Biddulph in 1872

BIDDULPH, a parish in the district of Congleton and county of Stafford; on the Stoke and Congleton railway, around Gillow-Heath station, 3 miles SSE of Congleton. It consists of the four hamlets of Over-Biddulph or Overton, Nether-Biddulph, Middle-Biddulph, and Knypersley; and its post-town is Congleton, Acres, 5,635. Real property, £14,514; of which £4,622 are in mines. Pop., 3,463. Houses, 692. The property is much subdivided.

Biddulph Hall, a picturesque Tudor edifice, was anciently the seat of the Biddulph family; but is now mainly a ruin, and partly a farmhouse. Knypersley Hall is the seat of J. Bateman, Esq. The land is largely moorish and hilly ; and a peak of it, called Mow Cop, 1,091 feet high, commands fine prospects, even to the Mersey. A tract, called Biddulph Moor, is inhabited by a sort of gipsy tribe, a people of peculiar habits, said to have descended from a Saracen, who came to England in the train of a Crusader. Coal, ironstone, and limestone are extensively worked; and several kinds of manufacture are carried on. Remains of a Druidical temple, known as the Bride Stones, and of three curious artificial caves, are on the N border.

The living is a vicarage, united with the perpetual curacy of Knypersley, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £122. Patron, J. Bateman, Esq. The parish church is a substantial edifice, with a tower; and Knypersley church is a structure of 1849, in the early English style. 
Another church, in the Norman style, was built, in 1863, at Biddulph Moor; and forms a separate charge. There are a Wesleyan chapel, and charities £22. 

An 1872 Gazetteer description of the following places in Biddulph is to be found on a supplementary page.

• Knypersley
• Mowcop

[Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]