Sheriff Hales in 1868

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

"SHERIFF-HALES, a parish partly in the hundred of South Bradford, county Salop, but chiefly in the W. division of the hundred of Cuttlestone, county Stafford, 3 miles N.E. of Shiffnal railway station, and 5 S.E. of Newport. The parish, which is of large extent, includes the chapelry of Woodcote.

The substratum abounds in ironstone. A vitriolic spring occurs amongst the iron mines. The impropriate tithes belong to the Duke of Sutherland, who is lord of the manor, and has a seat at Trentham, partly within this parish and partly in the adjoining parish of Lilleshall.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield, value £614. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is a stone edifice, with a square tower partially overgrown with ivy. There is besides a chapel-of-ease at Woodcote; and a place of worship for Wesleyans at Crackley Bank. There are National schools for boys and girls, supported by the Duke of Sutherland."

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