Brewood in 1872

BREWOOD, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Penkridge district, Stafford. The town stands near Watling-street, the river Penk, and the Birmingham and Liverpool canal, 2 miles WNW of Four Ashes railway station, and 4 SW by S of Penkridge; and has a post-office under Stafford. It formerly had a weekly market; and still has fairs on the third Thursday of March, May, and Nov., and on 19 Sept. Some trade is carried on in malting and lock-making.

The parish includes also the liberties of Chillington, Somerford, Engleton, Horsebrook, Coven, Kiddermore-Green, and Huttons and Gunston. Acres, 11,839. Real property, £21,634. Pop., 3,399. Houses, 723. The property is divided among a few.

Chillington Hall, a fine mansion, is the seat of the Cliffords. Two nunneries, Cistertian and Benedictine, were founded in the parish., the former in the reign of Richard I., or of John; and came to be known as the White Ladies and the Black Ladies: and they figure under these names in the narrative of Charles II.'s concealment in the neighbouring locality of Boscobel, after the battle of Worcester.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £670. Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The church is later English, with a handsome spire; and was renovated in 1833. The vicarages of Bishopswood and Coven are separate benefices. There are chapels for Independents. Methodists, and Roman Catholics.

A grammar school, founded by Dr. Knightly in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and at which Bishop Hird and Sir E, Littleton were educated, has £412 a-year from endowment; and other charities have £47. The sub-district contains two parishes and parts of three others. Acres, 20,782. Pop., 5,629. Houses, 1,177. 

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

• Bishopswood
• Coven
• Kiddermoor-Green
• Somerford

 

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