to the memory of John and Johanna Onley and their children. It is believed he was lord of the manor at the old manor at Hunkington. By the choir is a brass to Adam Grafton who was priest of Upton Magna and of the Battlefield College as well as being vicar of Withington. He died in 1530. In the 1480s he was the tutor to the young king Edward V and his brother in Ludlow Castle. The population of the village was 91 conforming Anglicans over 16 in 1676. That does not allow for any children or members of other denominations but there would have been few of them. Little remains of these times but scattered around the village are eight half-timbered houses, most now beautifully restored and extended, which would have been in existence then. That they have survived and others have been demolished which were in better condition is one of the accidents of history. The blacksmith's shop opposite the pub, featured on postcards in the early years of the 20th century, was demolished in the 1960s. In 1710 a new manor house was built for Illedge and Mary Maddox; following this all future buildings were built in brick. One of the most attractive is the Old Hall, once the vicarage, and before that a gentleman's residence, built in the days of Queen Anne. Arrival of the canal Perhaps the biggest change was the coming of the canal, opened in 1797 and used mainly to carry coal from Ketley to Shrewsbury. Coal for Withington was unloaded at a wharf at the Old Post Office as well as farm foodstuffs, oil etc. It traveled alongside the churchyard wall where there was a big pool in front of Church Farm where the boats could turn. There were swing bridges there and by Canal Cottage and humpback bridges over the lanes to Walcot and Rodington where the lanes crossed the canal. Fishermen, skaters and walkers all used the canal and its towpaths. In 1944 the canal was closed and in the 1960s it was offered for sale to the landowners whose land adjoined it but if they did not want it, to the landowner on the other side, by the towpath. The population of Withington in 1861 was 232; the village boasted a blacksmith, two wheelwrights, a shopkeeper and the landlord of the Hare and Hounds. The vicar's salary was £107