Colwich in 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"COLWICH, a parish in the southern division of the hundred of Pirehill, in the county of Stafford, 3 miles N.W. of Rugeley, its post town, and 6 E. of Stafford. It has a station on the Trent Valley branch of the North-Western railway. It is beautifully situated on the river Trent and Grand Trunk canal. It includes the hamlets, and townships of Bishton, Great and Little Heywood, Wolseley, Moreton, and Shugborough, and parts of Fradswell, Drointon, and Hixon.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield, value £514, in the patronage of the bishop. The parish church, dedicated to St. Michael, is an ancient and handsome structure. It contains monuments of the Sparrow, Wolseley, and Anson families, of which last was the great navigator, George, Lord Anson, who was born here, at his father's seat, in 1697.

There are also the following district churches, the livings of which are perpetual curacies, viz. Fradswell, value £120, and Hixon, value £60, in the patronage of the bishop; Great Haywood, value £110, in the patronage of the Earl of Lichfield.

Here are National schools for both sexes, and an infant school. The lords of the manor are the Marquis of Anglesea, the Earl of Lichfield, and Sir Charles Wolseley. A fair is held on the Wednesday before Mid-Lent Sunday."

An 1868 Gazetteer description of the following places in Colwich is to be found on a supplementary page.

• Bishton
• Drointon
• Fradswell
• Great and Little Haywood
• Hixon
• Mount Priory
• Shughborough
• Swanmoor
• Wolseley

 

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]