DOVASTON
Congregational Chapel
The first chapel, for the congregation
formed in 1826, is now converted to residential use. It has no date stone. This
chapel was replaced in 1879 by a new chapel, q.v. Grid ref: S J 348211
DOVASTON Congregational [now
United Reformed] Chapel
This chapel, with 200 sittings and its own burial ground, was built in 1879.
It is still in use as a chapel in 2002. A former chapel for a congregation formed
in 1826 is situated at the opposite end of the same site and is now converted
to residential use. It has no date stone. Grid ref: SJ 348211.
St Johns Parish Church, Ruyton XI Towns, where
several generations of DOVASTONs
were baptised, married and buried.
1066: much of the present county of Shropshire,
including Ruyton, Wykey and Felton, was given to the Lordship of Earl Roger
of MONTGOMERY. 1086: The Domesday survey states that in the
time of King Edward I, much of Ruyton was ‘waste land’, liable to attack from
the local bandits of Rhirid Flaidd, who was descended from Gododdins [probably
Picts] from the North of Britain, who settled in the West of Britain after driving
the Irish back to Ireland.
This is
Ruyton XI Towns
with St Johns Parish Church in the background.
c.1129-1148: Ruyton Church and
old Ruyton Castle were built; the Church was the Chapel of Baschurch, for the
townships of Ruyton and Coton only, which then constituted the whole of the
Manor of Ruyton. The old Castle was built to drive back Rhirid Flaidd attackers.
c.1155-1160 William FITZALLEN united the Manor of Ruyton to the two other Manors
of Wikey and Felton. The whole was called the Manor or Lordship of Ruyton, and
this was handed over to John LE STRANGE, 1st Lord of Knockin, who created the
earliest known coat of arms by applying its red background when he displayed
two argent lions passant. Attached to this the blood thirsty motto ‘mihi parta
tueri’ [I will fight for/defend what is mine] The old Castle made
Ruyton the most important of the three Manors. Together they comprised eleven
townships, from which the Manor got the name of Ruyton- of-the-Eleven-Towns. 1212: "John Le Strange, Lord
of Knokyn and of Ruton did damage to the Prince Llewellyn of Wales' people”;
as a result the Prince attacked and demolished much of the old Castle and captured
people from Ruyton.
1230-1240: Baschurch was in the hands of Shrewsbury Abbey and Felton, under
another branch of the Le Strange family and had its own church.
The Parish of Ruyton was created; but the old Manor of Felton, containing five
of the eleven towns, had been included for nearly 100 years in the independent
Parish of Felton, so that the new Parish of Ruyton was made to consist not of
the whole of the eleven townships of the Manor but of the six not included in
Felton Parish. It is for this reason that it is called the Parish of Ruyton-in-the-Eleven-Towns.
1272: an area for a Churchyard and the advowson [the right to nominate a person
to hold a church office in a parish] of the Church were given to HAUGHMOND;
the old Castle was in ruins.
1299: The old Castle was not mentioned
when there was a fine imposed on the Manor.
1301: Edmund Earl of ARUNDEL bought Ruyton from John Le Strange, 5th Earl of
Knockin; he obviously saw the potential of a village bounded by the Perry to
the north and east and with a substantial new Castle with a commanding view
of the surrounding countryside.
1308: Arundel created the new Borough of Ruyton, with the laws and customs of
the new town of Bristol and its citizens to be equal to those of Shrewsbury
and Hereford. The Church and Castle were part of the old township of Ruyton
which remained outside the jurisdiction of the new Borough. It was likely that at this stage
the new Castle was rebuilt and greatly strengthened and a stone building added
to the northwest.The tower of the Castle has been discovered to be 20 metres
square with a paved floor on a level with the Church floor. About 10 metres
west of the Tower, a window sill was discovered and foundations of a building
to the north and another to the north west of the main Ruins. The width of the
walls was 4 or 5 metres thick and must have been built for defense. Foundations
for a further building were discovered on the south east corner. Three light
shoots were discovered, one of which was used as a chimney for one of the Castle
Cottages [see below]. It was discovered that the Norman Tower had probably been
built on the foundations of an earlier building on the site. 1777: the plot of land containing
the Castle Ruins and a ‘small tenement’ was shown on the map and sale details
of the Craven Estates. This early 18thC picture shows the Castle Cottages next
to the Church, where later, John DOVASTON lived [c.1838].
Here's the cemetery at St Johns Parish Church. Here lies
Sarah DOVASTON [MI237, the one photographed in
the foreground, laid flat, behind which I'm inspecting unknown graves overgrown
with ivy]. Sarah was born 5th August 1782 at The Nursery,
Twyford, and died 30th June 1860. Her parents were
John DOVASTON and
Ann [nee HOOPER].
She was the sister of John Freeman Milward DOVASTON
[see Hall of Fame] and never married. She is not my direct kin, being my half
second cousin, five times removed.
A headstone [MI245] next to Sarah's
belongs to my 4th great grandfather,
John DOVASTON [1755-1841]
and his wife, Ann [nee PRICE]
[1758-1833], two sons,
John [1792-1824] and Thomas [1789-1807], and a nephew William DOVASTON
[1789-1828]. There's a familiar DOVASTON
inscription: "They ran their course in lowly lot, just streaked the stream
and were forgot". William was born at Littleness,
the son of John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee BROWN].
He was a Stonemason and married his cousin, Sarah DOVASTON,
daughter of John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee PRICE]
from The Nursery, Twyford. There's one more DOVASTON
grave at St Johns {MI412], a recent one belonging to Tom and Annie who died
1967 and 1972 aged 72 and 73. This is Yew
Tree Cottage, Wigmarsh, just north of Ruyton XI Towns
where William DOVASTON
[b.1793] and Jane [nee DAVIES]
lived all their married lives. William, my 3rd great grandfather, was a son
of the above mentioned John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee PRICE].
John was born at The Nursery, Twyford
and died at Wigmarsh
in October 1841. He married Ann on 15th December 1780 and they lived at Wigmarsh,
but I'm not sure which cottage they
lived at.
William and Jane's children were Mary, Rachel, Hannah, William, Alfred, Anne,
Naome, *Sarah and Margaret Elizabeth, all born between 1828 and 1846. William's
occupation, like his father's, was a Tailor. He died 11th August 1879.
In the 1881 Census, Jane [nee DAVIES]
was a widow, an Annuitant.
Thomas STANT,
my 2nd great grandfather, a Stonemason [the son of Thomas and Jane, mentioned
above] and *Sarah [nee DOVASTON,
the daughter of William and Jane] and their children, Naomi J, Margaret E, Thomas
Dovaston, John H, William Alfred, Martin Edward, born between 1867 and 1881
had moved from Weirbrook
to live with Sarah's widowed mother. [Sarah M and Phyllis Violet
STANT were born later].
Today, Wigmarsh is
still a very small hamlet consisting of just the same half a dozen cottages.
Still at Wigmarsh,
I'm approaching a sandstone cottage
likely built by one of my Stonemason ancestors, maybe Thomas STANT
[the son] or William DOVASTON from
Littleness. Similar distinctive
sandstone cottages are found at Weirbrook.
Welcome from Ruth DOVASTON-STANT to The DOVASTON
Homeland ... a compilation of photographs, maps, charts, and interesting information
from, starting with this photo [©.Ruth DOVASTON-STANT]
taken in 2002 from a point just north of Ruyton
XI Towns, looking across farmland towards
Wigmarsh, Weirbrook, Twyford and West
Felton in Shropshire, England. The scene
is little changed over hundreds of years. 
Aerial
photograph of the Wigmarsh
area.
Wigmarsh in the 1890's [incl.Yew Tree
Cottage]
Modern-day Wigmarsh, Weirbrook and West
Felton.
DOVASTON
Congregational Chapel 
DOVASTON Congregational [now
United Reformed] Chapel 
St Johns Parish Church, Ruyton XI Towns, where
several generations of DOVASTONs
were baptised, married and buried. 
The old Castle made
Ruyton the most important of the three Manors. Together they comprised eleven
townships, from which the Manor got the name of Ruyton- of-the-Eleven-Towns.
1777: the plot of land containing
the Castle Ruins and a ‘small tenement’ was shown on the map and sale details
of the Craven Estates. This early 18thC picture shows the Castle Cottages next
to the Church, where later, John DOVASTON lived [c.1838].
Here's the cemetery at St Johns Parish Church. Here lies
Sarah DOVASTON [MI237, the one photographed in
the foreground, laid flat, behind which I'm inspecting unknown graves overgrown
with ivy]. Sarah was born 5th August 1782 at The Nursery,
Twyford, and died 30th June 1860. Her parents were
John DOVASTON and
Ann [nee HOOPER].
She was the sister of John Freeman Milward DOVASTON
[see Hall of Fame] and never married. She is not my direct kin, being my half
second cousin, five times removed.
A headstone [MI245] next to Sarah's
belongs to my 4th great grandfather,
John DOVASTON [1755-1841]
and his wife, Ann [nee PRICE]
[1758-1833], two sons,
John [1792-1824] and Thomas [1789-1807], and a nephew William DOVASTON
[1789-1828]. There's a familiar DOVASTON
inscription: "They ran their course in lowly lot, just streaked the stream
and were forgot". William was born at Littleness,
the son of John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee BROWN].
He was a Stonemason and married his cousin, Sarah DOVASTON,
daughter of John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee PRICE]
from The Nursery, Twyford. 
This is Yew
Tree Cottage, Wigmarsh, just north of Ruyton XI Towns
where William DOVASTON
[b.1793] and Jane [nee DAVIES]
lived all their married lives. William, my 3rd great grandfather, was a son
of the above mentioned John DOVASTON
and Ann [nee PRICE]. 
John was born at The Nursery, Twyford
and died at Wigmarsh
in October 1841. He married Ann on 15th December 1780 and they lived at Wigmarsh,
but I'm not sure which cottage they
lived at.
Still at Wigmarsh,
I'm approaching a sandstone cottage
likely built by one of my Stonemason ancestors, maybe Thomas STANT
[the son] or William DOVASTON from
Littleness. Similar distinctive
sandstone cottages are found at Weirbrook.