Shrewsbury Abbey and Brother Cadfael

The Cadfael Chronicles offer an excellent mix of history and mystery, making them a thoroughly enjoyable read. Edith Pargeter (who wrote this series under the pseudonym Ellis Peters) was inspired by medieval Shrewsbury and so chose the Abbey as the home for the Benedictine monk, Cadfael.

The stories are set during the first English civil war when Matilda, daughter of Henry I, and her cousin, Stephen, fought for the throne. The stories are rich in historical details- Abbot Heribert and Abbot Radulphus were real people who lived at the abbey as was Prior Robert who later became Abbot after Radulphus.

‘A Morbid Taste for Bones’ is the first novel in the series and it focuses on the removal of St Winifred’s body from Gwytherin in North Wales to the abbey in Shrewsbury, a real event which happened in 1137. According to legend, Winifred’s suitor, Caradog, became furious when she decided to become a nun, and decapitated her. A healing spring appeared where her head fell. Winifred's head was subsequently rejoined to her body, and she was restored to life. Caradog fell down dead.

Her remains were reinterred in a shrine at the west end of the Abbey and became a place of pilgrimage, bringing wealth to the abbey. Only part of this remains today as it was destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. There is also a legend that on her way to the Abbey, Winifred's body was laid down overnight at Woolston and a spring bubbled up out of the ground here too. The water is supposed to have healing powers and is also a site of pilgrimage to this day.

In ‘One Corpse Too Many’ (book 2), Ellis Peters uses historical fact as the basis for murder mystery. Shrewsbury Castle was seized by William Fitz Alan, lord of Oswestry and Clun, on behalf of Queen Matilda during the civil war and was besieged by Stephen himself in 1138. After the castle had fallen, it is recorded that ninety-four its defenders were hanged from the battlements and it is amongst these bodies that Cadfael finds the ‘one corpse too many’ -added by Ellis Peters- and proceeds to solve the mystery.

There are 21 books in this series, some of which were made into a television series starring Sir Derek Jacobi as Cadfael.