Trentham in 1859

TRENTHAM (ST. MARY), a parish, in the union of STONE, N. division of the hundred of PIREHILL and of the county of STAFFORD; containing, with the two chapelries of Blurton with Lightwood-Forest, and Hanford, and the townships of Butterton, Clayton-Griffith, and Hanchurch, 2567 inhabitants, of which number 655 are in Trentharn township, 4 miles (S.S.E.) from Newcastle. The ancient parish, situated on the London and Liverpool road, was divided into three distinct and separate parishes, under the 16th section of the act of the 58th of George III. The Trent and Mersey canal passes through the district; and in the neighbourhood is a considerable manufacture of remarkably good bricks and tiles, of a dark blue colour, in which about 200 persons are employed.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £113; patron and impropriator, the Duke of Sutherland. The church accommodates about 450 persons, and is an ancient structure, of which the tower was taken down about a century since; it is the only remaining portion of an Augustine priory. A church was opened at Hanford, in July 1828; there is a church at Blurton, and a chapel at Moor-Heath has been recently licensed by the bishop.

There was once a nunnery, of which St. Werburgh, in the 7th century, was appointed abbess, by her brother, King Ethelred. In the reign of Henry I., Randal, Earl of Chester, converted it into a priory of Augustine canons, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Saints, and, at the Dissolution, it had a revenue of £121.3.2., and was granted to Charles, Duke of Suffolk. Trentham gives the inferior title of Viscount to the Duke of Sutherland, whose noble mansion is in the parish. 

An 1859 Gazetteer description of the following places in Trentham is to be found on a supplementary page.

• Butterton
• Clayton-Griffith
• Handchurch
• Handford

 

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