Hints in 1868

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

"HINTS, a parish in the S. division of the hundred of Offlow, county Stafford, 4 miles S.W. of Tamworth, its post town, 6 S.E. of Lichfield, and 3 N.W. of the Wilnecote railway station. It was formerly called Hendon, and was an old town of the Saxons, on Watling Street.

The parish includes the extra parochial liberty of Canwell, where was formerly a priory, founded by Gever Riddle in 1142, for Benedictine monks, and which was one of those assigned to Cardinal Wolsey towards the erection and endowment of his proposed colleges. The surface is diversified with hills clothed with oak and ash. The soil is generally a rich loam, producing good crops of barley and turnips. The land is chiefly arable, with a small proportion of meadow and pasture.

The living is a perpetual curacy annexed to that of Weeford, in the diocese of Lichfield, joint value £300. The church, which is built on the site of an older one, contains several monuments of the Floyers of Hints Hall, and the Lawleys of Canwell. Here is a free school, erected in 1859. Hints Hall is the principal residence. A Roman pig of lead, 150 lbs. in weight, was found near a tumulus on Hints Common in 1792. It bore the inscription in bas relief, "Imp. Vesp. VII. T. imp. V. counties". John Floyer, Esq., is lord of the manor."

 

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