The Parish of Hodnet, some interesting memorabilia

We are presently working on a book by Gerald Mothershaw, based around the little Shropshire village of Hodnet, once home to Bishop Heber, he of ‘From Greenland’s Icy Mountains’ fame. A prolific local writer, Mr. Mothershaw has constructed a compendium of local lives and anecdotes. The first chapter is taken  from the Brattleboro Reformer Newspaper, Canada 1839, the story of a wealthy and mysterious visitor to the village who marries a local girl. Another chapter features an idyllic account of childhood in the village between the wars by a Eva Starkey. Other chapters, written by Mr Mothershaw himself, include a brief life of Elizabeth Vernon who married Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, probably the ‘fair youth’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets. (Shakepeare dedicated his poem The Rape of Lucrece to Wriothesley in fulsome terms: ‘The love I dedicate to your lordship is without end … What I have done is yours; what I have to do is yours; being part in all I have, devoted yours.’) It is hoped that sales of the book will contribute towards the upkeep of Hodnet Church.