Lilleshall project
Please check any links made to this page.
Summary of collection and project:
Shropshire Archives has been awarded £349,500 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for work on the records of the Lilleshall estate.
The Lilleshall estate was part of the Duke of Sutherland’s English estates and the records form one of Shropshire’s most significant medieval archive collections. The records currently held by Shropshire Archives fill 250 boxes and include material from the 12th to the 20th centuries.
The collection includes important material relating to Lilleshall abbey, Wombridge priory and Shrewsbury abbey. Deeds from land formerly held by Lilleshall abbey include property in Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Kent and Norfolk as well as many areas in Shropshire and Staffordshire. The estate maps within the collection are also very significant including some outstanding very early maps dating from the late 16th to the early 17th centuries when the art of creating estate maps was just beginning.
The collection also contains records charting the operation of the Lilleshall estate which include cottage, land and farm rentals; gamekeepers and woodrangers records; poultry, cropping and stock books; and the estate sales.
Local and family historians across Shropshire and beyond will be able to use the collection to further their research. Students and school children will find material to support their work including work on religious houses, and the Leveson Gower families business interests which included mining, canals and the Lilleshall Savings Bank. Interpretative material will be created to ensure that best use can be made of the documents many of which are written in Latin and unfamiliar hand writing.
The project has now been successfully completed and the Lilleshall Collection is now accessible online through the Shropshire Archives online catalogue and also through the Discovering Shropshire's History website. Please select the links on this page.
Project update:
Updates of the project's progress will be produced and will appear on this page.
The Lilleshall Project update October 2007 appears on this page.
Project literature:
Several articles and leaflets have been written regarding the project and collection.
Please see: An introduction to the Lilleshall Project (Salopian Recorder) and An insight into the varied and challenging work of the volunteers on the Lilleshall Collection Project (Salopian Recorder), which appear on this page.
