The Cloisters, Wombridge

Image: © Richard Law Taken: 3 Nov 2023

This small cul-de-sac, and a number of nearby residential streets such as Abbey Walls and The Cloisters, are so named because this area just south of the Image was once host to an Augustinian Priory. It is marked (as 'Site of Augustinian Priory') together with Wombridge Farm, on the early OS maps dated 1882, 1901, 1927 and even as late as 1948, but by the time that Telford was being developed as a New Town in the 1960s, much of the above-ground remains (if any) would have been erased from the site. There is an area just east of the church which is designated as a Scheduled Monument https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1020661 where some remains of the Lady Chapel are still visible. Much of the surrounding area was a mish-mash of ironworks, collieries, pits, shafts and mines up to that point, and the Development Corporation's mission was to turn much of it to residential use. A fair amount of the archaeology probably went west at the same time.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0