Penn in 1872

PENN, a village and a parish in Wolverhampton district, Stafford. The village stands 2 miles WSW of Bilston railway. station, and 2 SSW of Wolverhampton; and has a post-office under Wolverhampton. The parish comprises the townships of Upper Penn and Lower Penn. Acres, 3,986. Real property, £12,693. Pop. in 1851, 1,160; in 1861, 1,765. Houses, 356. The property is much subdivided.

Penn House belonged to the Bradneys, and passed to the Pershouses. The hardware manufacture is carried on. A section of Upper Penn, containing a pop. of 852 in 1861, was constituted a chapelry, under the name of St. Philip, in 1859. The head living is a vicarage, and that of St. Philip is a perpetual curacy, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value of the former, £226; of the latter, £90. Patron of the former, the Bishop of Lichfield; of the latter, the Rev. W. Dalton. The parish church is good.

The church of St. Philip was built in 1860, at a cost of £3,994; is in the style of the 14th century; and consists of nave, S aisle, transept, and chancel, with vestry and tower. There are an endowed school with £115 a year, alms-houses with £39, and other charities £8.

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