clunbury, and through delegation to the various curates who had the good fortune (or bad luck when the weather was inclement) to be attached to Chapel Lawn, that the Magazine was undertaken, and we have this account of life in a quiet rural community in the late 19th Century. It was with some prescience that in March 1889, Rev. Warner wrote, “The monthly parts will, when bound, make a handsome volume, which will prove interesting, as a record of parish news for future generations.”