Montford Parish Church

Montford is a small commuter village just to the west of Shrewsbury, notable only for the lovely little hump-back bridge over the Severn. We usually pass through fairly rapidly, in a hurry to reach Shrewsbury, but today I had time to spare and turned right off the A5 instead of left, to reach the parish church.

The church stands out in the country surrounded by fields and the only house in sight appeared to be a farmhouse. You couldn't even hear the traffic on the main road, that's how peaceful it was. It took a bit of searching to find the thing for which I was looking but eventually I discovered it round behind the church tower - the tomb of the parents of Charles Darwin.

The "More info" option takes you to a page in Amazon from which you can order "The Lunar Men", the story of a fascinating society of intellectuals, one of whom was Charle's Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. The book goes into slightly more detail than you think you need about every one of these men, but it certainly opens your eyes to the fact that the Industrial Revolution wasn't just coal and steam: it was crockery and astronomy, clay and revolution, religion, science, politics and much else.