Haughton in 1859

HAUGHTON (ST. GILES), a parish, in the W. division of the hundred of Cuttlestone, union, and S. division of the county, of Stafford, 4 miles (S.W. by W.) from Stafford; containing 480 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the road from Stafford to Newport, in one of the most fertile districts of the county, and comprises 1860a.1r.15p.; the surface is flat, the air remarkably mild and salubrious, and the soil luxuriantly rich. The village is pleasant and rural, and seated on the road.

The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £9.11.3.; patron and incumbent, the Rev. Charles Smith Royds, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge: the tithes have been commuted at £300, and the glebe comprises 79 acres of excellent land. The church is in the later English style, with an elegant square tower with pinnacles, and has been much improved and embellished by the present incumbent. A south transept has been added, which is separated from the body of the edifice by an arch of stone. All the windows of the south side of the building, which were of very debased architecture, have been replaced by decorated English windows; and instead of the cottage-like windows in the chancel, a handsome decorated window of four lights has been introduced, the tracery of which is carved out of one solid stone.

The fiat plaster roof has been removed, and the timbers, being stained and varnished, are now exposed; wooden pendants and crockets, and stone corbels, being added. The western gallery has been lowered, and ornamented; the western door has been entirely renewed, and improved by a stone arch. The aisle has been relaid with octagonal tiles, and a fine organ, keyed, and having three barrels, has been put up. In the church is a curious alabaster mural monument with the black-line figure of an ecclesiastic, Nicholas Cranmer, formerly rector, who died in 1520; he built the tower of the church, gave some of the bells, and erected a private chapel dedicated to St. Katherine, which is now the vestry.

A school has been built chiefly at the expense of the rector, who has also provided a master's house; it has a gift of £100 from Mrs. Yonge, relict of the Rev. Vernon Yonge, late rector. There is a Danish barrow in the immediate vicinity; within a few miles is a place called High Offley, where Offa the Dane is said to have dwelt, and the parish contains several houses of very ancient date, surrounded with moats. 

 

[Description(s) from The Topographical Dictionary of England (1859) by Samuel Lewis - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]