Morville Priory

The origins of the priory at Morville lie in the earlier parish church. There was a collegiate church or minster at Morville, dedicated to St Gregory and served by eight canons, in the reign of Edward the Confessor and conceivably earlier. The canons were supported by eight hides, perhaps divided between them in something like a prebendal structure. After the Norman Conquest the church fell within the territories of Roger de Montgomery, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and he granted some of the lands to his own chaplains. He gave the entire church to Shrewsbury Abbey some time between its foundation in 1083 and the inauguration of monastic life in 1087. He prescribed that the prebends should revert…