Lapley in 1872

LAPLEY, a township and a parish in Penkridge district, Stafford, The township lies 1 mile E of the Liverpool and Birmingham canal, 1 N of Watling-street, and 3 WSW of Penkridge railway station. Pop. in 1851, 251. Houses, 47. The parish contains also the township of Wheaton-Aston, which has a post-office under Stafford. Acres, 3,450. Real property, £10,189. Pop. in 1851, 962; in 1861, 828. Houses, 181. The property is much subdivided.

The manor belongs to Major Swinfen. A Black priory was founded here, in the time of Edward the Confessor, by Algar, Earl of Mercia, as a cell to St. Remigins abbey at Rheims; was transferred, by Henry V., to Tong college, in Salop; and went, at the Reformation, to Sir Richard Manners.

The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Wheaton-Aston, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £220. Patron, Major Swinfen. The church has a tower, and was recently restored. The church of Wheaton-Aston was rebuilt in 1857. There are a national school, and charities £26. 

WHEATON-ASTON, a chapelry in Lapley parish, Stafford; on the Grand Junction canal, 5 miles W by S of Penkridge railway station. It has a post-office under Stafford, and fairs on 20 April and 1 Nov. The statistics are returned with the parish and the living is annexed to Lapley.

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